We appreciate Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) for joining us on The Crude Truth Episode 80! The Congresswoman serves on both the powerful House and Ways Committee and as Chair of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Oversight and her insight into the economy is incredible. I asked her everything from the state of the border, Biden’s LNG-ban effect on Texas, and much more. Trust me when I say the Congresswoman has Texas’s back, and that’s THE CRUDE TRUTH!

About The Congresswoman: https://vanduyne.house.gov/about
The Crude Truth: https://thecrudetruth.com/
Trevino Resources: https://trevinoresources.com/
Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reytrevin…

THE CRUDE TRUTH Ep. 80 Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne

Highlights of the Podcast

00:09 – Start
01:46 – About
03:40 – Fentanyl poisoning / Border
09:44 – Biden coming after the great state of Texas?
11:23 – Inflation
12:52 – The Green New Deal
16:07 – LNG Ban
19:15 – The assault on our energy industry
21:35 – Ukraine
23:07 – End

Please reach out to Beth Van Duyne on LinkedIn

Beth Van Duyne (@Bethvanduyne) / X

Check out StatusJet HERE

THE CRUDE TRUTH Ep. 80 Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne

Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

Rey Treviño [00:00:00] As we roll in 2024. It is an election season, and we need to make sure that the oil and gas continues to be one of the primary driving forces of this great economy. I’ve got a great congresswoman on this episode. We talked to her next on this episode of The Crude Truth.

Narrator [00:00:15] In 1901 at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont. The future of Texas changed dramatically as, like a fountain of fortune, thousands of barrels of oil burst from the earth towards the sky. Soon, Detroit would be cranking out Model TS by the millions, and America was on the move thanks to the black gold being produced in Texas. Now, more than a century later, the vehicles are different, but nothing else has truly changed. Sure, there may be many other alternative energy sources like wind and solar and electric. But let’s be honest. America depends on oil and entrepreneurs. And if the USA is truly going to be independent, it has to know the crude truth.

Narrator [00:00:59] This episode is brought to you by LFS chemistry. We are committed to being good stewards of the environment. We are providing the tools so you can be too. Nape Expo where deals happen. Air compressor solutions. When everything is on the line, air Compressor Solutions is the dependable choice to keep commercial business powered up. Sandstone Group exec crew. Elevate your network. Elevate your knowledge. Texas Star Alliance, Pecos country operating. Fueling our.

Rey Treviño [00:01:32] Future. Well, hello again and thank you for another episode and tuning in for this episode of The Crude Truth. As I mentioned in my teaser, it is an election season, but also the economy does not stop and neither does the oil and gas industry. Shout out to everybody out there that works and they know what we’re talking about 24 over seven out there. But today I’m just so excited. I’ve got a guest that is blazing a trail from the great state of Texas and letting everybody know who she is as she continues to fight for our economy and what is right. I have the wonderful Congresswoman Beth Van Dyune on today. Beth, how were you?

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:02:11] Oh, good. And thank you for saying my name. Right.

Rey Treviño [00:02:14] I was about to ask you about that. And also, I’m. Up there is dying because, you know, sometimes on the national stage and as seen also on Fox News and CNN here, real recently as we record this episode, you gave them hell on CNN the other day. What what made you want to do that?

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:02:32] Well, I think we complained that all of the media don’t tell our story, but then we don’t want to get on media that if they are friendly to us. Right. So I’m fine to get on any, any media. But look, if you’re going to have me on, you’re interviewing me, expect me to have an opinion inspecting me, build it. Share that opinion on. We had an interviewer who just basically wanted to lecture. And if that’s going to happen, just put my picture up right? Like I don’t don’t know, had me have to wait. And then I think the worst insult was the interview got stuck in the middle because Biden came out to give his speech, and I had to listen to that whole speech and wait there. So that was like an extra 15 minutes of my time that I’m spending waiting. And then when they came back to me, she just wanted to talk about some ridiculous statements. It’s really difficult to prepare for an interview when the person who was interviewing you has no sense of reality. In the the facts that she was laying down were not facts. It was actually counter to facts. We’re talking about the border. Yeah. And she was trying to claim I’m looking at 110,000 fentanyl deaths that we have had, by the way, an average of five Texans a day that are dying as a result of fentanyl poisoning. This is a direct result of the Biden border policies. And her argument wasn’t that we haven’t lost 110,000 lives, that it wasn’t due to fentanyl that’s coming in. Her argument was, well, it’s it’s Americans that are bringing it in and they’re only bringing it in through the ports of entry. First of all, that’s not true. That’s where they’re stopping it. Yeah. But second of all, you, when you think about all of the opportunities that we haven’t had to stop people who are bringing it in, bring that up. But that wasn’t important to her. And then she we start talking about, you know, crime in gang cartel activities in our in our communities. And again, she didn’t want to talk about the harsh realities of our, our New York police being beat in the middle of the street. She just wanted to deny it and say, well, Mexicans, you know, America’s citizens commit more crime than illegals. So is that really your argument? So instead of changing subjects, I called it out and she didn’t appreciate it and kept talking over me so well.

