Fort Worth congressman spent first year targeting ‘horrific’ Biden regulations
In his first year on Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep. Craig Goldman hit the ground running on rolling back Biden administration laws. He was the first freshman to have a bill signed by the president.
The Fort Worth Republican represents the western half of Tarrant County and much of Parker County. Republican Kay Granger previously represented the district for 28 years. Goldman is only the fourth person to represent Texas’s 12th congressional district in over 70 years and was the headliner for the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce’s “Leaders in Government” event.
On stage at the City Club, Goldman said he prided himself on problem-solving while serving as a state representative for 12 years. That’s the same approach he took in representing Texas in Congress and as a member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee.
On the committee, Goldman delivered on his promise to roll back Biden-era restrictions. He told the room of elected officials and entrepreneurs about his undoing of a regulation that raised energy conservation standards for commercial refrigerators.
That nullification earned Goldman a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, his first time in the president’s office.
“I am keen on getting as many of the Biden horrific regulations that were put into law while he was here, and removing those regulations,” Goldman said.
Many of former President Joe Biden’s regulations caused extra expenses for businesses, which Goldman said gets paid for by consumers because the business is not going to eat the cost. He did not cite any examples beyond the refrigerator regulation.
“That sounds hokey, but it’s serious, because all these regulations that the Biden administration put forth on us that they were, they either had executive orders or passed a law. It affects you at the end of the day,” Goldman said. “Who pays for those regulations? You do. We do.”
Ben Somberg, a spokesperson for the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, pointed out that businesses would have had a $3.43 billion net savings with Biden’s regulations per a Department of Energy study.
It found that the standards that were undone by Goldman’s resolution reduced overall expenses for businesses based on the overall energy savings outweighing the higher-priced refrigerators.
Another win for taxpayers came with the One Big Beautiful Bill, Goldman said, because of the working relationship between House Speaker Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump.
The bill prevented a “record tax increase” because it solidified Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was set to expire this year. He said he doesn’t understand why Democrats didn’t vote for it because it benefits the working class by taking away taxes on tips and overtime work.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that nearly 11 million more people would be without health insurance in 10 years because of the bill. With the policy changes to the Affordable Care Act making it more difficult to access care through the ACA marketplace, the number grows to 16 million.
Democrats say lower income families will be losing money because of the bill’s cuts to food assistance programs and Medicaid. They also say $4 trillion will be added to the national debt.
Because of the One Big Beautiful Bill and the redistricting of red states, Goldman thinks the Republicans are set to do well in the midterm elections.
“I think what is going to happen is we’re going to see this economy just boom all of next year,” Goldman said. “That’s when all the effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill will actually take effect, at the perfect time for the midterm. So I think the country is going to be in extremely good shape.”
Despite the successes Goldman described, Trump’s approval rating has fallen since he entered office in January. Goldman said Trump is wildly popular among Republicans in Congress because he’s been able to “turn this country around.”
“I’ve been in politics a long time, and you can take any poll and release results any way you want to skew it … But we can see that the country is better now than it was, certainly a year ago, two years ago, and we’re only going to get better in the next three,” Goldman said.
This story was originally published September 23, 2025 at 3:41 PM.