ICYMI: Van Orden Speaks on Limit, Save, Grow Act, Energy Amendment

WASHINGTON, DC – In case you missed it, today Rep. Derrick Van Orden (WI-03) spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives following his statement this morning on the Limit, Save, Grow Act.

Yesterday, Rep. Van Orden proposed an amendment to strengthen protections for Wisconsin’s agriculture industry within the bill. Elements of the amendment that support Wisconsin’s biofuels industry were ultimately adopted.

Watch the clip here, or read the transcript below.

My favorite part of this building is not the rotunda, statuary hall, or even this chamber.  It is a simple quote painted above a door downstairs. 

“When tillage begins other arts follow the farmers therefore are the founders of human civilization.”- Daniel Webster 1840

It is disingenuous to say publicly that we are “all of the above” for American energy if we do not embrace biofuels.

Simultaneously, it is disingenuous to set policy that de-facto abolishes petrochemicals and yet admit that we will be dependent on them for at least another decade.

Both positions have been made in this chamber.  I find this either be duplicitous or foolish, and I choose to be neither. 

Our first President was clear about public policy and agriculture.

“It will not be doubted… Agriculture is of primary importance.  In proportion as nations advance in population and other circumstances of maturity, this truth becomes more apparent, and renders the cultivation of the soil, more and more, an object of public patronage.”

When Washington says “more and more” he acknowledges that agriculture has always been an object of public patronage and always must be.

The initial writing of this bill did not acknowledge that.

It did not stand with our farmers, and I always will.

Early this morning our conference made great strides in recognizing our farmers by including elements of my amendment that protect our corn growers and biofuels industry.

With this said, if the final bill as returned from the Senate includes the further provisions that do not show the proper respect for our farmers, our national security, or the promotion of nuclear energy, I will not vote for its passage. 

There will be no further negotiations from my office.

I want to make this very clear. I voted for Kevin McCarthy for Speaker because I believed that he was the person called at this moment to lead our conference and this body.  I do not feel that my 15 votes were in error. 

I have full confidence that he will take this opportunity to keep his word to this body and to the American people.  This confidence was earned by his willingness to remove several devastating provisions in the bill last night.  

As Members of this body, we did not take an oath to the Republican or Democratic Party. We did not take an oath to a President. We all took the same oath to the Constitution.  With this oath came a duty to the people we represent, for me, the people of Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.

In reference to the current discussion, our 1st President articulated this in a manner that for a young country as ours can be described as ageless:

“No pecuniary consideration is more urgent, than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt. On none can delay more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable.  “

By President Biden refusing to negotiate with this body he is adding to a growing train of usurpations of the constitutionally authority vested in us by the people that sent us here to represent them. This is no more appropriate now than when Jefferson wrote these words than it is now.

It is our obligation to get Speaker McCarthy to the table with the President.

It is Speaker McCarthy’s burden to get the President to a place that can both meet our collective obligations as articulated by George Washington and secure the future for our progenitors and our progeny.

So, I will support this rule and vote in favor of the underlying bill.  I encourage my colleagues to do the same.