Frank Pallone

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Sykes).

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, there is a lot going on in America today. President Trump is waging a reckless war in Iran, and prices are soaring for the American people. Thanks to Republican policies, drivers are paying about 35 percent more for gas than they were when the war started, and diesel prices are up 47 percent. Residential natural gas prices have increased by 13 percent since Trump took office, and inflation tripled last month. With everything that is going on, House Republicans should be focusing their efforts on helping Americans with the affordability crisis. Rising energy costs impact all aspects of life--keeping a house cool, driving to work, the price of groceries--and Americans need help. Trump and Republicans promised they would lower costs on day one, but Americans are over $5,000 poorer today--per person, that is--because of their actions, because of Trump's actions. However, rather than pursuing policies that help everyday Americans and provide them with much-needed relief, Republicans are focusing their efforts on saving the oil and gas industry once again. This bill, H.R. 4690, the so-called Reliable Federal Infrastructure Act, repeals the phaseout of fossil fuel for onsite generation at new and renovated Federal buildings. The phaseouts were a bipartisan effort signed into law in 2007 by then-President George W. Bush. What was bipartisan in 2007, I would say, is now viewed as extreme by today's Republicans. At a time when energy prices are soaring, Republicans are focused on ensuring that taxpayer dollars continue to go to their fossil fuel friends. The phaseouts repealed by this bill are projected to save about $3 million per year for Federal buildings constructed beginning in 2025, and these savings will be lost if this bill becomes law, wasting taxpayer dollars to the benefit of Republicans' fossil fuel friends. The Federal Government is the largest consumer of energy in the Nation. With this type of purchasing power, we have the ability to support emerging and efficient American technologies that drive down energy consumption. The Federal Government should be a leader in this space but, instead, Republicans want to ensure that we are stuck in the past. We have already come to the House floor eight times during this Republican Congress to repeal energy efficiency and electrification measures that are saving American families money on their power bills. With this bill, it will now be nine bills wasting taxpayer money. Republicans have repeatedly prioritized their anticlean energy and antiefficiency agenda at the expense of Americans over and over again. Their policies are driving up energy costs on the American people, but they simply don't care. They are wasting time on the House floor, ignoring real problems, and continuing to reward their Big Oil and Gas friends. At a time when everyone is feeling the squeeze of rising energy prices, it is just crazy to pretend that this bill actually helps anyone other than Big Oil and Gas. I urge my colleagues to vote against the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close. Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I am very proud of the two speakers who preceded me on the Democratic side because they represent rural districts, and I think they understand why this commemorative pat on the back that we are voting on today is really not deserved and simply not accurate. I said at the Rules Committee that my mother used to use a phrase: Self-praise stinks. Frankly, regardless of what is in the resolution, the idea of bringing a resolution to the floor that has no impact whatsoever but just says how wonderful we are is kind of absurd in itself--the very idea that we should waste time on the floor on what I would call commemorative resolutions that have no substantive impact whatsoever but just say how wonderful we are. Whether you are saying the Republicans are wonderful or the Democrats are wonderful or all of us are wonderful makes absolutely no sense to me because it is just self-praise, and frankly, that does stink. That is all this is. There is nothing in here that is going to make a difference either way. It is just an effort by the Republicans to say we have done all these wonderful things for rural America when, in fact, they haven't. If they really wanted to do something, they wouldn't bring commemorative resolutions to the floor. They would actually try to pass some legislation that addresses the concerns right now of Americans living in rural America. Mr. Speaker, for all those reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I also wish to express my sympathy to the family of David Scott. David was someone that I talked to a lot, who I considered a friend, and was always supportive of me. In his position as the chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, he was always looking out for farm interests for not only farmers in his district but around the country, and he worked, of course, on the farm bill so many times over the years. There were even times when I was working with him on some agriculture issues because, although I don't have many farms, we have Rutgers and the Cooperative Extension Service in my district. There were many issues that came before the committee that I worked with him on, so I will definitely miss him and am sorry about his