(The Center Square) – As inflation soars and Americans continue to struggle paying for basic needs, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have been encouraged to vote against bills that would restrict Biden administration regulations imposed on household appliances. Republicans say the regulations will only further drive up costs and make them less affordable than they already are.
Bills that passed out of the Energy and Commerce Committee, HR 7700, “Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards (SUDS) Act,” filed by U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-New York, and HR 7637, “Refrigerator Freedom Act,” filed by Rep. Mary Miller-Meeks, R-Ill., are expected to be voted on by the full House this week.
While Democrats hold a minority in the House and are unlikely to block the bills from passing, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., encouraged Democrats to vote against them.
In a “Whip Question” sent to House Democrats first published by Axios, Clark said the bills were originally noticed along with the overarching HR 6192 “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act” in May.
They amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act “to hinder the Department of Energy’s (DOE) ability to effectively issue energy efficiency standards” for dishwashers, refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers and freezers.
“Despite what House Republicans claim, DOE energy efficiency standards must already be cost-effective, result in significant savings, and be technologically feasible and economically justified under current law,” Clark said. “House Republicans’ proposals add duplicative requirements for standards-setting in an effort to hamper a process that already takes place over a number of years.”
She also said the bills were “unserious” and don’t specify when they would go into effect, don’t include definitions for terms mentioned in the bills, and “completely ignore the agreement on standards that home appliance manufacturers and energy efficiency advocates reached in September 2023.”
Clark also said they “are totally unnecessary” after the House passed the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act, which “creates similar obstacles to DOE’s standards-setting process, and covers all appliances, including those targeted by H.R. 7700 and H.R. 7637.”
U.S. Rep. Debbie Lasko, R-Arizona, who introduced the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act, said she was “saddened that we would need such a bill.” After the bill passed in May, she said, “No government bureaucrat should ever scheme to take away Americans’ appliances in the name of a radical environmental agenda, yet that is exactly what we have seen under the Biden administration.”
The bill requires that any new energy efficiency standards be cost-effective and prevents household appliances from being banned by the federal government based on fuel usage.
The Biden administration “is waging war on American energy, and this war is making its way into Americans’ homes,” House Energy & Commerce Committee Republicans led by U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-WA, said in a statement. The committee has held hearings on regulations targeting household appliances and Biden administration energy policies and championed the bills slated to be voted on this week.
President Joe Biden and Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm “are sacrificing peoples’ ability to purchase affordable and reliable products for their homes in their pursuit of a radical rush-to-green agenda,” committee Republicans said in a statement.
“Housing prices and utility bills are already too high for Americans, but that isn’t stopping the administration from continuing to impose burdensome regulations,” including on washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, and other appliances.
While the regulations force Americans “to spend more for less reliable options” they won’t save a significant amount of energy and aren’t cost-effective, committee Republicans said.
The committee also points to a DOE analysis that found efficiency mandates on dishwashers could increase upfront costs by 28%, resulting in it taking consumers 12 years to pay back the increased costs on a product that may only last 7 to 12 years.
“Americans are already being crushed by rising costs thanks to Bidenflation,” committee Republicans said. “By continuing to double down on policies like these, the Biden administration is showing just how out of touch they are with the financial struggles the vast majority of Americans are feeling.”
The bills are expected to go nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
