Strategic Production Response Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. TORRES of California. Mr. Chairman, I have amendment No. 50 at the desk.

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Mrs. TORRES of California. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment to the Strategic Production Response Act.

The purpose of this bill is to use our strategic national stockpile of oil so that Big Oil can keep profiting at the expense of hardworking families.

Let's remember, the purpose of the strategic stockpile is to protect national security and to reduce prices at the pump for the American people.

My amendment would require the Secretary of Energy to certify that the plan to increase oil and gas leasing on Federal lands is necessary to restore our stockpile to protect our national security. My amendment would let this or any future administration have the flexibility it needs if we reach another energy crisis.

When the people of my district and across the country were facing sky-high prices at the gas pump, President Biden tapped into our strategic stockpiles to ease the prices at the pump and gave working families the financial help that they needed at the time when they needed it.

Now, instead of protecting national security and helping reduce inflation, Republicans are trying to take away the tools that we have to help hardworking Americans.

Last Congress, Democrats passed several bills to reduce inflation:

Over 80,000 families with children in the Inland Empire received monthly payments of up to $300 thanks to the child tax credit.

We also created good-paying jobs with the passage of a once-in-a- generation infrastructure bill that invests in our construction and transportation industries and ensures people have access to the education and training necessary to secure good jobs.

We passed legislation to bring down the cost of healthcare, lower prescription drug costs, cap the price of insulin and expanded coverage for hearing aids, which would benefit everyone, especially the 85,000 Medicare-eligible seniors in my district.

Why are we here trying to pass a bill to help the Big Oil corporations that will force Americans to pay more at the pump?

Republicans are so out of touch that they have put before us a bill that ties the President's hands and restricts him from using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve even if Americans desperately need the help.

I ask my colleagues to vote in support of my amendment to require the Energy Secretary to certify that this oil and gas drilling is necessary to replenish the strategic stockpile because that is what we should be focusing on, ensuring that we have the appropriate tools to protect our national security and Americans' wallets, not the Big Oil corporations' bottom line.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mrs. TORRES of California. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

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