passing. Madam Speaker, I wish to speak about this bill today because I think that it is very unfortunate that this resolution is coming to the floor. Prices are soaring for the American people. Trump's reckless war of choice continues in Iran, and Republicans are spending valuable time here on the House floor bringing up an undeserved resolution to essentially pat themselves on the back and to pretend that they have supported rural communities when in fact they have not. Trump and Republicans promised they would lower costs on day one, but Americans are over $5,000 poorer today because of their policies. That is per person. Yet, rather than doing something to actually address the affordability crisis, they are making it worse. House Republicans are bringing up a resolution that does nothing. It is just commemorative. It is not going to make life better for one American living in rural America. Instead, it is a pathetic attempt, in my opinion, for Republicans to show that they care about rural America when their actions show the exact opposite. Thanks to Trump's reckless war in Iran, diesel prices are now over $5 per gallon, drastically increasing costs for farmers across the country. The war has also caused fertilizer prices to skyrocket, leaving 70 percent of American farmers unable to pay for all their fertilizer needs. Republicans promised to bring a bill to the floor that would allow a higher blend of ethanol in gasoline, known as E15, to be sold year- round, but they haven't. Year-round E15 would greatly benefit corn farmers in rural America, while also saving drivers money. Republicans have also done nothing to address the massive amount of energy being consumed by data centers that are rapidly expanding in rural areas, driving up energy costs. Turning to health, Republicans have created a healthcare affordability crisis that is disproportionately impacting rural Americans. Republicans' big, ugly bill cut Americans' healthcare by more than a trillion dollars, the largest cut in our Nation's history, which will result in 15 million people losing their health coverage. These deep cuts are hurting rural Americans the most. Rural clinics are already being forced to close their doors. Hospitals in rural communities are shutting down maternity care units and laying off healthcare workers. Another 300 rural hospitals are likely to shutter, closing down altogether or reducing services. This is driving massive increases in uncompensated care. The big, ugly bill made unprecedented cuts to Federal Medicaid spending. This will have a disproportionate impact on children and disabled people in rural areas who are more likely to rely on Medicaid. Republicans will claim that a temporary $50 billion slush fund, representing just 5 percent of the $1 trillion cut to healthcare, will somehow overcome the long-term suffering of rural providers in communities that rely heavily on Medicaid. This is false. The slush fund is temporary while the cuts are permanent, and it can be used for an array of purposes other than payments to struggling rural health providers. The $1 trillion in healthcare cuts will compound over time, devastating the healthcare safety net in rural communities far into the future. Republicans have also refused to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, driving up healthcare premiums for rural Americans. Rural residents' premiums are increasing by an astonishing 107 percent, and rural Americans are facing thousands of dollars in additional out-of- pocket costs. As rural Americans lose their healthcare coverage and watch their doctors' offices and hospitals shut down critical services, congressional Republicans are doing absolutely nothing to fix the problem that they created. Despite the false words in this resolution, House Republicans have done nothing meaningful to expand internet access for rural America. In the last 15 months, Republicans rescinded billions of dollars from public broadcasting stations that serve rural areas with programming and emergency alerts. They have withheld broadband investment from rural and Tribal communities. They sabotaged the BEAD program with inferior broadband technologies to save money--supposedly to save money. It doesn't really. And they topped it all off with the fact that House Republicans cheered as the Trump administration tore WiFi out of rural schoolbuses. It is clear that rural Americans are not being served by Republicans. They are frankly being ripped off. This resolution also pats Republicans on the back for supposedly bolstering manufacturing capacity in rural communities, but the reality is Republican policies are harming the manufacturing sector. Manufacturers are reeling from the uncertainty of Trump's chaotic tariff strategy. These tariffs have raised costs for manufacturers and could reduce manufacturing investments in the U.S. by $490 billion in the next 5 years. Mr. Speaker, if Republicans really want to show rural Americans they care about them, they would roll up their sleeves and actually put together bills, not meaningless commemorative resolutions, that would actually make a difference, but this Republican majority is simply not capable of that. I urge my colleagues to oppose this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Ruiz), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 2 minutes to the gentleman from California.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Stansbury).

