Energy

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, when it comes to American energy, the emergency siren is blaring. After 4 years of reckless regulations and restrictions by the Democrat administration, energy prices have jumped 31 percent. Families are feeling it all across the country. To most Americans, this is the definition of an energy emergency. To Senate Democrats, it is an inconvenient truth.

Today, Democrats are trying to reverse President Trump's national energy emergency. They are bringing it right here to the floor of the U.S. Senate. They are trying to block commonsense measures that are going to address painfully high energy prices under which American families have been suffering. This national energy emergency is part of President Trump's swift actions--actions to unleash American energy. It is part of this broader vision of affordable, reliable, available American energy.

Democrats oppose all of that. They have opposed it for the last 4 years. They still oppose it. They have learned nothing from 4 years of failure. Democrats remain the party of high energy prices. That is what they want. They think it is going to help the climate. Democrats remain the party of painful and punishing regulations. They remain the party of never-ending dependence on foreign dictators for energy that we have right here. Democrats want to continue the war on American energy, and that is why they are going to line up today and oppose what President Trump is trying to do to bring energy prices down.

Republicans know that the best way to lower prices for the American people is to support more American energy production. We have it here; we ought to use it. We have the energy. But not just do we have the energy, we have the workers--excellent, qualified, hard-working Americans--and they know how to produce American energy responsibly.

Last week, Senate Republicans, here in this body, passed a budget to secure the border, to unleash American energy, to rebuild our military, and we are taking further action to address high energy prices and cut redtape.

We are working today on two important resolutions, doing it this entire week, using something called the Congressional Review Act. The first is from Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. His resolution rolls back a burdensome Biden midnight regulation on energy production in the Gulf of America. The Senate passed it yesterday.

The second is from Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota. His resolution cuts about $7 billion in new natural gas taxes on energy producers--$7 billion of new taxes. Where did it come from? It came from the Democrats.

This tax on American energy hits American families who use the energy to heat their homes. It was mandated by the Democrats' reckless tax- and-spending bill. The Democrat tax penalizes oil and gas production in America, and in doing so, it punishes American families.

The golden age of American energy is the foundation of our golden age for America. It is linked directly to the prices that we pay, to the technology we use, and to the world we live in. Republicans are not going to allow the sticky thorns of redtape to entangle American energy. Republicans are reversing these punishing political regulations. That is what we are doing today. We are taking the handcuffs off of American energy production. We are paving the way for affordable, reliable American energy production.

Unleashing American energy means lower prices. It means more innovation. It means more safety and stability in our communities and in our economy.

America is an energy superpower. We need to act like it.

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