As prepared for delivery:
Good afternoon.
Since taking office, President Biden has repeatedly used the administrative state to remake the nation. Over and over again, faceless regulators have been empowered to pump out rules, regulations, and mandates that impact the daily lives of all Americans. Federal bureaucrats who sympathize with progressive ideologies have actively used their positions to institute a far-left agenda. Efforts to unilaterally cancel student loan debt, force Americans to buy electric cars, and disenfranchise constitutional rights are just a few examples of the unrelenting devotion to grow government control.
As part of our Commitment to America, House Republicans are dedicated to fighting against this executive branch overreach. We have pushed back on President Biden’s one-size-fits-all regulatory agenda, his efforts to spend hundreds of billions of dollars that Congress has not appropriated, and his work to make America look the way leftist activists want it to.
In keeping with the Commitment, today’s hearing covers two bills that will reclaim the nation from the Biden Administration’s overzealous regulatory agenda.
First, we will take up H.R. 357, the Ensuring Accountability in Agency Rulemaking Act. H.R. 357 will require that agency rules be issued and signed by an official who has been appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. This change will put the power of the pen in the hands of officials who are accountable to Congress and American voters.
Second, we will take up H.R. 1147, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act. Like the Obama Administration before it, the Biden Administration’s zeal to regulate anything and everything extends even to the school lunchroom. Under Biden Administration regulations, schools that participate in the national school lunch program are forbidden from providing whole milk or reduced-fat milk.
Milk is a critical source of vitamins and minerals for growing children. Parents, school food service providers, and nutritionists all agree on how important nutrients are to our children learning and growing, and this bill supports that objective.
Yet, instead of allowing parents to make the choices and improving options for our next generation to access milk’s benefits, the Biden Administration again imposed a Washington knows best mandate that discourages children from doing so. H.R. 1147 will empower schools to provide more nutritious dairy products to students.
Finally, we will also consider H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, and H.R. 6611, the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023. As members are aware, title seven of FISA expires at the end of this year. H.R. 6570 and H.R. 6611 are two proposals to reauthorize and reform title seven.
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