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 6387, the FIRE Act. The FIRE Act is yet another dishonest attempt, in my opinion, by Republicans to weaken the Clean Air Act, which will make Americans sicker while healthcare costs skyrocket. Republicans are peddling this dangerous bill as an attempt to promote prescribed burns and combat wildfires. As has been true for the other dirty bills that we considered over the last week or so, this bill fails to address the stated goal and instead provides overly broad exemptions to the Clean Air Act that will harm American families and children. The FIRE Act does little to make it easier for States to use prescribed burns as a tool for wildfire management. Instead, it expands the definition of exceptional events that States can claim when demonstrating compliance with air quality standards, to include regularly occurring weather like drought and heat. To put it simply, the FIRE Act would give corporate polluters a free pass on the Clean Air Act and use a hot day as an excuse to ignore the harm inflicted on the health of Americans. Prescribed fire is an essential tool for wildlife management, particularly as climate change increases the occurrence of large, high- intensity wildfires. When done properly, prescribed fires can effectively manage wildfires while reducing smoke exposure to wildfire- prone communities. When disaster strikes and wildfires occur, States should not be punished for pollution that is beyond their control. Fortunately, the Clean Air Act already gives EPA the flexibility to qualify wildfire and prescribed burns as exceptional events under the Clean Air Act, which States can claim when demonstrating compliance with air quality standards. In fact, Trump's EPA issued a memo clearly stating that the agency will not count emissions from prescribed fires toward attainment designations under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, making provisions of this bill essentially redundant and unnecessary. It is worth highlighting that this bill goes much further than wildfires and prescribed burns. As I mentioned, the FIRE Act drastically changes the definition of exceptional events to include regularly occurring weather events, like drought and hot days. If signed into law, the FIRE Act would allow States to write off all pollution that occurs during a dry spell or heat wave, events we know will occur more often due to climate change. I find this provision to be deeply troubling. We know climate change is making drought and heat waves more persistent. Republicans want to use them as justification to increase pollution, which will worsen public health and accelerate climate change, without any consequences. It is another line of evidence that Republicans are more interested in helping out their polluter friends than protecting the health and well-being of Americans. Unfortunately, Republican attempts to undermine the public health protections at the core of the Clean Air Act are commonplace. The health harms of air pollution are well documented and being felt by communities across the country. Today, over half of Americans live in an area with unsafe levels of air pollution. These communities see more diagnoses of diseases like asthma, COPD, heart disease, and certain types of cancer, all of which require long-term treatment and medication. These things are becoming more common, but now Republicans and the Trump administration want to make it easier for industry to pollute more. Worse, they want to cover up these harms. House Republicans are doing nothing to lower costs or address the affordability crisis. Instead, over the last week, they have had us debating bills that gut the Clean Air Act's public health protections, and this bill is no exception. It is a retread of old ideas that would drive up pollution above levels that are safe to breathe. The bill does nothing to improve the lives of the everyday Americans we are elected to serve. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this dangerous, damaging, and, essentially, dirty air bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleagues of the cost of air pollution to the American people because it seems they are only focused on the cost to their polluter friends. More than 26 million people, including over 4.5 million children, in the U.S. live with asthma. Asthma causes nearly 1.8 million emergency department visits, more than 94,000 hospitalizations, and an estimated $80 billion in healthcare costs annually. Air pollution is known to cause and exacerbate asthma. Republicans claim that existing regulatory processes, like exceptional events demonstrations, are too hard and take too long. They don't acknowledge why we have these processes in the first place, and that is to protect the health of our families, our children, and the most vulnerable among them. The FIRE Act would worsen health harms to our communities. While the Clean Air Act has successfully cut air pollution in the U.S. by nearly 80 percent in its over 50-year history, nearly half of the U.S. population still lives in areas with poor air quality. We should be taking action to protect public health, not rolling back safeguards that the Republicans find inconvenient. The FIRE Act has serious problems that allow industry to exploit hot days and drought to drive up pollution without consequence. That is the problem. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no,'' and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Dexter).

