August Pfluger, a Republican Texas Representative and Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Senator, introduced legislation on Monday to prevent President Joe Biden from using emergency powers to bypass congressional checks to his administration’s climate agenda.
The “Real Emergencies Act” clarifies that the President cannot invoke emergency powers granted by the National Emergencies Act and Disaster Relief and Emergencies Act or the Public Health Service Act based on a perceived climate crisis. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer, along with other left-wing members of Congress, have asked Biden to declare an emergency climate to advance his administration’s aggressive agenda.
Pfluger said to the Daily Caller News Foundation that he was proud to introduce the Real Emergencies Act with Senator Capito. This act will stop the White House from diverting attention from real crises, such as skyrocketing energy prices and inflation rates. Our legislation will ensure that President Biden doesn’t abuse his power to push his anti-American agenda on energy against the wishes of the American people.
Schumer stated in January 2021, that a climate emergency declaration would allow Biden to do “many, many things” under emergency powers that would not have to be passed by Congress – that Biden could do without legislation. Schumer’s remarks came at a time when the Inflation Reduction Act was stalled in congress due to Democratic West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin initially refusing to support many provisions of the bill in an equally-divided Senate.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus also urged Biden, citing a perceived climate crisis, to invoke emergency powers to “mobilize domestic industry to manufacture affordable, renewable energy technologies.” This was four months before Manchin and Schumer reached a deal in July 2022 to support the Inflation Reduction Act.
Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 with Manchin’s backing, just three months before Republicans took control of the House during the midterm elections in 2022. Biden, as a presidential candidate in 2019, gave a “personal guarantee” that his administration “would end fossil fuels.”
Biden’s COVID-19 powers allowed the Biden administration to impose an indefinite moratorium on federal evictions and a halt to student loan payments. Biden declared COVID-19 as a national emergency only in April 2023. This was more than six month after he admitted in September 2022 the pandemic had “ended.”
Capito said to the DCNF that the Biden administration had repeatedly overreached in its executive authority when it came to energy and environment regulations. They did so without the approval of Congress and ignored the law. The Real Emergencies Act will prevent the president from declaring a state of emergency to increase executive power and government size in the name climate change.
