The Republican-controlled House passed one of two bills aimed at preventing a ban on gas stoves.
The bill, which passed 248 to 180, is one of two being considered that would help prevent government regulators from banning the appliance. H.R. 1615, the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, would prohibit the Consumer Product Safety Commission from using federal funds to regulate gas stoves as a banned hazardous product or enforce a product safety standard that prohibits the use or sale of gas stoves or substantially increases their price.
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Democrats have decried the measures as unnecessary, saying that Republicans are using the issue to inflame culture wars.
“The government is not coming for anybody’s gas stoves,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) said on Monday. “It’s a pervasive falsehood that’s been repeated for months to stoke grievances without any truth to back up these claims.”
Commission Chairman Alex Hoehn-Saric dismissed the bill as frivolous. In a statement to CNN, he decried the bill as “unnecessary – the CPSC is not banning gas stoves.”
“However, CPSC’s ability to set standards addressing gas stove safety hazards related to tip-overs, gas leaks, and fire hazards could be hampered by the legislation, which would undermine CPSC’s mission to keep Americans safe,” he added.
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The bill will face opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and possibly from President Joe Biden himself, who has previously expressed his opposition to the bill. However, the White House has not expressed whether or not it would veto the bill if it passes through both chambers of Congress.
