{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://bice.house.gov/media/press-releases/bice-celebrates-passage-her-legislation-overturn-burdensome-biden-era", "Bice Celebrates the Passage of her Legislation to Overturn Burdensome Biden-Era Regulations", "2025-03-27", "2025", "2025-03", "Republican", "House", "OK", "Stephanie I. Bice", "B000740", "bice.house.gov", "bice", "https://bice.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. - Today, Congresswoman Bice celebrated the bipartisan House passage of her legislation H.J.Resolution 24. The resolution permanently overturns burdensome regulations on walk-in coolers and freezers from the previous Administration. At the tail end of the Biden Administration, the Department of Energy unveiled new regulations that imposed stricter energy efficiency standards on walk-in coolers and freezers. These regulations increase the costs for small business owners and consumers across the nation.\n\n\u201cToday, in a bipartisan fashion, the House acted to overturn more last-minute environmental regulations from the Biden Administration. Walk-in coolers and freezers are essential for pharmacies, convenience stores, food processing facilities, food banks, restaurants, and many other establishments nationwide,\u201d Congresswoman Bice stated. \u201cThis regulation, which had an estimated cost of a billion dollars, would have been crippling for businesses throughout the country, especially in rural areas. We must continue to push back against federal overreach, and I appreciate the support of my colleagues on this critical measure.\u201d\n\n\u201cBiden\u2019s regulations limited consumer choice, raised prices, and put unnecessary financial burdens on American businesses and families. House Republicans continue to reverse this regulatory non-sense and lower costs for businesses and families,\u201d Chairwoman McClain said.\n\n\u201cThe Biden-Harris Administration placed new and harmful regulations on commercial refrigeration units, yet another example of needless regulation raising prices for businesses and families while failing to provide cost savings or increasing food safety,\u201d said Chairmen Guthrie and Latta. \u201cThese Congressional Review Act resolutions are a critical part of our work to eliminate costly and burdensome regulations that failed to serve the American people. Thank you to Congressman Goldman and Congresswoman Bice for your leadership on these important issues.\u201d\n\nCongresswoman Bice Spoke today on the House Floor to Encourage Passage\n\nCongresswoman Bice\u2019s Floor Remarks:\n\nThank you, Mr. Speaker, and first, let me say I rise obviously in strong support of House Joint Resolution 24, legislation that I authored, which uses the Congressional Review Act to overturn regulations by the Biden administration.\n\nI was extremely excited this morning to be notified that I have a statement of Administrative policy support from President Trump on this legislation.\n\nIn December of 2024, the Department of Energy enacted new energy efficiency standards for walk in coolers and freezers, equipment vital to pharmacies, convenience stores, food processing facilities, food banks, restaurants, and many other establishments nationwide.\n\nThese regulations will impose significant financial burdens on small businesses, which will have to absorb major upgrade cost to the meet these new aggressive standards.\n\nAt a time when our focus should be on lowering the cost of living for our constituents, it's clear most of these expenses will be borne by consumers in the form of increased prices.\n\nFurthermore, they threaten significant operational disruption for many enterprises that rely on this equipment.\n\nWe have heard from many businesses in rural areas which will have to go through extensive structural and electrical upgrades to accommodate the new equipment.\n\nThese same businesses have reported that getting their refrigerators and freezers repaired is a process which is already taking too long and expensive, and will become even more so.\n\nFor businesses looking to enter underserved markets, this will be another barrier in doing so.\n\nFor businesses operating on a narrow profit margin, this could be what sends them under.\n\nRecognizing these detrimental impacts, I fought against the adoption of this rule and expressed my disapproval last year during the public comment period.\n\nLike many of the rules handed down by the Biden Administration, this effort will have a harsh economic impact while failing to achieve its own stated goal.\n\nDOE estimates that the rule would carry a minimum price tag of nearly a billion dollars with minimal energy usage reduction.\n\nMy colleague mentioned that it would be a savings of $6 billion / 30 years, but what he didn't mention to you is the cost of new equipment, replacement equipment with these new energy efficiency standards could be 10s of thousands of dollars adding up to billions and billions of dollars that are going to be borne by these businesses.\n\nI'm grateful President Trump has taken the decisive action to halt these rules by having the Department of Energy postponed the effective date of these standards providing breathing room for businesses.\n\nHowever, more work needs to be done and Congress has a role to play.\n\nMy resolution seeks to ensure that these overreaching regulations are permanently overturned.\n\nBy doing so, we will protect small businesses from unnecessary compliance cost and preserve the diversity of choice available to consumers.\n\nThis action aligns with our broader commitment to rollback burdensome regulations that stifle economic growth and infringe upon individual freedoms.\n\nIn fact, according to the National Association of Manufacturers, in 2022, the total cost of regulations is estimated over $3 trillion.\n\nWe cannot continue to allow burdensome regulations on every aspect of our lives and our businesses.\n\nI urge my colleagues to support House Joint Resolution 24, legislation that will reduce burdens on businesses and serve in the best interest of the American people.\n\nAnd with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T00:15:27Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://bice.house.gov/media/press-releases/bice-celebrates-passage-her-legislation-overturn-burdensome-biden-era"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5216721221804619, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}