Rey Treviño [00:04:34] But you you but at least you you ceded the facts and good, bad different. I think facts are friendly because you can’t argue against facts.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:04:42] Well they do they just deny them.

Rey Treviño [00:04:44] Yeah, yeah. Well you know, there’s, you know in fact deniers or whatever you want to call them, I guess. And, I’m glad you brought up the border in the fentanyl, because I had on another guest, a few weeks ago, and they talked about how there’s no crisis at the border, that it’s all been made up. But last time I checked, I’ve seen your picture and your videos of you talking down on the border on multiple occasions. It’s a border crisis. Truly a real thing.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:05:09] When you had almost this was this numbers according to Chad Wolf, who spoke to our Republican Senate committee a couple of weeks ago, he said you now had 11 million people who entered our country illegally in the last three years, 11 million. We’ve had thousands of pounds of fentanyl that have come into our borders. You’ve got sex trafficking and human trafficking that are untold levels right now that we’ve never seen in our country before. So you tell me, is that and those are facts. Those are that that’s not a. Those are facts. So do we have a problem at the border? I think it’s being reflected now. And Biden’s polling numbers. So while he they have been denying it for the last three years, finally, now that you’re going to have an election in November, they are identifying that is the number one issue across the country. The number one issue, because it’s affecting every single community, regardless of whether or not you’re on the border. So is it. Is it happening? Absolutely. The Democrats are finally catching on that it’s happening. And now, instead of blaming their policies that have led to it, they’re trying to blame Republicans, which is this is just their old handbook.

Rey Treviño [00:06:10] Well, let’s talk about that. And and then I want to get into actually a little bit more on the border and tied into lag, but, they’re blaming Republicans. And, in our little pre-production meeting, we were talking about all the great things that this Republican state of Texas has done in just the last 45 days. Yeah. Can we kind of talk about that? And in that you’ve been a part of that charge as well?

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:06:32] Well, look, I have been trying to support the state’s efforts. The state should not have to do the job of the federal government. When you have a state that’s being invaded as Texas is being invaded. 60% of the gateways have been in Texas. 40% of the people who’ve entered our country illegally in the last three years have been through Texas. We are being affected more than any other state. So when you have a governor who actually is taking the his, his, his sovereignty and the security and the safety of his citizens, seriously, you got the Biden administration’s fighting him on it. But as a result of their, Operation Lonestar, which they had a pumping $5 billion of resources from the state last year alone, it’s increasing another 6.4 billion this year. What they have seen the last 45 days, though, is when you enforce our laws, they work 76% decrease in the number of people entering Texas illegally in just the last 45 days. It’s a Biden administration. We’re serious about it. They would enforce it across the across the border. They’re not.

Rey Treviño [00:07:31] Can you share that stat one more time?

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:07:32] 76% drop in illegal crossings into Texas since Operation Lone Star in the last between December and January.

Rey Treviño [00:07:42] Wow.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:07:42] That is remarkable. It is in. That is what could be achieved if the federal government did its job, as opposed to opening up our.

Rey Treviño [00:07:50] Border actually moves back. Would that would you say? And again, I’m not a numbers guy and, kind of throw a question out at you. Was that almost like, pre Biden? Yeah. Biden.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:07:59] But under the Trump administration, we were seeing less than a thousand on people. And that that was considered a crisis that that that thousand number a day. Under the current administration, we’re seeing tens of thousands it depending on the day. Yeah. It has gone up that much on you’re looking at, you know, more people that have come over in the last few months than came in under four years of the, of the Trump administration illegally. Yes, it it makes a difference. And yes, you are seeing pre pre Biden numbers because the laws being enforced.

Rey Treviño [00:08:31] Right here in the great state of Texas.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:08:32] Right in the great state of Texas. Abbott is embarrassing Biden right now in a big time.

