00:00Mr. McGuire. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to our witnesses for being here today.
00:05You know, when I was growing up, our country, we were told it was the melting pot.
00:09We live in a great country. Our country is the greatest country because we were founded on the belief of meritocracy.
00:15And I think everyone in the audience would agree with this statement.
00:18Isn't it great we live in a country where a man or a woman, regardless of party, race, religion, or creed, can work hard and achieve just about anything?
00:34And we could go on and on with many examples of people of all those different backgrounds succeeding in this country where they would not have a possibility of succeeding in other countries.
00:43What's so wonderful about our country is we're born with our God-given rights.
00:48They cannot be taken away. And because we're a republic and not democracy, we are a republic with representatives, even the minority has a voice.
00:58If it was a strict democracy, only those in power would have a voice.
01:02But your rights that you're born with cannot be taken away, whether your party's in power or not.
01:08But DEI is very harmful. It divides Americans even further and promotes racism and sexism.
01:15To me, DEI stands for didn't earn it.
01:18I'm glad this hearing has been brought up.
01:20President Trump and House Republicans have done a lot of work rolling back President Biden's disastrous DEI policies.
01:25As a Navy SEAL, as a veteran, if somebody saved your life on the battlefield, you wouldn't care about their party, their race, religion, or their creed.
01:36We're all Americans.
01:38We should be able to disagree without being disagreeable.
01:41But the law should be colorblind.
01:43And again, I heard my colleague talk about if somebody was to do surgery on you, you would want meritocracy.
01:51You would want the best surgeon to save your life or your loved one's life.
01:55I also heard a colleague talk about diversity, but he did not talk about the E, the equity, or the I, inclusion.
02:05Everybody here loves the idea of diversity, but I don't care what color your skin is.
02:09If you're the best doctor, that's the doctor that I would want for my family.
02:12But the problem with the complete statement of DEI is the equity part, equal outcome.
02:20You put in 20 years of your life to be a great musician or a surgeon, and someone just says, hey, I'm a surgeon, and I have the same outcome.
02:30It's not right.
02:31In fact, it finds that it's Marxist.
02:33It destroys innovation and motivation.
02:36I'm soon going to be introducing legislation, by the way, that will prevent public utility commissions from authorizing rate recovery for a utility or business entity for a return on equity if such entity's business model or operations is governed by a framework based on ESG or DEI or similar social or environmental agendas.
02:57DEI or ESG frameworks have incorporated into businesses' models of countless utility companies operating across America.
03:04These frameworks typically force utility companies to procure a portion of their power from renewable energy sources and dedicate a percentage of procurement from minority-owned companies.
03:15This drives up operation costs, which drives up the rates charged to their customers.
03:20Rate payers are forced to procure utility services through these companies, hence why they are textbook examples of waste, which unnecessarily hikes up costs.
03:29Since many of these companies operate across state lines or obtain power from other states, it is the duty of the Congress to act.
03:35My first question for each of you, yes or no, do you believe DEI is rooted in Marxist ideology?
03:41Mr. Lenington, yes or no?
03:43Yes.
03:44Dr. Smith?
03:46Yes.
03:47Dr. Glock?
03:48A similar ideology of complete equity, yes.
03:51And Dr. Harper?
03:53I don't know what you mean.
03:55No worries.
03:55All right, now I have another question for each of you.
03:58If you had to have heart surgery again, would you rather have a doctor who studied the hardest in school and was the most qualified to perform the surgery or a doctor that was in that position because of their race or gender?
04:09Which one would you rather have, Mr. Lenington?
04:12I'd prefer a well-qualified physician.
04:14Dr. Smith?
04:15At the risk of not keeping it real, I want the best physician.
04:19Dr. Glock?
04:20The best physician.
04:21And Dr. Harper?
04:22Are only the best physicians white?
04:25I don't care what their color is.
04:26That wasn't a question.
04:28Okay.
04:29Do you guys agree with Dr. Yes or no?
04:31Do you agree with Dr. Martin Luther King's statement that people should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin?
04:38Mr. Lenington?
04:39Absolutely.
04:40Dr. Smith?
04:41Yep.
04:43And Dr. Glock?
04:44Absolutely.
04:44And Dr. Harper?
04:45Martin Luther King would absolutely be repulsed, repulsed by the politicized attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion.
04:55So you're not going to say yes or no?
04:57The things that he fought and died for.
04:58You've got to say yes or no.
04:59No.
04:59No.
05:00Listen.
05:01I'm telling you right now.
05:03Well, I've got to move on to the next question.
05:06Are you advocating hiring and promotion based on character?
05:10We are out of time.
05:10It would also be repulsed by the value of the class of liberal value.
05:13It stands for didn't earn it.
05:13The guy gets rid of it.
05:14And the answer is yes or no.
05:18Are we hiring people based on skills and experiences?
05:21Or are we hiring them based on character?
05:22It should be quality and not race and sex.
05:29He doesn't want to answer the question.
05:30Why don't you go on to the next question?
05:31He was asking for clarification.
05:33I think that's fair.
05:38If you want to give one word to answer that, it's fine.
