Electric Supply Chain Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, H.R. 3638 requires the Department of Energy to conduct an assessment and draft periodic reports on the state of the electric supply chain.
I understand that our electric supply chain is important for national security and grid reliability, but I have to question the Republicans' seriousness in making this request and the ability of the Department of Energy to conduct these assessments and draft the periodic reports.
President Trump has decimated and undermined our Federal agencies and dedicated civil servants who fulfill their missions while also stealing Federal funds promised to local communities all across the Nation. He has created constant uncertainty for businesses with the administration's ever-changing tariff regime.
Mr. Chair, as we consider this bill, it is important that we consider the context in which it will be implemented, if enacted into law.
This bill is asking the Department of Energy to do more with less. Elon Musk and the DOGE minions decimated the Department of Energy, purging more than 3,500 dedicated and hardworking Department staff. On top of that, just a few weeks ago, Secretary Wright unveiled a reorganization of the agency that eliminated key offices, including the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, which would have been tasked with carrying out the very report required by this bill.
Back in October, DOE canceled over $7 billion in energy project awards throughout the Nation, including nearly $1 billion from projects funded through the then Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains. My office heard from numerous awardees who were left confused and frustrated by the complete lack of communication from DOE on this matter. Many of these grantees heard about their grant cancellation by reading stories in the media, and some still have not received any formal communication from the Department of Energy.
If the Department of Energy doesn't even have the capacity to communicate with grantees who were promised Federal support that has now been stolen away, one really has to wonder if the Trump DOE would prioritize staff time for the development of this report.
After all, the Trump Department of Energy does not respond to inquiries from Congress. We have reached out to Secretary Wright on several occasions, demanding answers about the staffing cuts and project cancellations, and to date we have received zero response.
Mr. Chairman, this is entirely unacceptable. We need straightforward answers from DOE on how these cuts have impacted the Department's ability to do its job.
My opposition to this bill is common sense. We need to understand the Department of Energy's current capacity constraints before we assign the agency more work. Committee Democrats offered amendments during the subcommittee and full committee markups of this bill to that effect, which were voted down by committee Republicans.
While I agree that it is important to understand the vulnerabilities in our electric supply chain, we must first understand the vulnerabilities and constraints of the agency that is tasked with completing the report.
Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan).
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chair, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Chair, I find it deeply ironic that congressional Republicans are supportive of a study to assess matters impacting the supply chain for the power sector, yet remain completely silent on the Trump administration policies that are currently negatively impacting the electric supply chain.
Let's look at Trump's disastrous tariffs on steel and aluminum. These materials are essential components in our electric infrastructure from power lines to transformers. Slapping a hefty tariff on steel and aluminum only exacerbates current supply chain issues and could cause grid infrastructure costs to skyrocket.
For example, we know that there is already a shortage of transformers, which are crucial to our electric system as they transport energy to our homes and businesses. Yet President Trump's tariffs on steel are only serving to complicate an already fragile supply chain that is already complicated by long lead times.
These additional costs from tariffs could also be passed on to consumers, which is especially concerning at a time when electricity prices are up 13 percent across the country. While I appreciate the intent of the bill to understand the current state of our electric supply chain, I will just point out that if Republicans are asking DOE to study these issues while also failing to call out the Trump administration for continuing to enact policies that only make the problem worse--including the mass firings at the Department of Energy, the haphazard recent reorganization of DOE that seemingly eliminated the very offices that would carry out this study, and Secretary Wright's problematic project cancellations impacting dozens of grant recipients--if my Republican colleagues are serious about assessing and addressing vulnerabilities in our electric supply chain, it is time they speak out against harmful Trump administration policies that threaten our electric supply chain.
Mr. Chair, I also urge President Trump and my Republican colleagues to stop turning a blind eye to the affordability crisis.
American families are struggling, and President Trump and congressional Republicans are to blame. Yet, they continue to bring forth bills that will do nothing to meaningfully address the issue of affordability in this country. Don't be mistaken, they have no real plans to address it.
