Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, yesterday the Speaker of the House and the majority leader met at the White House with President Obama. This meeting was the first time that these three leaders sat down together to discuss the Nation's business since the beginning of the new year and to look for some opportunities to advance bipartisan priorities during President Obama's final year in office.

This Senator knows that some might view such a meeting with skepticism and say: What incentive do people have to actually work together when they come from such polar opposite points of view politically and ideologically? But this Senator believes there is an opportunity to build on some of our success that we had in the Senate last year.

While many eyes are focused on Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, I want to assure my constituents and anybody else who happens to be listening, that we actually have been trying to get the people's work done here in the U.S. Congress. Some people might not want to hear that, some might not believe it when they hear it, but I would hope that fair-minded people might look at the evidence and say: Yes, there is actually some important work being done.

In the process, in 2015, we actually--I know this sounds improbable-- reduced the role of the Federal Government in education and sent more of that responsibility back where it belongs to parents, teachers, and local school districts in the States.

We reformed Medicare, which provides important health services to our seniors.

We provided for the long-term stability of our Nation's infrastructure. We passed the first multi-year Transportation bill, I think, in 10 years, after having made about 33 different temporary patches, which is a terribly inefficient way to do business. Where I come from in Texas, since we are a fast growing State--and I expect most States feel the same way--providing for transportation infrastructure is important. It is important to our air quality, to commerce, to our economy, and to public safety.

We also did something that this Senator is proud of: the first Federal effort to provide meaningful support to victims of human trafficking, a bill that passed 99 to 0 in the U.S. Senate. One doesn't get more bipartisan and consensus-building than that.

The way these measures happened, as well as the other work we have done, is by Republicans and Democrats working together. We are stuck with each other whether we like it or not. Republicans can't get things done by themselves. Democrats can't get things done by themselves. The laws can't be passed under our constitutional framework unless both Houses of Congress pass legislation and it is actually signed by the President. We have to work together if we are going to make progress.

A lot of the credit for last year's production in the Senate should be laid at the feet of the majority leader, Senator McConnell, who said that after years of dysfunction where we were stuck in gridlock and nothing seemed to happen--he said: We are going to return to the regular functioning of the Senate. We are going to have committees consider legislation. We are going to have hearings to figure out how to pass good legislation, which is going to be voted on in the committee before it comes to the Senate so that we can see what pieces of legislation have bipartisan support and thus might be able to be passed by the Senate. In the Senate we call this regular order, but all it means is that everybody gets to participate in the process.

It is important to all of us that we be able to offer suggestions, that we be able to debate and offer amendments both in committee and on the floor. It might seem like pretty basic stuff, and people may think that happens as a matter of course. But, unfortunately, it didn't.

In 2014 the Senate had 15 rollcall votes. As the Presiding Officer knows, the Senate was stuck in a ditch and couldn't seem to get out. To give a number to demonstrate how dramatically things have changed in 1 year with the new majority leader, last year we had 200 rollcall votes on amendments. There were 15 in 2014 and 200 in 2015. So we could talk about the substance, but I think those numbers tell part of the story.

So I am glad there is open communication between our Congressional leaders and the President. I hope we can find some ways to get some things done, because, again, no matter whether you are a conservative or a liberal, whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, we actually are not going to be able to get things done unless we find a way to build consensus. That is the way legislation is passed.

We have more work to do this year. So we need to keep our focus not on what is happening in Presidential primaries but on our job here in Congress and continue to try to work in a bipartisan way and deliver for our bosses, namely, the American people.

The bipartisan energy bill we are working on now is a good start to 2016. I congratulate Senator Murkowski, the chair of the energy committee, and Senator Cantwell, the ranking member, for getting the bill this far. I think part of what demonstrates to me the wisdom of Senator Murkowski in handling this particular bill is that some of the more controversial issues, such as lifting the ban on crude oil exports, were handled separately and dealt with at the end of last year rather than in this bill.

This bill does represent one with broad bipartisan support. Coming from an energy State, as the Presiding Officer does, we understand the importance of energy to our economy. We produce more of it, we use it more efficiently, and, hopefully, it benefits consumers in the process. This bill will update our energy policies so that they reflect the enormous transformation we have observed in our energy sector. I have said it before, and I will say it again: I chuckle to myself when I heard people in the past talking about ``peak oil.'' That was sort of the talk in the oil patch. People said: Well, we have discovered all of the oil there is, and there is no more. So we are now going to be in a period of perpetual decline. We might as well get ready for that.

But thanks to the innovation in the energy sector with things like fracking--which has been around for 70 years but which some people have just discovered, it seems--along with horizontal drilling, what we have seen is this shale oil and gas revolution, which has been a boon to our country and particularly in places such as Texas, North Dakota, and the like.

Now, because of the glut, literally, of oil being produced, natural gas prices are much lower, which actually benefits consumers. If you have looked at the price of a gallon of gas lately, you have seen that gasoline is pretty cheap relative to historic levels.

Another important issue beyond energy that I think we need to deal with this year is to get back to a regular appropriations process. We saw at the end of last year--because our friends across the aisle blocked voting on appropriations bills, including funding our military, which I just found to be incredible and really disgraceful, frankly-- that we found ourselves in a position where in order to fund the functions of government, we had to do an Omnibus appropriations bill.

I have said before that you might call it an ``ominous'' appropriations bill. It is an ugly process. It is a terrible way to do business because what it does is it empowers a handful of leaders to negotiate something that Members of the Senate ought to be involved in through the regular process, through voting bills through the Appropriations subcommittees, through the Appropriations Committee, through the floor, where we have transparency in the process and where any Senator who has a good idea can come to the floor and offer an amendment.

That is the way it ought to be done. We need to restore that sort of regular order this year so that each of the 12 separate funding bills can be considered and voted on by the Appropriations Committee and then here on the Senate floor and then matched up with the House bill before it is sent to the President. Again, this is legislation 101, pretty basic stuff.

But unfortunately, the Senate and the Congress have not been operating as they should. That is something that we would like to change. So last year, all 12 appropriations bills were sent out of their respective committees--the first time since 2009 that has happened. But, again, because of the blocking of the legislation, we ended up in a bad situation at the end of the year, where the only thing we could do was pass an Omnibus appropriations bill.

So now we look to the President's budget, which will be sent over here in short order. We will take up that matter up through the Budget Committee, and we will look at the appropriations process ahead of us. I would like to suggest to our Democratic friends that they have a choice to make. They can try to force this Chamber back into the same dysfunction and the same sort of partisan bickering that has characterized it for years when they were in charge or they can decide to work with us--as we would like to do--to move forward principled legislation, including appropriations bills, in a transparent, open process that allows every Senator--Republicans and Democrats alike--a chance to participate and allows our constituents to watch, as they go across the floor, and to ask the appropriate questions, to raise concerns if they have those concerns.

That is the way our democracy is supposed to work. Passing massive stopgap funding bills is not doing the best for the people we represent. It can be avoided, but it is going to take a little bit of cooperation. But I have to think that whether you are in the majority or the minority, most Senators like to work in a Senate that actually functions according to regular order, because, as the Presiding Officer knows, even being in the majority does not mean we have a chance to vote on amendments to legislation.

Indeed, for a period of time, his predecessor did not even have a chance to vote on an amendment--a rollcall vote on an amendment-- nevertheless being in the majority party at the time. That is not the way this body is supposed to function. That is not doing our best to serve the interests of the people we represent. So we have a choice to make. I hope we choose the higher ground and perhaps listen to the better angels of our nature rather than the other one on our shoulder to whom we should not pay attention.

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