Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy Rodgers (R-WA) delivered the following opening remarks at today’s full committee markup of Energy and Commerce’s Authorization and Oversight Plan for the 118th Congress.

Excerpts and highlights below:

RESTORING TRUST IN GOVERNMENT

“Today, we are marking up the Energy and Commerce authorization and oversight plan for the 118th Congress.

“This is a key part of our efforts on this committee to restore trust and confidence in representative government.

“We have a responsibility to conduct oversight to get answers on behalf of those we serve and to ensure accountability so the government is responsive to the American people.

“The government cannot betray the just powers consented to it by the governed.

“For 227 years, the Energy and Commerce Committee has been on the forefront of the most important issues before us as a nation.

“Millions of people are depending on us.

“Unfortunately today, there is this overwhelming sense that government is making lives harder for people with more inflation, more spending, higher energy costs, higher medical bills, and more crime.

“We have a lot of work to do to make people’s lives better and that is why our mark up today to pass this plan is so important.”

GREATEST EXPERIMENT IN REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT

“Our oversight work will inform how we hold the Biden administration accountable, legislate, and plow the hard ground necessary to deliver results.

“This shouldn’t be a partisan exercise.

“We will do the hard work of reclaiming Congress’s Article I authority to reauthorize expired programs that are running on autopilot.

“For years, I have warned that when Congress delegates its power, the people’s representatives become irrelevant and therefore, the people of this great nation become irrelevant to a growing bureaucracy that isn’t accountable to them.

“It shouldn’t be this way.

“Executive agencies cannot continue to be disconnected or hostile to their core mission to serve ‘We, the People.’

“Across the board, we have a lot of work to do.

“Our robust oversight agenda is just the beginning.

“As I said yesterday in our joint Oversight and Health Subcommittee hearing with President Biden’s public health officials, the American people deserve full accountability and transparency. Nothing less.

“Let’s come together to make sure we meet our responsibilities that make America the greatest experiment in self-governance the world has ever known.”