The REINS Act would grind the gears of rulemaking to a halt by requiring all major rules to be affirmatively approved by both Chambers of Congress.

It's important to remember why we have regulations in the first place.

Agencies need those regulations to then carry out their work, whether that's investigatory work or enforcement work.

Congress already has the power to oversee agency rulemaking, and agencies can only exercise authority that we grant them.

they're hired in these agencies of the Federal Government because they bring with them life-saving training and science and expertise that we don't have as Members of Congress.

When we do not properly regulate, sometimes it means that trains carrying dangerous chemicals can derail in our communities, putting thousands of people at risk.

Would it endanger the lives of the American people if we were to second-guess agency decisionmaking?

Prudence should be our watch word it seems.

I think especially when we look at things like access to rare earth minerals that are critical to our economy and other factors, those relationships with the global south are important.

there is always a perennial debate on the level of foreign aid that we provide to those same nations

Our struggle is not with the Chinese people, but rather with the Chinese Communist Party that is increasingly hostile to democracy and human rights.

the Chinese Communist Party is accelerating their efforts to fuse economic and technology policies with their military ambitions.

Make no mistake, China is the competitor with the greatest combination of intent and capacity to threaten U.S. global leadership.

It is clear that the Chinese Communist Party is taking a whole-of-government approach to advancing its ambitions at the expense of U.S. and democratic interests, and therefore we must take a whole-of-government approach to meeting that…

I want to thank Senator Padilla and Senator Lujan for recommending witnesses to us.

I want to particularly thank Commissioner Serna, as a government official, for coming here to tell the story of her county and her experience in New Mexico.

We've got to do this now.

I hope that in this hearing we can continue this bipartisan work, and look for concrete steps we can take together to address this deep challenge.