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Stansbury).

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko), who is the ranking member of our Environment Subcommittee.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I need to respond to the comments made by the gentleman from Colorado. The EPA promulgated an exceptional events rule in 2016 to allow States and Tribes to use prescribed burns for fire management and exempt emissions from wildfire from regulatory requirements. This was reinforced by a 2025 EPA memo titled ``EPA Policy on Provisions to Allow Wildland Prescribed Fire in Clean Air Act State Implementation Plans.'' This bill is unnecessary, and I am going to repeat that. Republicans are claiming that the process is so burdensome and that very few determinations are made by the EPA. That is misleading. The value of prescribed burns is to mitigate wildfire and to minimize air quality impacts on communities. That is why forest managers conduct prescribed burns under particular weather conditions. Under these conditions, prescribed burns do not contribute significantly to the area's ambient air quality, which means an exceptional event demonstration may not be necessary in the first place. Proponents of this bill have lots of complaints about the current program. However, the FIRE Act does nothing to reform the exceptional event demonstration process for States or the EPA. Instead, it just provides broad exemptions, which is not what should be done. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Speaker, in closing, the FIRE Act is a bad faith attempt by Republicans to let industry pollute without consequence under the guise of expanding the use of prescribed fire. In reality, it would allow everyday occurrences, like hot days and droughts, to be excluded from air quality determinations. We know that these events are occurring more often and with more intensity. Excluding these now common events all but ensures that communities across the country will continue to breathe unhealthy air and suffer the health consequences. The Clean Air Act is one of the most successful laws to protect Americans ever enacted by Congress because it prioritizes public health and gives States flexibility to foster economic growth simultaneously. We have made significant progress, but still too many people live in areas with dangerous air pollution. Every year, over 100,000 Americans die prematurely as a result of air pollution. Doctors and scientists widely consider fine particulate matter to be one of the most toxic air pollutants, as it can cause asthma, COPD, heart disease, and certain types of cancer. We can't ignore the broader political landscape in which we are considering this bill, either. Earlier this year, EPA announced it will no longer consider the benefits of protection of public health when developing new rules for particulate matter and ozone pollution. Instead, EPA will consider only the compliance costs for industry. That makes it even more important that any Clean Air Act legislation taken up by Congress ensures that public health protections remain at the center of the law. The American people are asking us to lower healthcare costs. They are asking us to ensure that our families have safe water to drink and healthy air to breathe. Our responsibility is to them, but our Republican colleagues seem to only answer to their corporate polluter buddies who are asking for regulatory rollbacks to save a few dollars. That is just a bad deal for the American people. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote against this dirty air bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2319, the Women and Lung Cancer Research and Preventive Services Act of 2025. I want to begin by commending my colleague, Representative Brendan F. Boyle, for his tireless leadership on this critical issue. Every 9 minutes, a woman loses her life to lung cancer. In the time it will take the House to consider this bill, more mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends will be lost. This legislation is a meaningful step in addressing the disproportionate impact of lung cancer on women. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among men and women in the United States. It kills more people each year than breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and uterine cancer combined. Despite historically lower smoking rates than men, women are estimated to make up over half of all new lung cancer cases and nearly half of all deaths. In the United States, we are seeing a concerning trend among young and middle-aged women who are being diagnosed with lung cancer. Even more striking, lung cancer disproportionately strikes women who have never smoked. Approximately two-thirds of never-smokers who have been diagnosed with lung cancer are women. A clear understanding of the existing research and innovative opportunities to reduce lung cancer mortality, particularly among women in underserved populations, is needed. This legislation directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, working in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to conduct a comprehensive interagency review of lung cancer in women and in underserved populations. This legislation will help us take steps toward answering key questions our researchers need to answer. We need to know what environmental and genomic factors contribute to lung cancer in women. We need to know where the gaps are in our existing research. We need to know how we expand access to early detection and screening, which we know saves lives. And we need to know how we mount a public awareness campaign to better inform the public and providers. So for all these reasons, I urge my colleagues to once again support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Boyle) who is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, in closing, I just want to say that this is a very important piece of legislation. It is obviously bipartisan. