Protecting and Securing Florida's Coastline Act of 2019
Floor Speech
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Mr. GOSAR. Madam Chair, I thank the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop), ranking member, for some time to speak in opposition to this bill.
Madam Chair, like the previous legislation, this bill represents a step backwards in ensuring American energy security, but making certain sections of the eastern Gulf of Mexico permanently off limits to oil and gas development, this legislation once again ties one hand behind our Nation's back.
As chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus and the ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, I have a unique insight into many of America's energy issues.
Many on the Western Caucus and Republican members on the Committee on Natural Resources have a different vision for America, a vision that doesn't pick winners and losers and includes a true all-of-the-above energy strategy that embraces wind, solar, nuclear, hydropower, coal, oil, and natural gas. Our vision encourages innovation and less burdensome mandates. We know responsible energy production and protecting our environment go hand in hand.
The offshore coalition, a group of at least 17 members, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Laborers' International Union of North America, sent a letter opposing H.R. 205, H.R. 1941, and H.R. 1146. In the coalition's letter, they state: ``For more than seven decades, energy development in the Gulf of Mexico has worked collaboratively alongside tourism, fishing, and Defense Department training activities. But H.R. 205 would permanently extend the eastern Gulf of Mexico moratorium on oil and natural gas activities.
``We rely on American-made energy to power our daily lives, communities, and to grow a prosperous future. Americans deserve clean, safe, reliable, abundant, and affordable energy so that our families, communities, and businesses can all share the opportunities American energy creates.
``Our country cannot afford to block access to new energy supplies and risk losing our energy advantage. That's why we ask you to oppose legislation being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives this week that would slow scientific surveys and prevent access to new sources of American offshore energy in the Outer Continental Shelf.''
Our previous speaker actually alluded to this very aspect. It takes 10 years to go from inquiry to actual production. I couldn't agree more with the sentiments expressed by this broad coalition, by previous Members here on this side of the aisle that have opposed it, and I urge Members to oppose H.R. 205.
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Mr. GOSAR. Madam Chair, I rise today to offer an amendment that allows the section 2 moratorium in this bill to go into effect when the Department of the Interior, in consultation with the Department of Labor, certifies that the offshore energy moratorium in the bill will not kill a substantial number of minority and women jobs.
We heard arguments from the Democratic Members on the other side of the aisle against a similar amendment, that this amendment doesn't matter and is meaningless. How callous that response.
I tell opponents of this amendment to tell that single mother working to put food on the table for her two children that her job doesn't matter. How about the minority family who just moved into a new neighborhood so their kids could go to better schools? Tell those hardworking, minority parents that those jobs don't matter either.
Under the current administration, unemployment has reached record lows. In August, the national unemployment rate sat at 3.7 percent, with the unemployment rate for African American workers sitting at 5.5 percent, breaking the previous record of 5.9 percent set in May 2018.
According to a recent report by The Washington Post--once again, the bastion of conservative reporting--nearly 90 percent of the jobs added under this administration has gone to minority communities. This can be attributed to, for the first time, a majority of new hires are people between the ages of 25 to 54 and are from minority communities.
According to statistics published by the American Petroleum Institute, minorities will comprise one-third of the total workforce in the oil and gas sector by 2030. Women already comprise more than 15 percent of the oil and gas workforce.
These are good-paying jobs, paying $90,000, that hardworking families depend upon. This legislation puts these employment opportunities at risk by permanently putting off-limits potentially viable and valuable offshore energy opportunities in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
For the first time since the 1950s, the United States will soon be a net exporter of oil and natural gas, something that was once unthinkable.
America's energy renaissance has boosted the economies of previously left-behind towns throughout the country and turned them into vibrant communities.
Madam Chair, this is a commonsense amendment that protects minority and women jobs and puts the interests of the American workforce first.
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Mr. GOSAR. Madam Chair, if that supposition that has been proposed is actually true, then an easy certification by the Secretary of the Interior is in the works that there is no denominational change in regards to those jobs, in regards to the oil and gas industry with this permanent moratorium. So, once again, it gets us back to that permanent moratorium in section 2 does place those at risk.
