Rep. Scalise: Biden's First Week in Review – A Disaster

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 -- Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, issued the following news release:

President Biden took the oath of office exactly one week ago. On that day, and on every day since, President Biden has enacted a slew of executive orders attacking American workers, undermining our border security, and committing the United States to the same failed foreign policy agenda of the Obama administration.

DAY ONE

Halted Border Wall Construction

* Walls work. President Biden knows this. Despite his intention to order a halt to border wall construction, he won't tear down any of the existing structures on the southern border.

* This is a political move that prioritizes optics over the safety of American communities.

Terminated National Emergency at the Southern Border

* Democrats tried their hardest to block President Trump's efforts to secure our southern border.

* Drugs continue to flow across the border, human traffickers continue to operate, and violence continues to flare up.

* The basic facts on the southern border haven't changed and neither should the national emergency designation.

Revoked the Keystone XL Pipeline Permit

* The American energy renaissance proved that when America is energy independent, we no longer have to rely upon tyrants or autocratic regimes.

* The Keystone XL pipeline would safely move crude oil produced by our ally Canada to U.S refineries along the Gulf Coast.

* Energy made and moved in America creates jobs, lowers the cost of gas and electricity for low-income Americans, and advances American interests on the world stage.

* Under the Trump Administration, over 100 miles of the pipeline have been built, and the remainder would create over 10,000 union jobs and be constructed with steel Made in America.

* Revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline is a monumental mistake that will hit working Americans the hardest and increase our reliance on dirtier imported crude from unreliable OPEC countries.

* 2,000 American workers will immediately lose their jobs, over $2 billion dollars in wages will go unpaid, and rural communities will lose $100 million in property tax revenues.

Rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement

* The Paris Climate Agreement was fatally flawed from the start and that hasn't changed.

* The agreement gives a free pass to the world's worst polluters while throttling the American energy industry, which produces energy more cleanly and more efficiently than anywhere in the world.

* A 2017 report found that the Obama Administration's Paris commitments would cost the U.S.A. up to 2.7 million jobs by 2025.

* We can expect even worse economic devastation as President Biden fulfills his promise to "go much further than [the Paris Agreement]."

Rejoined the World Health Organization (WHO)

* The World Health Organization played an undeniable role in the spread of COVID-19.

* The United States of America -- the largest source of funding for the WHO -- should not participate in the WHO until there is a full accounting of the mistakes and cover-ups that allowed an isolated coronavirus outbreak to spiral into a pandemic.

* The Chinese Communist Party's outsized influence on the WHO must be investigated and dealt with.

DAY TWO

Lied about coronavirus vaccine distribution

* President Biden's administration claimed that vaccine distribution plans "did not really exist" when he took office.

* This is false. Vaccinations topped one million per day within two days of Biden's swearing-in, putting his "100 Million Shots in 100 Days" plan on track to succeed solely by leaning on the Trump administration's efforts.

* Even Dr. Fauce had to confirm, "We certainly are not starting from scratch."

Pledged to withdraw from Mexico City Policy

* The United States of America simply has no place funding organizations that support or perform abortions in foreign countries.

* Taxpayer funds should never be used to fund abortions here or abroad.

DAY THREE

Laid the groundwork for a $15 minimum wage

* 30% of small businesses in America have closed due to COVID-19.

* At a time when small businesses are struggling to keep doors open and employees on the payroll, it is unconscionable to burden them with a dramatically higher minimum wage.

* In 2019, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that a bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 could cost up to 3.7 million jobs lost and $9 billion lost in family income.

* Businesses will close. Americans will lose their jobs. The $15 minimum wage would be a disaster for working families.

THE WEEKEND

President Biden didn't do much for Americans.

DAY SIX

Offered Putin a five-year clean extension of the New START nuclear treaty

* For over a decade, New START has put an unequal burden on the United States' nuclear arsenal, while allowing Russia to invent new warhead-delivery systems unchecked.

* A five-year clean extension of the New START treaty allows Russia's behavior to go unaddressed for another five years.

* America gets nothing for extending the treaty, while Russia and China continue to modernize and innovate their own nuclear forces.

DAY SEVEN

Banned new oil and gas leasing and drilling on federal lands

* President Biden admits this ban is "a necessary first step" to end oil and gas production on federal lands.

* This expected total ban is projected to cost one million jobs nationwide.

* Consumer energy prices will rise, hitting the most vulnerable hardest, as American jobs and energy production are shipped overseas to foreign states like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.

* Western states like New Mexico, where over a third of all land is owned by the federal government, will be hit particularly hard. States and local governments rely on billions in tax revenues from offshore and onshore energy development to fund public schools, first responders, parks, conservation and coastal restoration efforts.

BOTTOM LINE: In his first week in office, President Biden kept his promises to the far-left: torching American energy jobs, taking us a decade into the past on foreign policy, and unsettling a fragile economy with reckless policy. If he truly wants to be a president for all Americans, President Biden needs to start governing in the interests of all Americans -- not just the radical left.