Pushing back on unworkable executive mandates

In 2014, President Obama famously said, “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” telling the American people he didn’t care whether Congress had provided legislative authority for his favored policies—he would go it alone whenever he felt like it. Ten years later, Obama’s then-vice president, now-President Joe Biden has been ruling in the same fashion daily. Biden’s executive actions don’t just ignore congressional intent; they are expensive, unwise and unworkable. A recent report by the House Budget Committee showed President Biden’s executive actions have totaled more than $2 trillion in added cost to taxpayers, all without congressional approval.

From backwards economic policies to rules restricting consumer choice on everything down to gas stoves and dishwashers, the Biden administration seems intent on trading common sense for a pricey, overbearing agenda. Among the most shortsighted are crushing energy industry mandates, another scheme to “forgive” student loans on the backs of taxpayers and an effort which would increase pressure on nursing homes struggling to fill staffing vacancies.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Biden’s latest attempt to transfer student debt onto taxpayers will cost up to $1.4 trillion. Rather than putting a trillion-dollar band-aid on broken aspects of our higher education system, we should be asking hard questions about the effectiveness of universities to educate and prepare students for the workforce, even as they leverage their own non-profit tax status to accrue enormous endowments, all while tuition costs rise. As a co-sponsor of the Student Loan Accountability Act, a bill to prohibit the mass cancellation of student loans, I am working to hold both universities and the Biden administration accountable.

As our workforce shortage impacts many corners of the economy, the Biden administration also recently finalized one-size-fits-all staffing rules for long-term care facilities which 80% of nursing homes would not be able to comply with, according to analysis by KFF. With the extreme workforce challenges facing rural areas, arbitrary staffing mandates for long-term care facilities are sure to put more Third-District communities at risk of not having access to a local facility at all. On top of this, according to the House Budget Committee, implementing this rule will cost taxpayers $17 billion.

Knowing the growing problem of long-term facility closures, I have worked hard to cut red tape for nursing homes, and I am a cosponsor of the Protecting America’s Seniors’ Access to Care Act (H.R. 7513) which would block this mandate’s implementation. We voted to move this bill out of the Ways and Means Committee in March.

Earlier this month, the president continued his war on American energy as the EPA handed down rules impacting fossil fuel power plants. Nearly half of Nebraska’s electricity comes from coal, and restricting affordable energy production is a one-way ticket to exorbitant costs for consumers and undermining grid reliability.

At the same time, the Biden administration is making it harder for American biofuels producers to participate in the tax credit for sustainable aviation fuel. Even though language in the bill creating the tax credit was intentionally written to ensure American-produced biofuels could qualify for the SAF credit, the Treasury announced nonsensical new rules which demonstrate an ignorance of how sustainability practices utilized by our producers work and the supply chain through which feedstocks like corn get from the field to the refinery. With the threat of increased dependence on foreign SAF imports, we should be striving to level the playing field for our farmers, not stunting domestic biofuel supply for SAF use.

Unfortunately, the unworkable policies of the Biden administration do not reflect full consideration of the impact on hard-working American families and producers battling the cost of inflation. Through legislation to strengthen our workforce, protect consumer choice from President Biden’s product bans, and embrace all-of-the-above energy flexibility, House Republicans are fighting back against the Biden administration’s counterproductive agenda.