The legislation would preserve a few essential elements of the Department of Energy by transferring them to appropriate agencies, while consolidating and streamlining duplicative programs. These include our nation's nuclear weapons programs and research, which would be transferred to the domain of the Secretary of Defense. Former Energy Secretaries have echoed the belief that the Department of Energy has become an anachronism that places an undue burden on U.S. economic and security interests. I introduced this bill to help fight the war against bloated federal bureaucracy and waste so we can reduce our enormous debt. If we want our children to have bright futures, then Congress should not continue to burden them with unnecessary expenses they will spend a lifetime repaying, particularly when these expenses are a threat to our national security.
Energy is no different from any other commodity in the marketplace.
Just as we don't need a Department of Automobiles to ensure we have reasonably priced cars, we don't need a Department of Energy to ensure us of gasoline or energy. It is time to put this failed experiment in centralized planning out of its misery and send the savings back home to working Americans in our districts.