Bill Johnson

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained, but had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 46.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I have no opposition to this amendment. This amendment would increase the percentage cap on Federal lands identified in DOE's replacement plan for oil and gas production, taking it from 10 percent to 15 percent. Mr. Chair, I support this amendment.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chair, this amendment prohibits oil and gas leasing on any tract of land off the coast of Virginia. Virtually all offshore oil and gas leasing occurs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chair, I thank the chairwoman for yielding. Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of H.R. 21, the Strategic Production Response Act. Instead of unleashing America's vast domestic energy resources, President Biden has hobbled our Nation's energy production, resulting in fuel shortages and rising energy costs for all American families. He went so far as begging foreign dictators for oil instead of uplifting America's economy. It is worth noting that just a few short years ago, America was energy independent. House Republicans have made it clear that we are going to hold the Biden administration accountable for its actions. As we sit here today, President Biden is draining around 40 percent of our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The reserve was established to be used for national emergencies, not for cheap political points or Band- Aids for failed policies. The Strategic Production Response Act would require the Biden administration to replenish and maintain the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and this legislation would require the Secretary of Energy to come up with a plan to replenish the reserve if oil is taken for nonemergency reasons. The President has ample solutions in front of him to fix America's energy crisis. In fact, Republicans have been offering up long-term energy solutions to the Biden administration, but they refuse to listen. Instead, they have given in to the demands of left-wing special interests and radical environmental groups and have left the American people stranded. In America, we do our part in making sure that the energy we produce is done in a cleaner and safer way than any other country on Earth. Unleashing American energy is the solution to our Nation's energy crisis. My message to President Biden is simple: The days of taking shortcuts to cover up major policy failures are over. H.R. 21 is an important step in holding the administration accountable for their actions, and I am proud to support this legislation.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, this is another tactic to delay implementation of the underlying bill. Energy security is national security, and if my Democratic colleagues recognized this, they wouldn't need to abuse the SPR and attempt to offset the high prices caused by their very policies. Let's protect our strategic reserves, which is now at the lowest level since 1983, and unleash American production. I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chair, I reserve a point of order against the amendment.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chair, I do insist on the point of order.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. The amendment violates clause 7 of rule XVI of the Rules of the House because it is not germane to the underlying bill. Specifically, the bill limits the drawdown of petroleum in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the Department of Energy develops a plan to increase the percentage of Federal lands leased for oil and gas production. The amendment requires the Secretary of the Interior to complete a separate environmental review for each lease and permit before issuing any oil and gas lease or permit. Environmental reviews are outside the scope of H.R. 21. The amendment is not germane.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I urge all Members to support the Perry amendment. While this amendment raises an issue that is different from this bill, it is an important facet to understanding the seriousness of the Energy Secretary's plan. This is a perfecting amendment that will enhance public transparency, congressional oversight of department plans and operations, and bring certainty in planning for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and efforts to keep it appropriately filled for emergencies. I thank the gentleman for his concern in offering this amendment. Again, I have no objection, and I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chair, put plainly, this is not an appropriate role for EPA or CEQ, neither of which oversee Federal land. The agencies consulted in the plan already must comply with existing requirements, so this amendment only serves to obstruct. H.R. 21 is about strengthening the SPR by requiring any nonemergency use to be accompanied by a plan to produce American oil resources. This amendment undermines the purpose of the bill. Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H.R. 22 led by our Energy and Commerce Committee chairwoman, Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Earlier this week it was reported that after President Biden drained over 200 million barrels out of America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, his Department of Energy is now rejecting multiple bids to refill it, saying that oil is too expensive. Mr. Speaker, this is hard to believe. This administration--who has put a stranglehold on domestic production by canceling pipelines, reducing drilling, halting leases, and proposing burdensome regulations--is now telling the American taxpayer: Sorry, we depleted your national reserves, sold some of it to China, and now we won't refill it because it is too expensive. Aren't they the ones making oil more expensive? It is as if President Biden thinks the SPR is his strategic political reserve to be used as a Band-Aid for his failed energy policies. Mr. Speaker, this legislation is a needed course correction in our national energy strategy, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the legacy of Corporal Howard Arthur Tibbs, one of our Nation's esteemed World War II Tuskegee Airmen. Corporal Howard Tibbs was no stranger to military service. The Tibbs family's military history dates back to the Civil War, when Charles Henry, Sr., of Salem, Ohio, the grandfather of Howard Tibbs, fought with the Ohio Colored Troops in the Grand Army of the Republic. In addition to dutifully serving our Nation's military efforts, the Tibbs family has actively participated in other patriotic endeavors, including helping to organize the local movement to guarantee the right to vote for women and educating young people about the military, cultural, and political contributions of Black Americans. Corporal Howard Tibbs continued his family's legacy of duty, serving our Nation when he joined the 99th Fighter Squadron and the 477th Medium Composite Group during World War II. In 2007, he posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of his military contributions and bravery, both at home and abroad. Today, the House has the opportunity to honor Corporal Howard Arthur Tibbs by passing H.R. 2473 and naming the Salem post office after him. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I rise today to highlight my amendment that the minority refuses to even bring to a vote. My amendment is simple. It would amend this so-called Inflation Reduction Act by striking from the bill the Methane Emissions Reduction Program, which is a fancy term for what could be more accurately described as attacks on American natural gas. In my district in eastern and southeastern Ohio, oil and gas workers get up every day to produce our valuable natural resources that are used to generate electricity, power manufacturing, heat and cool our homes, cook our food, and more recently, to use our American natural gas to rescue our European allies who now find themselves under Vladimir Putin's tyrannical thumb. This methane tax jeopardizes all of this, and it represents yet another attack by the majority on American fossil fuels that have brought more people out of poverty around the world than any other energy source around the planet. When I talk to producers in my district, I give them a lot of credit. These companies, without being asked, are quite literally innovating every day. They use state-of-the-art technology to capture as much of their methane emissions as possible, and they are proud to do it. And what is their reward? Well, they get a new tax anyway. It is also worth noting that the EPA is already working on rulemaking for regulating methane emissions, and the authors of this bill knew that-- all to appease the radical environmentalist left. Madam Speaker, I want to be clear that this isn't, ``a methane reduction program.'' It is a massive tax on American producers, American businesses, and American workers. It is a tax on job creators in Ohio. It is a tax on hardworking Americans trying to heat and cool our homes, and a tax on feeding our families, and a tax on the American way of life. We should strike this provision from the bill.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, this should be a happy occasion because major telehealth legislation is being brought to the floor on its own. Finally. As a co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Telehealth Caucus, my fellow caucus members and I have been pushing for telehealth to be recognized for its true value for years. Years. So here we are, and those of us who are leaders on the Congressional Telehealth Caucus, the Energy and Commerce Committee, Ways and Means, and are all longtime champions for telehealth reforms, we have been completely left out of the process. The product we have before us today is a small step in the right direction, but the American people deserve better. This legislation, conceived in a last-minute deal, is, sadly, a missed opportunity. This legislation, well, frankly, it looks familiar. It removes geographic restrictions, enables telehealth access in the home, protects telemental health services--reforms we have been seeking for years now. But it is time to decouple important telehealth reforms from this never-ending public health emergency. Kicking the can down the road another year-and-a-half, as this legislation does, just isn't sufficient. During COVID-19, temporary telehealth expansion was a real bright spot. It eased burdens on a strained medical system, protected at-risk patients, and in rural Appalachian districts like mine, I heard from countless constituents who were very relieved that they could access care from their home instead of the common half hour or even longer to drive to the appointments they needed. Now, Madam Speaker, it is time for permanent reforms. I am proud to have introduced H.R. 8493 with my colleagues Vern Buchanan and Michelle Steel to make real long-term reforms to telehealth. This, coupled with the additional alternative proposals my colleagues have offered today, would do just that. Clearly, as you can see, Madam Speaker, the Speaker of the House has the will to take on this challenge. But this bill on the floor today? Well, I am going to support it, but I am afraid it is just a start. We have more to do.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, as I said, I rise in opposition to the Ross amendment, and I urge my colleagues to join me. This amendment would be an implementation nightmare for the EPA, and the regulated stakeholders would have no choice but to comply or try to comply. The current provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act require the EPA to issue final regulations compelling anyone who manufactured PFAS--back to 2011--to report detailed information about the chemical and its manufacture to the EPA. Last fall, the EPA already proposed regulations to implement TSCA section 8(a)(7) and began taking public comment on it. The proposed regulation uses a definition of PFAS that is structural, and the agency believes it will capture 1,364 PFAS chemicals. The Ross amendment would massively expand the EPA's definition of PFAS to any PFAS containing at least one fully fluorinated carbon atom. Just going off of EPA's master list of PFAS, the number of PFAS covered could jump from slightly over 1,300 to more than 12,000--that is a 10- fold increase. In addition, the Ross amendment makes no changes to the deadline the EPA must issue these regulations, meaning the EPA will have to scrap its current rulemaking and expedite a new one that gives very little opportunity for public input. Furthermore, under this amendment, the universe of new parties that would need to report is unknown and could be huge. And because of the retroactive nature of the reporting requirement, there may not be complete records to fulfill the amendment's broad reporting mandate. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, like so many other amendments that I have heard here tonight, this is one that really befuddles me that it is in the NDAA. This is something that should be adjudicated in the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee, not something that we should be trying to tag onto the NDAA. This amendment simply tries to do too much, too fast, and too soon. It dispatches the scientific assessment of the agency about how to address it and disregards the public's input on the process. Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on the Ross amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition and urge my colleagues to oppose the Levin amendment. What most concerns me about this amendment is subsection (c), which extends last year's incineration moratorium on all PFAS in firefighting foam and does not fix the underlying drafting problems from that enactment. Specifically, the scoping provisions in section 343 do not limit the moratorium only to the Department of Defense but captures ``materials sent to another entity or entities.'' In doing so, this ban continues to present ambiguity about who is subject to the incineration moratorium, potentially extending the temporary ban from just the military to any entity or person. Moreover, this amendment contravenes the Federal law governing these matters: The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Practically speaking, if the executive or judicial branches of our government adopt this interpretation, it would have profound policy implications on waste, storage, and disposal practices in our country. Of greatest concern, a policy like this has the real potential to overwhelming existing landfill capacity and leave few viable disposal options for Americans. Again, I urge my colleagues to oppose the Levin amendment.