'You Know The One Subject No One Brought Up?': Neguse Pans Fridge Bill As Town Hall Unrest Rises

3 days ago

During debate on the House floor, Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) tore into a House Republican rules package focused on home appliance standards, as constituents raise concerns over cuts to medicaid and social security.

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Transcript

00:00I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina, Chairwoman Fox, for the customary 30 minutes.

00:06I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks and yield myself such time as I may

00:11consume. Without objection, the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Speaker, I rise today,

00:19yet again, to expose to the American public the misplaced priorities of the House Republican

00:28Conference and the Republican majority here in the House of Representatives. As you know,

00:34Mr. Speaker, the Republican majority gaveled us out of session 11 days ago. Here we are,

00:43back in Washington, D.C., and of course, for us, it feels a lot like Groundhog Day,

00:48because notwithstanding all of the economic turmoil, the conflicts across the globe,

00:55the various ways in which this administration is making life harder for the people of Colorado,

01:02for folks across our country, notwithstanding all of the challenges that our country is grappling

01:08with, House Republicans have decided to spend this week debating what? Three bills.

01:17Walk-in freezers, commercial refrigerators, and giving new responsibilities to a department,

01:26the Department of Education, that they are seeking to dismantle, that they want to abolish.

01:32That's what we're debating here today, Mr. Speaker. It is important. I listened to every

01:38word of the chairwoman's address, outlining every component of the bills that we're considering,

01:45but I just, for folks who are watching, for those who have graced us with their presence in the

01:50gallery, please understand. Three bills. One, regulating commercial refrigerators.

01:59Another, regulating walk-in refrigerators. And a third, a bill to give an agency new

02:06responsibilities that they are seeking to destroy. That's it. That's what we're debating this week

02:11in Washington, D.C. So if folks in the gallery stay here through the week, that's what you will

02:16hear. You will hear a debate today, you'll hear a debate tomorrow, you'll hear a debate on Thursday

02:21on those three bills. I suspect that the folks who are watching this debate, Mr. Speaker,

02:27would agree with me that there are better things for us to spend our time on here in Washington,

02:32D.C. than debating walk-in refrigerators. Seriously? I don't know. Maybe, Madam Chairwoman,

02:45it's really important to the people of North Carolina. You may have a lot of constituents

02:48who have walk-in refrigerators. I don't know. But for me, I can tell you, I just spent a week

02:53in Colorado, in the rural communities that I represent, hosting town halls, visiting with folks

02:59in my community, constituents, ranchers, farmers, teachers, working families, packed town halls.

03:07And at those town halls, you know the one subject that no one brought up? Commercial refrigerators.

03:15It never came up. No constituent of mine approached me at a town hall that we held

03:20three days ago with over a thousand people in my community. No one at that town hall said,

03:26Congressman, can you please go back to Washington and pass legislation on

03:31commercial refrigerators? It's really important. Nobody said that. They were really concerned

03:37about the Republicans' plan to gut Medicaid. They're pretty concerned about the Republican

03:43plans to dismantle Social Security offices across the country. They're deeply concerned

03:51about reports that this administration is going to end phone line customer service for senior

03:56citizens who are relying on Social Security. They're pretty concerned, pretty concerned,

04:05about a Secretary of Defense who apparently is sending out war plans on unencrypted messaging

04:13apps, putting our national security at risk. Those are the topics that my constituents care about.

04:21Commercial refrigerators is not one of them. And you can tell the frustration, I suppose,

04:29Mr. Speaker, in my voice. It is the frustration born from having to come to the floor

04:36every week and debate appliances. Can the Republicans just put all of the appliance bills

04:45in for consideration one week and we'll just do them all and then we can be done with it

04:49and we can move on to having a debate about defending Medicaid, defending healthcare

04:55for the millions of Americans who rely on it? Is that too much to ask?

05:01I just would beg of the chairwoman. I understand this is an important priority to her. It's

05:07important to the Republican caucus. We get it. You all are obsessed with appliance regulation.

05:12Okay. After this week, can we please just be done with these appliance resolutions and get

05:18back to debating the issues that the American people expect us to debate? With that, Mr. Speaker,

05:25I will reserve the balance of my time.

'You Know The One Subject No One Brought Up?': Neguse Pans Fridge Bill As Town Hall Unrest Rises

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