Rey Treviño [00:08:36] I’ll tell you what I think he would he would probably make a pretty decent a vice president. But that’s you know, I have never met the man. So so I on the outside looking in on off based off when I read know they do a pretty good job as vice president here.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:08:49] I appreciate the job right now that he’s doing in Texas. Yes.

Rey Treviño [00:08:51] No, no. He’s, I tell you what.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:08:54] You know, if he doesn’t appreciate it, California. Know New York, Chicago they do, because they’re all moving. All, you know, everybody who is if he’s making money and he wants to be successful, is sick of those kind of policies, are moving down to Texas and move in places like Florida.

Rey Treviño [00:09:07] Yes, ma’am. And I want to go back to okay, let’s talk about, you know, little tiny oil and gas here. That that by, Governor Abbott, started this policy about 45 days ago. Almost coincide. Oddly, at the same time, President Biden did the ban on issuing new permits on LNG facilities, not only, here in Texas, but basically across the United States. As, as a, as an individual, sometimes I get interviewed on different radio stations and somebody tied in the border to that LNG, ban. And they basically asked me, hey, is that Biden coming after the great state of Texas? And so I want to ask you that same question, you know, with these great policies that Texas is doing and all the great things. Do you think this administration is attacking the great state of Texas with this LNG ban?

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:09:57] I think I think from day one, what the Biden administration has done in the energy industry has been ridiculous. And obviously, look at where in Texas it is a huge part of of of of our, our economy. So from day one, he has been attacking Texas. Again, I think Abbott has completely embarrassed the administration. And it is it retribution potentially. But I really believe that the Green New Deal that they have pushed through on all sorts of bills that are hurting us are definitely hurting Texas. I mean, Texas has, what, 500 on 500,000 direct jobs in the energy sector. And for every one job, they’ve got another, two that tie into the energy sector. So that’s it represents $1.5 million or 1.5 million employees in Texas. Those people are being directly challenged by this energy policies that are coming out of the Biden administration. And by the way, those energy jobs represent about 124,000 average, $124,000 a year salary average. These are good paying jobs, and it’s being attacked and Western. As you start attacking the energy industry, it affects prices across the board. That’s why we’ve seen inflation from day one. Yeah.

Rey Treviño [00:11:04] You know you bring up inflation. You know this is something I so briefly discussed is when the Biden administration took over January of 2021, it was kill the oil and gas. And you know, we’re going to do this. We’re going to end it. We’re going to do this. And first and foremost, people voted for him. And somehow Pennsylvania, who has oil and gas shows, voted for him. But that’s on a whole other subject. But all of a sudden inflation shot up to record highs. And we’re still at higher inflation. Than 17%. A year since he took. Office. But as soon as inflation went up, his mouth shut on killing the oil and gas industry. Why?

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:11:35] But his policies didn’t.

Rey Treviño [00:11:36] Know, his policies did not. And and they’ve only continued to hurt during this time. And we look at prices and even during this time, you know, in 2022, he drained the strategic petroleum reserve. We now have nothing almost left in there to where that is supposed to be for the energy emergency. And last time I checked, conspiracy theorists on on on anybody’s first with you, Beth, on the show. But we got a lot of international people coming in illegal at the border right now that seem to be military aid from other countries. But so that Strategic Petroleum Natural Reserve is designed for us if we’re at war. And yet he’s not even making an attempt right now to fill it back up.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:12:14] No, no, I mean, he was draining it. Well, you know, I was proud to be able to co-sponsor Catholic forces at it that would prevent us from selling our reserves to places like China. Of course, that should be an assumed, but it’s not. We’re actually having to pass bills to prevent this administration from further destroying our national security. But, you know, you brought up the fact that he’s not talking about anymore, but his regulations are killing us. Whether or not that’s direct assaults on the energy industry, including, you know, their, their, their, their tax assaults, their lack of permitting, their lack of regulation or their, their massive war on additional regulations that’s killing us. But then we look at the Green New Deal, programs that they put push through on their Inflation Reduction Act, which are making us more reliant on China. Now, if the Biden administration saw for for first hand, the rest of us are seeing the increase by 17.9% in our inflation, they would have adopted our H.R. one bill, which is our lower energy act that was passed last year that had plans put into place that would have actually helped the American people, that would have lowered inflation, that would have looked at our energy costs and recognize that they’re a problem, but also on a national, for national security benefit of being able to make us whole, but also help helping other nations across the country not be as reliable on our foreign adversaries. And when you think about how much money Russia and Iran are making as a result of increased energy costs and how they’re able to spend that money to commit war atrocities. Why are we helping them? Why is the Biden administration not recognizing that and pushing acts forward in signing, you know, the House, H.R. one act into law? We have no idea why.