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2472, to honor John Armor Bingham, a man who played an important role in advancing a more perfect Union for all Americans. Bingham first came to Cadiz, Ohio, in the early 1800s as a teenager. While studying law at Franklin College, he befriended former slave Titus Basfield, the first African American to graduate college in Ohio. Bingham's commitment to advancing liberty and equality for all can notably be attributed to Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which he drafted. This amendment is the foundation for many famous Supreme Court decisions that have advanced liberty. Additionally, he represented the great State of Ohio in Congress, served as a House manager for the impeachment of President Andrew Jackson, and was appointed by Abraham Lincoln as Judge Advocate of the Union Army. While John Armor Bingham's legacy remains enshrined in the pages of the Constitution, I hope this body will see fit to honor John Bingham by renaming the Cadiz, Ohio, post office after him. Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding. This is such a huge problem. There are so many different paths we could go down with this discussion. It is so big of a crisis that it is almost impossible to get it all articulated well within one Special Order series. Madam Speaker, late last month, the CBO released its ``May 2022 Budget and Economic Outlook.'' This is the first time the CBO has produced a baseline that properly incorporates the runaway, destructive inflation that is ripping through our economy today. According to the CBO report, inflation is not going anywhere anytime soon except up. This is a dramatic change from the insistence of the President, the Treasury Secretary, and my Democrat colleagues that inflation is merely transitory and is nothing to worry about. They are, in fact, so out of touch that they have begun to change their narrative. They now claim that Americans are financially prepared--get this--financially prepared to weather $5 a gallon gasoline, skyrocketing energy costs, and grocery prices that would have been unthinkable just 18 months ago. Now, I am not sure what Americans they are talking to, but they are not talking to Americans who live in Appalachia where I live--seniors who live on fixed incomes and others who struggle to make ends meet in this high inflationary period. But inflation is not just a sticker- shock sensation. It will have ripple effects throughout the economy. Debt will continue to rise to 110 percent of GDP over the next decade. Don't be fooled by President Biden's propaganda claiming victory on debt reduction either. CBO projects that deficits will be $2.4 trillion larger over the next 10 years. The more President Biden continues to pour gasoline on the inflation fire with his failed policies, the more that number is going to keep growing. Madam Speaker, we must get our fiscal house in order. The American people have to live by a budget, and the American government should live by a budget, too. The United States does not have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. And the first step in fixing this problem is to fix our broken budget process. That is why I am proud to be a cosponsor of H.R. 2575, the TRUST Act, to establish special rescue committees to begin developing recommendations and legislation to protect and ensure the longevity of Social Security and Medicare. These are some of the country's main drivers of our debt. They are mandatory spending programs that are absolutely out of control. Doing nothing about it is not an option. I am also, as was mentioned, the co-lead on a bipartisan debt and deficit working group as a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, and I am willing to work with anyone, Republican or Democrat, to find real solutions to ensure Medicare and Social Security are around for our children and our grandchildren to benefit from in the years to come. Madam Speaker, this is a big problem. I look forward to hearing what my colleagues have to say tonight. We need bold ideas to address the fiscal crisis that looms in front of us.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I hereby remove my name as cosponsor of H.R. 3807.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, for my colleagues to continue to advance this narrative that there are some 9,000 permits out there waiting to be drilled demonstrates the naivete of the oil and gas industry and it is just, frankly, disingenuous. And to make the statement that Vladimir Putin is responsible for the skyrocketing cost of gasoline, what a joke. Gasoline was going up before Russia ever invaded Ukraine because of President Biden's policies. Madam Speaker, I rise to oppose the previous question so we can immediately consider H.R. 6858, the American Energy Independence from Russia Act. I was proud to work on this legislation with Ranking Member Rodgers and the Energy and Commerce Committee. Madam Speaker, we all saw it today, President Zelenskyy pleading with the United States and the West to do more to punish Russia for these atrocities and halt Putin's assault on innocent Ukrainians. It is obvious that the United States and Europe need to do more. But sadly, more, much more, could have been done before this invasion, and I believe it could have all been avoided. Madam Speaker, you will hear a lot today that energy security is national security. Well, ain't that the truth. Our European allies, after years of rushing to green, weather- dependent, unreliable energy, and shutting down their own energy resources, have come to learn this the hard way. Their green priorities led them to greater and greater dependence on Russia, to the point that they could do virtually nothing as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine. Let's not make the same mistake here in America. We can't make our energy supply and the energy supply of our allies dependent on some of the worst people in the world. This legislation would put us on a better path. It would restart the Keystone XL pipeline; reopen our Federal lands and waters to access our abundant natural resources; and it also includes a provision, legislation that I authored, to cut the red tape and unleash American liquefied natural gas exports, which our allies in Europe are currently clamoring for; ultimately, to get out from under the boot of Putin's energy dominance. There is still time to make things right, Madam Speaker, so I am urging this Chamber to consider H.R. 6858 immediately.