INTERVIEW: Reps. Rob Wittman and Lisa McClain on how the House GOP is lowering energy costs for Americans
Reps. Lisa McClain and Rob Wittman pumped gas for customers while laying out the House GOP agenda on energy independence.
GLEN ALLEN, Va. —
In New Jersey, it is illegal to pump your own gas. But when Reps. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.) and Rob Wittman (R., Va.) come to town with Americans for Prosperity (AFP), it’s unnecessary to pump — or pay for it — yourself.
McClain and Wittman teamed up with AFP for an event at a 7-Eleven to pitch the merits of the GOP’s One Big, Beautiful Bill when it comes to everything from permitting reform to energy exploration to slashing red tape.
“It’s important for us to talk to the American people who really are benefiting from the working families tax cut,” McClain told the Washington Reporter in an interview. “It's communities like this that really bring those policies to life. So whether it's seniors with no tax on tips, whether it's Rob putting almost $12,000 of money back into the American people's pockets with no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, doubling the Child Tax care credit, money for airport transportation, money for permitting reform, this is the policies coming to life. Gas prices going down, groceries going down.”
“When's the last time we heard about $8 egg prices?” McClain asked. “Nobody talks about anymore. When's the last time we heard about millions of people coming through the border illegally every day? We don't hear about anymore, because we've gotten those fixed and with the One Big, Beautiful Bill and the working families tax cuts, we are here experiencing the positives of that bill and are seeing the legislation that we brought forth come to light so you can see it.”
Wittman, for his part, laid out several provisions in the One Big, Beautiful Bill that help businesses across his district.
“First of all, it's the tax provisions in there for small businesses across the district,” he said. “In the 1st Congressional District, over 60,000 businesses file their taxes as small businesses. This bill helped them avoid what would be a $340 million tax increase. The tax rate was getting ready to go to 43.3 percent, instead it's at 20 percent for small businesses; that's a big deal.”
“Second of all,” he continued, “is what we allow as far as tax credits in energy exploration, where people are looking to determine where's the next source of energy for this nation. Let's explore. We can get in and determine can we do that safely?...This bill makes sure that the tax credits go to businesses that do the exploration, so we know what this nation has as part of its resources. That is another key part of the working families tax cut.”
The lawmakers made a clear case for American energy. “Who do you think produces cleaner energy: the United States of America or China?” McClain asked “I think it's the United States. So why wouldn't we take care of our businessmen and women right here in the United States? If we truly care about clean energy, let's produce it here.”
“We do it better than anybody else in the world,” Wittman added.
Wittman, who is both the Vice Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee and a member of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, also laid out his nationwide travel to learn about how to maintain American energy dominance.
What's important to working families are their everyday costs. When they have to stop the gas pump, they have to stop the grocery store, that has a big impact. As I've talked to families across the district, at the top of their list are energy prices. And energy prices affect everything. They affect the prices in the grocery store. They affect every aspect of life. What our effort is about is making sure that we produce more American source energy, and when we do, energy prices come down. We do not want to be at the mercy of other nations. First of all, many times they are not our friends, and second of all, instead of sending American dollars overseas to those countries, we need to be producing our own energy so we can bring costs down, but also so we can have folks here in the United States working producing that energy, making sure that it moves back and forth, making sure, too, that the industries that rely on that energy have affordable energy.
“Energy is the foundation of this economy, [and we need to make] sure we continue down that road,” he said. “The National Resource Committee put forth the SPEED Act, which is looking to reform the regulatory process, especially with [the National Environmental Protection Act].”
“We all want to protect the environment,” he continued, “but what happens today, as Lisa said, is many of these projects take years…We have to do it in a smart way. We have to do the way that's efficient. We have to do it in a way that makes sure that American energy goes directly to reducing prices and increasing availability to working families.”
To that end, Wittman is traveling the entire country. “I had the great opportunity recently to travel to Alaska to visit an exciting project there, where, from the North Slope, they're breaking down one of the largest deposits of natural gas on the planet, down to Cook Inlet, so we can get that to the United States to supply Alaskans, but also to get it to our friends in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
“I've traveled to the Gulf of America and have seen what's going on there and the great exploration work that goes on,” he continued. “The problem is that for years, permits haven’t been issued. They're doing exploration with no permits, so you couldn't drill new wells there. We're starting to see the emergence of new wells being drilled down there using our own energy. Steve Scalise, one of our colleagues, that's in the center of his district.”
McClain, one of the House GOP’s top messengers on the benefits of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, added that “we understand working families and that groceries, gas, and just normal everyday goods are critical, and we have got to bring those prices down.”
But, she said, progress is being made. “We were just talking earlier that over the Labor Day weekend, gas prices were the lowest they have been in five years,” she said. “We are not stopping. We are going to continue to bring prices down. We're going to do that short, medium, and long term.”
“What we're going to do short term is that can remove a lot of that burdensome regulation and relieve the tax burden that Democrats think each and every American should see,” McClain said. “They want every American to see a tax increase; that is absolutely not going to happen.”
AFP’s Dan Tilson, whose organization covered the gas costs for patrons, told the Reporter after the event that “the Working Families Tax Cut meets the immediate demands of the market and my fellow Virginians. The long lines we saw waiting for gas midday makes it clear just how urgent it is to prioritize American energy dominance and quit picking winners and losers through green energy handouts.”
Below is a transcript of our interview with Rep. Rob Wittman (R., Va.) and Lisa McClain (R., Mich.), lightly edited for clarity.
Washington Reporter:
Congresswoman, this is your third stop in Virginia in the past 18 hours; what have you seen across Virginia on this tour about both this bill and the GOP agenda that maybe you weren't expecting to learn?
Rep. Lisa McClain:
It’s important for us to talk to the American people who really are benefiting from the working families tax cut. It's communities like this that really bring those policies to life. So whether it's seniors with no tax on tips, whether it's Rob putting almost $12,000 of money back into the American people's pockets with no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, doubling the Child Tax care credit, money for airport transportation, money for permitting reform, this is the policies coming to life. Gas prices going down, groceries going down. When's the last time we heard about $8 egg prices? Nobody talks about anymore. When's the last time we heard about millions of people coming through the border illegally every day? We don't hear about anymore, because we've gotten those fixed and with the One Big, Beautiful Bill and the working families tax cuts, we are here experiencing the positives of that bill and are seeing the legislation that we brought forth come to light so you can see it. Look around. Look around you. People are lined up to get gas.
Washington Reporter:
Congressman Wittman, can you talk about what provisions specifically in the One Big, Beautiful Bill benefit help gas stations like this? We’re at a 7-Eleven, that is also a small business.
Rep. Rob Wittman:
Several things. First of all, it's the tax provisions in there for small businesses across the district. In the 1st Congressional District, over 60,000 businesses file their taxes as small businesses. This bill helped them avoid what would be a $340 million tax increase. The tax rate was getting ready to go to 43.3 percent, instead it's at 20 percent for small businesses; that's a big deal. Second of all is what we allow as far as tax credits in energy exploration, where people are looking to determine where's the next source of energy for this nation. Let's explore. We can get in and determine can we do that safely? But the first question always has to be let's know for certain what's there before we make any determination about drilling or any of those things. To me, that's the most fundamental portion of that, and everyone should be in agreement to explore so we know what's there. This bill makes sure that the tax credits go to businesses that do the exploration, so we know what this nation has as part of its resources. That is another key part of the working families tax cut.