Rey Treviño [00:13:59] Well, you know, and I’m glad you brought up the bill that that you helped co-sponsor, because just the other day, I was at a luncheon. And, you know, here we have that new ban on liquid natural gas. I heard the permits, and that was almost by the power of the pen. Yeah, that that was done. That’s scary. I’m sure you remember, when back when you were. I think you were mayor at the time, here in North Texas, when Dean did the ban on fracking. I do. And that was a big deal. I think I just graduated from North Texas at that time. Thought about driving. No. Don’t go out. I’m down. No, I don’t know, but I remember it. And all of a sudden it was a big deal. And so other state, other cities were kind of following suit. Next thing you know, Texas does, a law banning the ban on on doing fracking in places like that, which, again, helped out North Texas tremendously with the Barnett show because that boom, you know, that’s what really got.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:14:56] A lot of money on that. Yeah. And I remember look, you may not remember this, but we had a number of of of seismic issues, activity that happened in the city. Everybody was blaming fracking, and I got pushed by people from outside the state. You know, we had a lot of lobbying efforts for Irving to follow in dense on footsteps in, to actually have a ban on fracking. And I said that may be the politically expedient thing to do, but it wouldn’t call us any kind of effect because we don’t have any fracking in Dallas County. There was no fracking going on in Irving. So why would we pass these ridiculous laws just because they sound politically correct? It was a stupid thing to even even offer. Yeah. But again, it just goes to show that it’s not about it’s not about solving the problem. It’s about control. It’s about messaging. And and it wasn’t it was not helpful.

Rey Treviño [00:15:49] Well, you know, first of all, I’m glad you brought it because, actually, another another guest I had on, the other day was saying how the, how the fracking was causing. So I’m so glad that you would have me even talking about it. Yeah. They don’t, they don’t. But okay, so they did that. The, the the liquid natural gas gets, gets in place and the permitting. Bam. How can we stop that? Like, is there a way that you guys can.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:16:13] Like we have, we have bills now that are waiting to get out of committee right now that I have co-sponsored that would prevent that. We absolutely do. Hey, this is this is one of the benefits of actually having a stop gap with having the majority, Republican in the House is you have a stop gap between what they’re able to do with, with with the Senate. Now, we could pass it out of the House. Is the Senate going to pick it up? Is the question. So I can only do what I can do in the house, which is, you know, pushing these bills forward, helping to mark them up and getting them off, off the floor and over to the Senate. But that’s what we can do as members of Congress. And the House. Senate is going to have to do its job and provide relief to American families.

Rey Treviño [00:16:52] Well, how can people help you, you know, help you to to get the word out there. How can people help you out with that? You know, just us regular citizens best.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:17:01] Look, first of all, stay informed. Don’t stay quiet when you see these things happen in your communities. Talk about them. Support candidates that are actually going to make a difference and are willing to fight the fight and get out and vote. You know, elections have consequences. And we saw what happened in 2021 when you when you lost the presidency, you lost the Senate. We saw what happened. And and these ridiculous acts that they’ve put forward, whether or not they build back better, which did anything but the Inflation Reduction Act, which increased inflation and made us much more dependent on us to foreign nations like China, and pushing the green, green, green New Deal programs, those policies got into place because people didn’t come out and recognize what was happening in their own backyard.

Rey Treviño [00:17:44] Well, you know, the other thing that that you guys are doing is, you know, first of all, I want to say thank you for even taking the time to come here on the truth, because you are right now you’re in town and you are out, you know, lack of a better word, shaking hands and kissing babies. You are out within your district all the time. If people don’t follow you on Twitter, they really should because you are everywhere. You are meeting with your I guess the proper word is constituents. And you know, you’re just you’re you’re listening to people and you hear what they’re saying. So you’re getting ready to go back, go back into the swamp. Are you getting your muck boots back on here real soon? What are you looking forward to? To as you go back to DC? Yeah. You know, if there is something you looking forward to.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:18:27] Well, I mean, my job is, is to listen to the 700,000 people that I represent in district 24. Yeah. So we have roundtables. We had a health care roundtable earlier this week. We had an education roundtable where you’re listening to the problems. I mean, this is one of the the deals that we that having that information, when you talk to small businesses and they start telling you about some of the tax. Relief that they need. Why? I was such an advocate for our tax bill that came out of our Ways and Means Committee. It was on the floor two weeks ago that got passed. Because you recognize from the district these are things that are important. So going up next week, you know, we’re going up on on Wednesday because we are facing a government shutdown March 1st. Yeah. You know I’m excited about getting up there and representing the views that I have heard, which is we’ve got crushing inflation as a direct result of the assault on our energy industry and as a direct result of inflation coming from excessive spending, $34 trillion a lot, we’re going to be spending in four years, almost half of every dollar, $0.50 of every dollar that the government takes in is going to be spent on, on, on servicing our budget, servicing our debt, I’m sorry, servicing our debt. Tell me how that’s cent.

