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A few weeks ago, House Republicans announced plans to put aside real legislative work and instead focus on a series of bills related to home appliances. By any fair measure, they weren’t real measures: GOP leaders had set up a series of messaging votes that related to the party’s opposition to energy efficiency standards.
Those efforts, which generated no small amount of mockery, were ultimately delayed. As E&E News reported, they’re apparently back.
The House will hold floor votes this week on bills that would roll back the Biden administration’s energy efficiency agenda on home appliances. ... Lawmakers will debate Arizona Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko’s “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act,” H.R. 6192, to prohibit the Department of Energy from implementing or enforcing efficiency standards on a wide variety of home appliances if they are not “technically feasible or economically justified” and if they do not result in “significant conservation of energy.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has confirmed that members will take up the bill this week — the Louisiana Republican’s new schedule for the week boasted, "Republicans are protecting your home appliances” — and the GOP-led House Rules Committee has listed the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act” as its first order of business today.
To be sure, the Republicans’ appliance-related agenda includes a variety of other bills, including the “Liberty in Laundry Act” (H.R. 7673), the “Clothes Dryers Reliability Act (H.R. 7645), the “Refrigerator Freedom Act” (H.R. 7637), the “Affordable Air Conditioning Act” (H.R. 7626), and the “Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act” (H.R. 7700).
Those other measures will, however, apparently have to wait — until after the House has passed the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act,” which will likely reach the floor this week, possibly as early as tomorrow.
Axios reported nearly a month ago that there was some growing “frustration” among House Republicans “over plans to vote on a series of appliance-related messaging bills ... that are likely to stall in the Senate.” And yet, here we are, watching the agenda move forward anyway.
A recent PunchBowl News report helped summarize matters: “These are all part of the Republican culture war clash over energy efficiency and climate change. It’s similar to the gas stove hysteria or Trump’s war on low-flush toilets and light bulbs.“
Quite right. GOP lawmakers know that these home-appliance-related bills aren’t going anywhere in the Democratic-led Senate, but by all appearances, party leaders don’t much care. They want to be able to tell the far-right Republican base that they’re on Capitol Hill, fighting tooth and nail in support of pointless messaging bills that combat energy conservation and efficiency standards.
As a result, the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act” will no doubt make for delightful fundraising letters and several Fox News segments, even as real priorities in need of Republicans’ attention go overlooked.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.