Ranking Member Marcy Kaptur Statement at the Subcommittee Markup of the 2025 Energy and Water Development Funding Bill
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), Ranking Member of the Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's markup of its fiscal year 2025 bill:
We gather today to mark up the fiscal year 2025 Energy and Water Development bill. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate working with you and our colleagues to develop and pass bipartisan bills, as has long been our practice, including last year. I am saddened that this vital subcommittee is being steered to return to a partisan process for this fiscal year 2025 House bill. We all witnessed how chaos and extremism played out last year and fully know a bipartisan compromise is the only avenue to finalize these bills. Americans expect us to negotiate out our differences, work together across the aisle, and do our jobs to find “the big middle.” I stand ready to work again on a bipartisan basis to get our work done for the benefit of all Americans.
I would like to begin by thanking our diligent staff for all their hard work on this bill. Particularly on the Minority staff, I would like to thank Scott McKee, Jocelyn Hunn, and Adam Wilson. And on my personal staff, I would like to thank Mayely Boyce and Margaret McInnis.
Energy and water undergird America’s way of life. They are not optional — they are essential to sustaining life. Fresh water is not optional. It is essential to life. Dependable, safe energy powers our economy and makes life possible across our vast continent.
Sadly, this Republican Energy and Water bill does not meet our nation’s imperative for the future — to become energy independent in perpetuity. Their bill fails to meet our nation’s obligation to assure dependable, affordable energy and water to millions of our citizens. And it fails to catch up to the future of living in a nation that is projected to grow to 400 million people by 2050 – four times more people than when World War II ended.
This Energy and Water bill cuts $1.5 Billion – or 43 percent – from the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs so essential to meeting our nation’s new challenges and climate.
It revokes $8 Billion from the Department of Energy's Loans Programs. Let me be clear — these cuts will absolutely jeopardize American energy independence. Cuts will hurt US competitiveness. And cuts will increase energy costs for millions of our fellow citizens.
While we have made great strides toward energy independence after half a century of effort, we still haven’t reached home plate and scored on US energy independence in perpetuity.
For example, the United States is fulfilling more of its crude oil needs with domestic supplies than ever before — thankfully US net crude oil imports have consistently declined in 2021, 2022, and 2023 under the Biden Administration, decreased 67% since 2016, and are the lowest they've been since 1972. While decreased reliance on imports should give the US more control over prices, consumers are still not seeing those benefits in the price they pay at the pump.With an adversarial Russia weaponizing energy to destabilize global markets, it is clear that America needs more energy innovation to reduce our dependence on any form of foreign energy supplies. Further, we must not cede our solar and chip future to China, which is more than willing to dump product and components to wipe out domestic industries, which we have witnessed in steel, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and the automotive sectors.
The Department of Energy’s clean energy programs drive down energy costs to make it cheaper to expand domestic energy sources. If the United States does not lead on these new energy technologies, competitors like China will undercut us and monopolize those markets. That is their goal. America cannot acquiesce.
In this new century marked by extreme weather events and an increasing occurrence of natural disasters, this bill endangers efforts to address the climate crisis.It is undeniable that we are witnessing growing weather events stemming from climate change occurring in real time before our very eyes. Insurance premiums are rising significantly across our nation. Some insurers are cutting coverage completely to customers. A new era has dawned. We must not fail to embrace change.
During 2023, there were 28 separate Billion-Dollar weather and climate disaster events, including tornadoes, floods, tropical storms, wildfires, and drought. The total cost from these 28 events in 2023 alone was a record-setting $92.9 Billion. You heard that right, $92.9 Billion with a B.
In 2024, we’re already witnessing an escalation of events, with a heat dome that impacted over 250 million Americans, major flooding throughout the Midwest, and wildfires burning in the West.
We can either continue to pay more for disaster response. Or, we can invest now in climate mitigation and adaptation that will also lower costs for consumers, create jobs, and increase our global competitiveness. The answer seems crystal clear to me.
Thus, I oppose the Republicans’ cuts to vital energy and climate programs at the Department of Energy. Shortchanging these programs pushes our nation backwards — failing to modernize our nation’s electric grids, failing to advance innovation relative to our global competitors in materials and manufacturing, and failing to build domestic end-to-end supply chains for jobs in the new energy economy.
In other areas of this bill, I’m concerned how this bill cuts nuclear nonproliferation programs that reduce nuclear risks and counter the global challenge of nuclear proliferation.
Finally, the bill includes numerous controversial poison pill policy riders that sadly show extremist Republicans are not interested in bills that can gain bipartisan support and become law. But rather they’re playing politics.
I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill. America can and must do better. America’s future relies on the new age frontiers of Energy and Water. We owe so much more than petty wrangling to the generations of today, tomorrow, and those yet to come. Let us work to embrace a bipartisan future, rather than devolve into fractured indecision.
I yield back.
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