Ed Whitfield

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 635, I call up the bill (H.R. 4557) to allow for judicial review of any final rule addressing national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants for brick and structural clay products or for clay ceramics manufacturing before requiring compliance with such rule, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell), one of the original cosponsors of this legislation.

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

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on H.R. 4557.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Today, we have the important opportunity to protect the American brick manufacturing industry and the ceramic kiln industry and its 7,000 employees from a costly regulation that has yet to survive a judicial scrutiny. At this time, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop), one of the original sponsors of this bill.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson) for introducing this important bill. This is an industry that has been hard hit by the recession. It has lost 45 percent of its jobs. There are 70 of these plants around the country, and they employ 7,000 people. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson), the sponsor of the legislation.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot).

Mr. WHITFIELD. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter).

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Kelly).

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I will conclude my remarks over on this side. I was listening to the debate on the rule about this bill, and some people did make the comment that this was not a particularly important issue. I might say to the 7,000 people employed in this industry, to the owners of the companies, this is very important because some of them may very well lose their business, may very well lose their jobs. So we have two goals with this legislation. One is simply to say this regulation coming out of EPA needs to be considered by the courts before these companies are required to invest significant sums of money. In fact, the industry itself has said that the average plant has two kilns, and a plant with two kilns would have to spend roughly $4 million to meet the requirements of this regulation. Now, remember, in 2003, EPA came out with a regulation for this industry and, by 2006, the industry had to comply. They did comply and they reduced emissions of the regulated substance by 96 percent. We see a pattern developing at EPA. They know full well that this President would veto any legislation that changes in any way anything coming out of EPA, so the only avenue left to the regulated parties is to file a lawsuit. So just as the brick industry filed a lawsuit in 2003 on that extreme regulation, they had to comply by 2006; and then the Court, in 2007, after they had already complied, ruled that the regulation was illegal, but the money had already been spent. Now, the money has already been spent, 96 percent reduction has occurred, and now the EPA is coming back with a new regulation. So these people involved, they have no avenue. I mean, they are talking to EPA, pleading with EPA, and EPA, as usual, is not responsive. So all this legislation does is say, we are not trying to reverse the regulation, change the regulation. We are simply saying, let the Court decide. And guess what? A pattern is also developing over at EPA because they are losing these court cases. Now, on the Clean Energy Plan, which was one of the most extreme regulations ever to come from EPA, 3 days before Judge Scalia died, the Supreme Court issued a stay on the Clean Energy Plan, saying that you cannot implement this plan until the judicial remedies have been exhausted. Then, even under Utility MACT, that also went to the Supreme Court, and the Court said, well, you didn't consider certain costs; we are remanding this. But most of the industries have already spent the money, met the requirements, and some of them have closed as well. So the question becomes, are we going to let an EPA adopting extreme rules under this administration make all the decisions? Or will the Congress of the United States try to stand up and pass some legislation, not reversing, not changing, but simply saying, since lawsuits have been filed, let's give the Court the opportunity to determine if the regulation is legal or not legal? So that is all we are doing here. I want to thank those who introduced this legislation, both the Democrats and Republicans. And I would urge our colleagues to pass this legislation, to simply provide some commonsense balance, and let the courts make a decision before we require the companies to spend all this money and, in many cases, lay off employees and, in some cases, even close the business. So I would urge the passage of H.R. 4557. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank once again Ms. Grace Meng for bringing this important issue to the attention of the Energy and Commerce Committee. I would urge all Members to support this legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4238) to amend the Department of Energy Organization Act and the Local Public Works Capital Development and Investment Act of 1976 to modernize terms relating to minorities.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to consider H.R. 4238, a bill to amend the Department of Energy Organization Act and the Local Public Works Capital Development and Investment Act of 1976 to modernize terms in the original legislation relating to minorities. This bill replaces offensive terms relating to minorities found in decades-old energy legislation. I want to thank Grace Meng for being the lead on this commonsense piece of legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4444) to amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to exclude power supply circuits, drivers, and devices designed to be connected to, and power, light-emitting diodes or organic light- emitting diodes providing illumination from energy conservation standards for external power supplies, and for other purposes.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to bring to the floor today H.R. 4444, the EPS Improvement Act of 2016. I want to give special thanks to our colleagues, Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, Diana DeGette of Colorado, Mike Pompeo of Kansas, Doris Matsui of California, and Mr. Charles Dent of Pennsylvania, for their work on this piece of legislation. I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Ellmers).

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers other than myself, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to thank all of those involved in bringing forth this legislation. We are all excited about it. It does teach each one of us a lesson, though, and that is, sometimes we pass legislation, and we use language a little bit too broad; and the regulatory agencies take that and run. And now we see them trying to regulate something that was not even in existence when the 2005 Energy Policy Act was adopted. I don't think that many Members of Congress or the American people ever thought that the Department of Energy would be setting efficiency standards for ceiling fans, for microwave ovens, refrigerators. It reminds me of that Dire Straits song, and I hope you all liked them as much I did, but they had this song entitled ``Money for Nothing'' and the chicks are free. They talked about the importance of moving microwave ovens, refrigerators, and color TVs. We find ourselves today living in a world in which everything is so micromanaged, and this is an example of that action. We understand we need regulations, but I am glad that we have a group of Democrats and Republicans coming together with common sense to say to the Department of Energy, hey, we need some balance here. I would urge passage of this legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4583) to promote a 21st century energy and manufacturing workforce, as amended.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material in the Record on the bill.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am also pleased that we are considering today H.R. 4583, a bill to promote a 21st century energy and manufacturing workforce, introduced by my colleagues, Mr. Rush of Illinois and Mr. Hudson of North Carolina. This bill takes important steps to help make training for energy and manufacturing jobs available to women and minorities as well as veterans and out-of-work coal miners. I want to give a special word of thanks to Mr. Rush because he and Mr. Hudson were working on this legislation. They tried to get it included in the energy act that we passed a few weeks ago, and it didn't quite work out; but I am delighted that we are able to move this bill by itself. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.