Again, I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to think of that single mother who is working to put food on the table for her two children. Tell her that her job doesn't matter.
Again, think of the minority family that just moved into a new neighborhood so their kids could go to better schools. Tell those working minorities, those parents that their jobs don't matter.
Think of the statistics that we repeatedly looked at from, no less, The Washington Post. These are real jobs. They are helping real people. They are part of a real economy, an economy that needs all of the above.
Once again, we can have tourism, we can have clean energy production and protect the environment, and we can have the good-paying jobs that are empowering women and minorities.
I urge my colleagues to adopt this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. GOSAR. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 182, noes 251, not voting 5, as follows: [Roll No. 520] AYES--182 Aderholt Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bergman Biggs Bishop (UT) Bost Brady Brooks (AL) Brooks (IN) Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Byrne Calvert Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Chabot Cheney Cline Cloud Cole Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Comer Conaway Cook Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson (OH) Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Duffy Duncan Dunn Emmer Estes Ferguson Fleischmann Flores Fortenberry Foxx (NC) Fulcher Gallagher Gianforte Gibbs Gohmert Gonzalez (OH) Gonzalez-Colon (PR) Gooden Gosar Granger Graves (GA) Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harris Hartzler Hern, Kevin Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill (AR) Holding Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Hunter Hurd (TX) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) King (IA) Kustoff (TN) LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta Lesko Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Marchant Marshall Massie McCarthy McCaul McClintock McHenry McKinley Meadows Meuser Miller Mitchell Moolenaar Mooney (WV) Mullin Newhouse Norman Nunes Olson Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Posey Ratcliffe Reed Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Riggleman Roby Rodgers (WA) Roe, David P. Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose, John W. Rouzer Roy Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sensenbrenner Shimkus Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smucker Spano Stauber Steil Stewart Stivers Taylor Thompson (PA) Thornberry Timmons Tipton Turner Upton Wagner Walberg Walden Walker Walorski Waltz Watkins Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Woodall Wright Yoho Young Zeldin NOES--251 Adams Aguilar Allred Amash Axne Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Boyle, Brendan F. Brindisi Brown (MD) Brownley (CA) Buchanan Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson (IN) Cartwright Case Casten (IL) Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu, Judy Cicilline Cisneros Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Cox (CA) Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Cummings Cunningham Davids (KS) Davis (CA) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Engel Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Finkenauer Fitzpatrick Fletcher Foster Frankel Fudge Gabbard Gaetz Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Golden Gomez Gonzalez (TX) Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Haaland Harder (CA) Hastings Hayes Heck Higgins (NY) Hill (CA) Himes Horn, Kendra S. Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (SD) Johnson (TX) Kaptur Katko Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim Kind King (NY) Kinzinger Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster (NH) Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lewis Lieu, Ted Lipinski Loebsack Lofgren Lowenthal Lowey Lujan Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Mast Matsui McAdams McBath McCollum McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Moore Morelle Moulton Mucarsel-Powell Murphy Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Norcross Norton O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Perlmutter Peters Peterson Phillips Pingree Plaskett Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Richmond Rooney (FL) Rose (NY) Rouda Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Rutherford Ryan Sablan San Nicolas Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Serrano Sewell (AL) Shalala Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stanton Stefanik Steube Stevens Suozzi Swalwell (CA) Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres Small (NM) Trahan Trone Underwood Van Drew Vargas Veasey Vela Velazquez Visclosky Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Wilson (FL) Yarmuth NOT VOTING--5 Abraham Clyburn Lawrence McEachin Radewagen
Messrs. HASTINGS, CISNEROS, PASCRELL, Mses. FINKENAUER, HILL of California, TLAIB, Messrs. CARSON of Indiana, GONZALEZ of Texas, and RICHMOND changed their vote from ``aye'' to ``no.''
Messrs. WITTMAN, WILSON of South Carolina, HUNTER, TURNER, PALAZZO, CALVERT, RICE of South Carolina, and LONG changed their vote from ``no'' to ``aye.''
So the amendment, as modified, was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
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