Rey Treviño [00:19:36] Of every dollar.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:19:37] How is that sustainable? We have got to take that seriously. So I’m looking forward to getting back with my colleagues and figuring out, you know, what do we need to cut, what do we need to support? And, you know, looking at our military right now in what’s happening around the world, absolutely. We need to support them. But can we do it in a way that’s also focused on our border and what’s happening on in Texas? Nothing too in.

Rey Treviño [00:20:01] Would you shut down the government.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:20:03] As a if if we cannot get a border deal? That is a hill I’m willing to die on. Absolutely. I refuse to continue to fund these agencies that are harming our nation. And when you look at Homeland security not doing its job, opening up our borders, allowing deadly drugs to come in that are targeting our youth, we should not be giving them a dime until they start to do their job.

Rey Treviño [00:20:26] That I cannot agree with you more about that we need the border up. It’s so important. I mean, it’s our old border. And yet we still continue. I mean, I think up President Zelensky, you know, I’ll go there for just a brief fact if you’d like to, you know, he was conga, you know, when he last week came out on Twitter or said, hey, thank you to the Senate for passing that bill. Again, I’m not a you know, I don’t do too much. But what he did that’s like, why, why, why did this guy from another country need to thank us for even more money that we’ve sent him? I think we I mean, we’ve sent him one over $200 billion total orders. I don’t mean I don’t know the right number, but.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:21:07] All in all, it’s all but over a number of years. But what? You’ve got Ukrainians who are killing Russians. Yeah. Killing Russian military members who are out to do harm to the US. Yeah. I mean, there’s this is this is the, you know, the enemy of your enemy is your friend to a certain extent. But it doesn’t mean that we’re going to prioritize the borders of what’s happening in Ukraine, over the borders of what’s happening in our own country. Thank you. And I think we are seeing an assault right here at home. Yeah. And while I am happy for Ukraine to fight that fight in Russia and keep Russia at bay, we are also encouraging that flight by by not looking at our energy sector and how that has enriched Russia and how Russia is working with other countries like China and Iran against the best interest of America.

Rey Treviño [00:21:51] Well, Beth, I cannot thank you enough, for coming on. And, you know, to everybody out there, you know, Beth is a strong fighter, supporter of not only Texas, but the oil and gas industry as a whole. You know, please continue to to fight for us in our jobs and more importantly, in our jobs, again, benefit the economy of not only Texas, but the United States. And I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, when you look at the geographical map of Texas, we literally keep the United States on our shoulders. And, you know, as Texas goes, America goes as a matter, if it goes, the world goes. I like to say so, Beth, I cannot thank you enough. But before we go, can you tell people, because you are in an election year and we didn’t even talk about that? But if you want to, tell everybody one, you know why? Why they should vote for you. And two, where they can find you and all that before we get out of here. That would be.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:22:42] Awesome. Well, I appreciate it. Look, I am a fighter. I had best interest of of our state, of our country at heart. I have been focused on building our economy, our securing our borders, and lucky at our national security and fighting for working families. If anybody wants to find out more information, I encourage them, to go to Beth for texas.com for more information. And if you’re in the district and you want to find out what what is she doing up there? We got a weekly newsletter that goes out that identifies, you know, what we’re doing in hearings, bills that were sponsoring, bills that were introducing voting, interviews, op ed pieces that were writing. Love to have people signed for that as well.

Rey Treviño [00:23:19] Well, again, Beth, I cannot thank you enough for coming on this episode of The Crude Truth, and I hope to have you on again.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne [00:23:26] Thank you. I would love to hear.

Rey Treviño [00:23:28] Well, thank you as always, always for tuning in. And we’ll see you again on another episode of The Crude Truth.

Narrator [00:23:33] Again, the Crude Truth would like to thank today’s sponsors LFS chemistry, Nape EXPO Air Compressor Solutions, sandstone Group, exec Crue, Texas Star Alliance. Pecos Country operating and real news communication network.

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