Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), and Congressman Nick Begich (R-Alaska) to discuss House Republicans’ America First agenda, including unleashing American energy, lowering premiums, and taking a stand against the radical left. Leader Scalise emphasized that President Trump and Congressional Republicans have been working to reverse President Biden’s record of failure.
Excerpts from Leader Scalise’s remarks:

On House Republicans hitting the ground running to deliver for American families:

“It's good to have the Democrat shutdown ended and the pain, the suffering that went on for way too long, finally be over. And now to see the House back doing its business. And of course, we missed a few weeks and so we're making up for lost time.

“We have a very robust schedule this week, as you can see, full five-day work week. We're going to be working and having some late-night votes. Today, we have three vote series going into the night, and our members have rolled up their sleeves and are ready to get back to work, too. The committees are going to be meeting into the night this week and beyond to catch up and get back to focusing on those issues that we've been fighting for this entire Congress, and that is fighting for those families who have been struggling under the failed Biden agenda. All we saw under the Biden and Democrat agenda was higher costs for families, higher inflation, higher interest rates, open borders, chaos around the world. And President Trump has reversed that quickly. As you look at all of the things that this president has done, working with this Congress, we have been focused on fixing the problems that Biden created and then really setting a new course, getting this country back on track, lowering costs for families.”

On President Trump and Republicans working to reverse Biden’s failed energy agenda:

“You heard Chairman Guthrie and Congressman Begich talk about this great energy agenda that we're continuing to deliver on. Of course, in the Working Families Tax Cut, we had a lot of provisions in that bill, in fact, Congressman Begich himself brought forward to open up areas in Alaska. I walked the Alaskan pipeline in section 1002 of the North Slope, and to see all of the ability to produce energy in America that had been shut down under Joe Biden. We couldn't even produce the energy we know we have here in America because of stupid policies by the Biden Administration. And we've been reversing that. Many of those provisions that Congressman Begich campaigned on, he already delivered on in the Working Families Tax Cut. But there's more to do.

“We're bringing some of those bills to the floor this week. You're going to see the Department of Interior, probably this week, hopefully in the next two weeks, roll out their five-year leasing plan for the Gulf of America again, something that President Biden shut down that drove investment to foreign countries. We saw billions of dollars of energy investment moving to foreign countries because Biden shut down America. Well, America's open up for business again, and that means more jobs here in America. But really importantly for families, lower energy costs and energy costs affect everything that we do. When you go to the grocery store, lower energy costs mean lower food costs for families. And so we're going to keep delivering on that agenda. Obviously, this week. It's going to be a very aggressive schedule, and we're going to continue to move bills in the future.”

On Democrats spiking health care premiums under the Unaffordable Care Act:

“Something else the Democrats broke – we talked about this a lot during the shutdown here at this podium – and that is the health care crisis in America. The current law in health care is the Affordable Care Act. I think everybody would recognize it's unaffordable for millions of American families. And yet they have dumped more families into that plan. And the cost increases are evident. 80% increase in cost for families since Obamacare passed. And yet, as the Affordable Care Act has failed to work for families, Democrats continue to try to shove hundreds of billions of dollars more into that failed program, and not giving relief to families, but giving COVID subsidies to insurance companies. That's what Democrats were fighting for.

“We've been working before the shutdown with our three relevant committees, Chairman Guthrie's committee in Energy and Commerce, Chairman Jason Smith in Ways and Means, and Chairman Walberg over in Education and Workforce. The three committees that work on health care policy to focus on legislation that would actually lower costs for families and give families options so they're not trapped in the Unaffordable Care Act policies that drive up their premiums. And so we've brought bills, we had some of those we talked about in the Working Families Tax Cut that didn't make it all the way through the process. We're going to be coming back to that.

“We moved PBM reform last year, very bipartisan bill that Chuck Schumer sat on because he and Democrats don't want to lower costs for families. We do. And we're going to keep bringing those bills over the next few months.”

On House Republicans standing against socialism:

“We're going to have a resolution Friday that says we stand up against socialism and the atrocities of it. It's not just the bad policies. It's led to murder all around the world where it's been tried. And they don't teach that history, unfortunately enough in our schools. And so a lot of young people don't even get exposed to the atrocities of socialism. But we'll surely be talking about it and voting on it this Friday. A pretty easy vote, I think, for most people. Hopefully, they say no, we believe in freedom, opportunity, and we stand against socialism. We're going to have that opportunity this week as well, while we're also focusing on affordability.”
 

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