Providing for Consideration of H.R. 538, Native American Energy Act, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 702, Adaptation to Changing Crude Oil Markets

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRAMER. Mr. Speaker, I don't want to disrespect in any way the minority's opportunity that they have, but I did come here to talk about the energy bills.

I chose to go last on this side because I would like to address some of the thoughtful concerns that were raised by Mr. Hastings from Florida. I call them concerns because I didn't hear real objections. I think they are legitimate concerns that some people have had, and they deserve discussion. We are talking about the rule here.

He made a suggestion that somehow this lifting of the oil export ban bill, H.R. 702, takes the President's prerogative away to deal with a situation at all costs or in every situation. The reality is it does reserve a right for the President to reinstate the ban in some sort of an emergency. I want to make sure that that is clarified.

I also want to clarify that he mentioned we are not in regular order, and perhaps he is referring to the Native American Energy Act. I know we have had a couple of hearings since I have been in Congress on that, perhaps not this Congress. I don't know. I am not on that committee.

I can tell you that the Energy and Commerce Committee has had a hearing on H.R. 702, and two other committees have had hearings on similar bills: the Agriculture Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee. So this has been a thoroughly vetted issue. In fact, with the admonition of Speaker Boehner, we really did take a long time with this issue to help educate one another, those of us from energy States. So I do think we have had a thorough debate on the topic, and I think it is time to have this discussion.

Coming from North Dakota, I just want to tell you that I come from a State that, prior to the energy revolution, or the Bakken revolution, the shale revolution, we were experiencing outmigration and low personal per capita income. Today, we have the second highest personal per capita income in the country. We can't accept people fast enough to deal with the jobs that are available. We are at a bit of a standstill right now because we are overproducing light sweet crude in this country, which is the type of crude that the global markets are demanding, but our domestic markets, because of our refining capacity, are not.

This is the time to lift this ban, and this is the body to do it. I hope we can get to it this afternoon.

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