Democrats Shut Down E&C GOP Calls for Robust Oversight of Biden Inflation, Energy, and Border Crises

Sep 21, 2022
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Today, Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee led on many “Resolutions of Inquiry” for robust and proper oversight of the Biden administration’s handling of crises such as surging inflation, rising energy costs, empty store shelves, chaos at the border, and record-high fentanyl poisonings and overdose deaths. Democrats were forced to make a choice between demanding accountability on behalf of the American people or continuing to stonewall legitimate congressional oversight to protect President Biden’s radical agenda. 

As Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) said today, “The hardworking people of this countrylike the parents who can’t find baby formula, the pipeline worker out of a job, the mom who can’t afford her groceries or electricity bills, and the parents who lost a child to a fentanyl poisoningdeserve accountability and answers.” 

Here’s a summary of how Democrats voted on more than a dozen Republican-led oversight measures to hold the Biden administration accountable: 

Surging Inflation and Energy Costs 

  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation related to the administration’s COVID-19 response, including how it mismanaged and wasted trillions of dollars in spending in its first reconciliation package to fund a political agenda and fuel inflation.  
  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation on how the administration is exploiting the energy crisis it created to advance a rush-to-green climate agenda. 
  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation related to the administration’s attempts to declare a National Climate Emergency to impose more taxes, fees, and regulations on hardworking Americans. 
  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation on the Biden administration’s abuse of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) for political purposes to distract from record high gas prices. 
  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation related to the administration’s actions to undermine our power grid and increase the risk of life-threatening electricity blackouts.  
  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation on how the tens of billions of dollars in broadband funding from the infrastructure bill is being spent and to ensure that it is used to close the digital divide & promote economic growth, not to increase inflation.  
  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation related to how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair is departing from long-standing bipartisan consensus and instead pushing harmful policies that will allow progressives to radically change the American economy and make inflation worse. 

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Biden’s Border Crisis 

  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation related to the administration’s failure to combat the unprecedented crisis of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances. 
  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation related to the administration’s decision to revoke Title 42 and continue their open-border agenda. 

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Baby Formula Crisis

  • APPROVED: In a unanimous 54-0 vote, the Energy and Commerce Committee favorably reported a measure to require the administration to provide certain documents related to its delayed and disastrous response to the baby formula supply crisis. Republicans are now calling on Speaker Pelosi to immediately schedule a floor vote.  

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Biden’s Socialist Health Care Agenda 

  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation related to the administration’s socialist drug pricing control scheme and how it will lead to fewer cures, treatments, and innovations. 
  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation related to the lack of leadership by Secretary Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra during the pandemic.

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Censoring Free Speech 

  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation regarding attempts by Democrats and liberal organizations to pressure the Federal Communications Commission and private companies to censor conservative media and ban free speech.   
  • BLOCKED: Requests for certain documentation related to the administration’s coordination with social media companies to censor Americans online under the guise of combatting “misinformation.”

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