Just last week, President Trump called the affordability crisis a con job crafted by the Democrats. Even FOX News reported that 76 percent of Americans view the economy negatively. That is how truly out of touch President Trump is with the alarming reality millions of American families are facing.
Let me help paint the picture for President Trump and his Republican accomplices: Utility bills are skyrocketing across the country, grocery prices are up, and the cost of buying a new home feels out of reach for far too many Americans. This is all exacerbated by the fact that millions of Americans are facing the sobering reality that their healthcare premiums are surging because Trump and congressional Republicans refuse to extend the premium tax credits to help keep costs down for millions of families.
Electricity costs are now up 13 percent, as I mentioned. That figure is even higher in some parts of the country, and more than 80 million Americans are struggling to pay their utility bills. In fact, since 2023, household utility debt has risen over 30 percent.
This should be a red flag to President Trump and Republicans that this is, in fact, not a con job--affordability--devised by the Democrats, but a frightening and worsening reality.
These rising costs are debilitating to American families, and the Republican response is a slate of bills that assign busywork to an already thinly stretched agency and a bad-faith attack on the deployment of clean energy and battery storage.
I have said before, but it bears repeating: The Trump administration only cares about addressing affordability for their fossil fuel friends. It is time for Republicans to come to the table to work with Democrats on the solution to this affordability crisis for the sake of American families.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, I urge opposition to the amendment because it peddles in gross xenophobia and fear of immigrants that has become the calling card of Republicans during the Trump years.
The amendment would require the Department of Energy to add to its study vulnerabilities from the employment of non-U.S. citizens at generation or transmission facilities.
Now, I agree with the gentleman that our electric system needs to be secure, but I do not agree with him that every electrical engineer who comes to this country for a better life needs to live in fear of ICE and DOE showing up and harassing them at their place of work.
There are enough real threats to our grid. Congress does not need to concern itself with imaginary threats as well.
Mr. Chair, I urge opposition to the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, even though I am not opposed to it.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chair, while I have grave concerns about the Department of Energy's ability to carry out and execute on the studies and reports required by this bill, if we are going to ask them to do those studies, then I think this addition is harmless.
I would point out that, while the gentleman's amendment focuses explicitly on efforts by foreign entities of concern to exploit supply chain disruptions to undermine our leadership in the field of AI. I am concerned about any effort by foreign entities of concern to exploit energy supply chain disruptions. That is why I have been dismayed at the fact that President Trump and the Republican Party have totally dismantled the infrastructure that we built up to strengthen our energy supply chains.
The reality is that there are more threats to our energy supply chains today than there were a year ago because of the big, ugly bill and the sledgehammer that DOGE and Secretary Wright took to the Department of Energy. That is a large reason why I oppose the overall bill. But this amendment isn't about that.
While I still oppose the underlying bill, I do not oppose the amendment, even though I think it is too narrow.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, even though I am not opposed to it.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chairman, this amendment recognizes that it is not enough for us to manufacture critical grid and supply chain components, they must be able to be actually delivered and installed on the grid. This is a worthwhile addition to the bill.
However, I lament that while my colleagues on the other side of the aisle can recognize the equal importance of manufacturing supply chain components and transporting and delivering them, they are unable to recognize the same when it comes to electricity. To do anyone any good, electricity must not only be generated, it must be carried to its destination on the grid.
However, House Republicans, especially those on the Energy and Commerce Committee, have been completely unwilling to acknowledge the role that expanding the grid must play in any serious, bipartisan conversation on permitting.
The bills this week and next week aren't a serious attempt at permitting reform, far from it. One of them tells us that, despite Democrats talking for the last 3 years about the need to strengthen the grid in the face of rising demand, Republicans have still failed to acknowledge that need or that reality for that matter.
Again, I think this is a bad bill. I think the Department of Energy has not made clear to us that it has the resources or the ability to carry out this bill. I think that instead of trying to get the DOE to maybe write us a report telling us what we already know, we should focus on concrete actions that could shore up our supply chain: restoring the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, and restoring the incentives to build in America that were killed by the big, ugly bill. All these things are really what we need to do.
However, Republicans are not willing to do that, so I don't know what else to say.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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