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2493, the Improving Care in Rural America Reauthorization Act. H.R. 2493 reauthorizes programs at the Health Resources & Services Administration that increase access to healthcare services in rural communities. Rural communities often face significant challenges to accessing quality healthcare, including provider shortages, hospital closures, and long travel times to medical facilities. Rural communities also often face higher rates of poverty and unemployment which can contribute to poor health outcomes. The community-based programs extended by this bill address the unique needs of the rural communities they serve by collaborating with local networks and partnering organizations. This includes implementing disease prevention and health promotion activities and enhancing healthcare delivery. The programs also include the Healthy Rural Hometown Initiative, a targeted program that works to address the underlying factors contributing to the five leading causes of death in the United States. That would be heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory disease. This is an important bill, and I am hopeful that it will gain strong bipartisan support. This legislation comes at the same time rural communities are being devastated by the $1 trillion in healthcare cuts Republicans passed in their big, ugly bill. These cuts are going to have a disproportionate impact on rural Americans. Rural clinics and maternity care centers are already being forced to close their doors, and another 300 rural hospitals are likely to shutter, closing down altogether or reducing services. Madam Speaker, I am pleased that we are considering this legislation to extend these programs. I encourage all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 2493, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, this is an important piece of legislation, particularly for rural areas. I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3419, the Reauthorization of Telehealth Network and Telehealth Resource Centers Grant Programs. H.R. 3419 reauthorizes programs at the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth within the Health Resources and Services Administration, including the telehealth network and telehealth resource centers grant programs. These programs promote the use of telehealth networks to improve healthcare services for communities across the country. Currently, the program promotes the use of rural tele-emergency services by delivering 24-hour emergency department consultation services for rural providers without emergency care specialists. The Telehealth Resource Centers Program provides technical assistance, education, and information to organizations and individuals through 2 national centers and 12 regional centers. These centers help implement and expand telehealth programs so they can expand the reach of healthcare in rural and underserved communities. I am glad that we are taking steps to reauthorize these programs. I encourage all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 3419, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, in closing, I just want to urge everyone to support this legislation. Telehealth expansion is obviously something that is particularly important for rural areas and underserved areas, so I think it is really important that we pass this legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 1020, which will grant an extension to hydropower projects impacted by the COVID pandemic. The Federal Power Act requires hydropower projects to start construction within 2 years of receiving a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC. Subsequent amendments have allowed FERC to grant extensions of up to 8 years to a project's construction deadline. While I think it makes sense to have a hydropower license expire if a project can't start construction within a decade of the license being issued, I recognize that the COVID pandemic and resulting supply chain issues wreaked havoc on the hydropower industry. Therefore, this bill would allow FERC to grant up to 6 additional years for projects whose licenses were issued prior to COVID to start construction and would allow FERC to reinstate the licenses of projects whose authorizations have since expired. Madam Speaker, I will note that this authority is not a blank check to any developer with a license issued pre-COVID. The bill explicitly only allows FERC to grant an extension for good cause. I expect FERC to adhere to that restriction. In addition, I will also note that while the House has been able to complete work on this bill, my colleagues from the Energy and Commerce Committee, Representatives Schrier and Fulcher, have another bill on hydropower, H.R. 3657, that has been sitting in the Senate for 9 months. I certainly hope our friends over in the Senate can pass that bill, which grants additional transparency into the hydropower licensing process as soon as possible. Madam Speaker, in any case, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.