National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027

Floor Speech

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Mr. GALLAGHER. Mr. Chair, I rise in strong support of amendment No. 8, and I urge its adoption.

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Mr. GALLAGHER. Mr. Chair, I rise in strong support of amendment No. 8, and I urge its adoption by this body.

My amendment requires the Federal Government to take a hard look at how the collapse of America's domestic refining capacity threatens our national security and military readiness and what tools exist when State level actions undermine refining capacity as they have in California and, thus, undermine our Armed Forces that we rely upon.

For years, dangerous and, quite frankly, stupid California policy led by Gavin Newsom and Sacramento Democrats have waged an ideological war on the oil and gas industry, and, thus, California's refining industry has been decimated by crushing regulations and Green New Deal mandates.

Today, California produces less than 23 percent of the oil and gas that it consumes and imports more than 65 percent of its crude oil from foreign countries, places like Venezuela, like Ecuador, like the Middle East--some of these countries with horrendous environmental records, with rain forests that are being burned down as we speak. And we are shutting down domestic production that we have in Kern County to our own detriment.

Meanwhile, what has happened to our gas prices in California? They have spiked to the highest in the Nation. Just now, today, the average price of gas in California is $5.50 a gallon. Do you know what it is in North Carolina? $3.72 a gallon. That is policy. That is what we are talking about. Our jet fuel supplies have been reduced by a million gallons.

This is due to the loss of the Valero refinery in the East Bay and the Phillips 66 refinery in Los Angeles, all due to policies that Gavin Newsom championed and, in fact, said that he jammed his legislature to accomplish that policy. It has had horrendous effects.

California is also home to 32 military installations, including some of our Nation's most strategically important bases: Travis Air Force Base, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Naval Base San Diego, Camp Pendleton, and Beale Air Force Base, just to name a few.

Our servicemembers cannot train, deploy, or fight without reliable access to fuel. Congress should not and cannot stand by while California's failed energy policies undermine the energy infrastructure our military depends on.

As the saying goes, energy security is national security. My amendment simply directs that the Federal Government identify what can be done to protect the rest of the refining capacity that we have in California that is essential to the West Coast and is essential to America's national defense.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment. I can't imagine why the opposing party would ever oppose this when we need affordable energy now.
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Mr. GALLAGHER. Mr. Chair, it is good that my colleague from California brought up principle, because his party used to be the party of the working class. But it certainly no longer is that, with $5.50 a gallon for gas. The working class in California is being decimated.

Do you know what else is happening? Those good-paying refinery jobs in Benicia, California, that used to be at the Valero refinery are gone because of bad policy, and those people no longer have those jobs.

Yes, the gentleman is right. We should be talking about principle. We should be talking about actually serving our constituents who have been plagued with the worst energy prices in the Nation.

Don't belie the argument. This is about national security because we have all of those bases that I mentioned on the West Coast. They need that fuel supply. They need that jet fuel that they can no longer get from Benicia. They can no longer rely on that. This is absolutely germane to national defense.

What are they so worried about? This amendment is simply calling for a review. It is calling for a study to see what we can do. Are my colleagues afraid of what it might find? Are they afraid of what it might find, that the Democratic policy, far from being one that is diverse and looks to all forms of energy, has put all of its eggs into one basket, solar and wind, to great detriment?

We should be looking at all forms of energy, including our oil and gas. We produce oil and gas in Kern County safely, environmentally friendly. Instead, my colleagues are importing it from countries that have no such record.

Absolutely, I decry what the gentleman is saying today. I decry California's policy. It deserves a review, and we should be using the Federal Government to ensure that our refinery capacity stays stable, that it is affordable, and that it is ready for our men and women of the military.

Again, I ask my colleagues to support this amendment. It is germane. It is much needed in these times.

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

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