'A war on stoves': House passes bill to prevent government ban on gas stoves

WASHINGTON − The House on Tuesday voted to pass legislation that prevents the federal government from banning gas stoves.

The gas stove debate began last year after a study linked the use of gas stoves to increased risk of childhood asthma, and the commissioner of the independent Consumer Product Safety Commission floated a future ban on the stoves. But the chair of the commission announced there were never plans to implement a ban.

The Republican-backed Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act passed 248-180. More than 25 Democrats voted in favor of the bill. Lawmakers also passed a second bill Wednesday, the Save Our Gas Stoves Act, which places limits on energy conservation standards for kitchen ranges under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., accused Democrats and President Joe Biden's administration of "targeting gas stoves," calling it a "radical, insane and painful overreach."

"This is a war on stoves," said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. "And the war will be undone or stopped, halted, by the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom and the Save Our Gas Stoves Act."

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Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., said the Consumer Product Safety Commission "has to stay in its lane."

"This bill is about ensuring Americans have continued product access to the entire product category of gas stoves," Armstrong said before the floor vote.

Democratic lawmakers have said the House should be focused on other problems.

"No gas stove will be taken from any American ever," Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said last week. "We will be debating freedom of a gas stove, protection of a gas stove, when children − eight per day − are dying because of gun violence."

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Gas stoves bill passes, but not without hurdles

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., faced significant opposition from the far-right faction of his caucus ahead of the vote. It was initially scheduled last week but was postponed after McCarthy sent lawmakers home for the weekend when he couldn't wrangle enough votes to move forward with the legislation.

The opposition started when right-wing Republicans tanked a procedural vote on the gas stoves bill in protest of McCarthy's debt ceiling deal with Biden, saying the spending cuts McCarthy brokered didn't go far enough.

Nearly a dozen conservative lawmakers, most belonging to the pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus, joined with Democrats to block the advancement of the bills. It was the first time in 20 years a rule vote failed in the House.

The dissenters who protested McCarthy, mainly members of the Freedom Caucus, halted House business last week, preventing days of routine votes from being held in the lower chamber.

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What happens next?

The bill heads to the Senate, where it's unlikely the upper chamber will take up the legislation.

Contributing: The Associated Press