Protecting America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve From China Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, today, we have an opportunity in this Congress to close a loophole that has been open since 2015, a loophole that enables our adversaries to purchase oil from our U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves.

There is a bill indeed to close that harmful loophole: a bill that will strengthen our national security; a bill that will signal to our fiercest adversaries that we will not bend a knee to those who threaten the safety of our allies and our servicemembers both here and abroad.

I am not talking about the bill that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have put forward today, but rather I am talking about a bipartisan bill--my bipartisan bill--the Banning Oil Exports to Foreign Adversaries Act.

We hear this phrase frequently in this Chamber, ``It is that simple.'' So let's make this argument really simple, very, very simple.

Our new majority has put forward a partisan bill that bans the sale of American oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve only to China.

I have put forward a bipartisan bill with Representative Don Bacon, and now with 44 others, that would ban the sale not only to China, but also to North Korea, Russia, Iran, and to all other adversaries.

It is modeled directly after similar and relevant legislation that I also introduced successfully in the NDAA regarding our critical minerals and rare earth element stockpiles.

This bill, my bill, is stronger, it is bipartisan, and it has a chance in the Senate. This bill, the bill we are talking about today, is weaker, it is partisan, and it will, unfortunately, likely never see it past the Senate's legislative graveyard.

Mr. Speaker, it is very hard to hear my colleagues talk about returning to proper and regular order in the House, when, in fact, if this very bill followed proper order and went through committee, we would likely be voting on a different piece of legislation today.

My Republican colleagues know my background. I am one of the most bipartisan Members of this body, and proudly served in the military for 13 years. I am here today because we have a chance to put our national security above our party politics.

I call upon my colleagues--all of them--to join me in good faith to support the bipartisan Banning Oil Exports to Foreign Adversaries Act. Let's send this legislation through the proper order, strengthen it, and work together to get it signed into law.

I urge my colleagues to look at the facts and to show servicemembers and veterans that we put their safety and their sacrifice ahead of political gamesmanship.

Before I conclude, I do want to thank my dear colleague, Representative Pallone, for his leadership and for having included this bill--my bill--in the Buy Low and Sell High Act of last Congress.

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