Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., secured language prohibiting federal regulations targeting gas stoves in the annual must-pass government funding package, the bipartisan duo announced.
In an announcement late Thursday, Cruz and Manchin applauded the inclusion of their amendment — which closely mirrors the Gas Stoves Protection and Freedom Act they introduced in February — in the Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Services and General Government funding bill which is currently making its way through committee markups.
"I am glad there is bipartisan consensus that key components of the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, legislation Senator Manchin and I introduced to block the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) from banning gas stoves, was adopted today," Cruz said in a statement.
"There is no doubt that at the behest of radical activists, the Biden administration is waging a multi-pronged attack on natural gas and popular appliances," he continued. "While there is still much more work to be done in this fight, this is a victory against burdensome regulations from drunk-on-power bureaucrats at the CPSC who put the interests of Green New Deal absolutists ahead of consumers."
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The Financial Services and General Government funding bill with its amendments must still pass via a floor vote which is expected later this year.
In early January, President Biden-appointed CPSC member Richard Trumka made headlines when he told Bloomberg that a gas stove ban was "on the table" given the product's purported impacts on health. The White House later denounced a ban, but the CPSC moved ahead anyway with taking public feedback on gas stove safety.
Trumka's comments and the CPSC's subsequent move to take feedback on gas stoves sparked outrage among Republican lawmakers and industry groups who argued such regulations would limit consumer choice.
Cruz, the Commerce Committee ranking member, and Manchin, who chairs the Energy Committee, introduced their bill barring CPSC regulations targeting gas stoves a month after Trumka's comments.
"It’s past time for Washington bureaucrats to stop overreaching and telling American families how to cook their dinner," Manchin said Thursday.
"As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I am proud to have secured this bipartisan amendment to prevent the Consumer Product Safety Commission from issuing any rule banning gas stoves and am committed to stopping the Biden Administration from extending their radical climate agenda to our kitchens," he continued.
A companion bill to Cruz and Manchin's Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act introduced by Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., and a separate bill, the Save Our Gas Stoves Act from Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., were recently passed in the House. Lesko's legislation would block the Department of Energy from implementing tougher conservation standards on stoves.
