Press Conference with Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and Senator Thomas Daschle (D-SD)

Federal News Service

HEADLINE: PRESS CONFERENCE WITH SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY (D-MA), AND SENATOR THOMAS DASCHLE (D-SD)
 
RE: MIGUEL ESTRADA JUDICIAL NOMINATION, AND CALL FOR THE RELEASE OF SAUDI PETROLEUM RESERVES TO BRING DOWN GAS PRICES
 
LOCATION: SENATE RADIO/TV GALLERY, THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, D.C.

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL): Thank you to Senator Boxer, Senator Stabenow; of course, to Senator Schumer for calling this press conference.

Today in Chicago, the regular gasoline costs are $1.83 a gallon. The price is 30 cents more than it was just a year ago, at $1.54 a gallon. The current price is also higher than the already-high price of a month ago of $1.62 a gallon. It is the largest recorded increase in gasoline prices since they started keeping records.

As Senator Schumer said, you can travel about your state, as I did in Illinois, people would like to talk about a lot of things, but the first thing they ask you is, what about these gasoline prices? In the Midwest, we know full-well what this is all about. We've stood and talked like this before. Usually, it's the oil companies that run up the prices right before the Easter holiday. They did that several years. And it wasn't until everyone screamed bloody murder—families, businesses, elected officials—that they brought them down. Oh, they usually had some reason for it but, frankly, the reason didn't justify the increase or the duration of the increase.

Now we have a new challenge. We have the oil companies increasing the cost of gasoline at a time when American consumers and families were facing a Labor Day weekend, and we also have clear evidence that the Saudi royal family is not treating its oil subjects in America very well. Once again, the Saudis have decided that they want to manipulate market prices in our country. And because we are enslaved to the Saudi oil we, frankly, are expected just to take it.

Well, the message to President Bush and others in the administration is we're fed up with this. If we're going to come out of this recession, if we're going to be sensitive to workers and families and rebuilding this economy, then we need to say to the Saudis: We're not going to take this. We're going to release our petroleum reserve in a fashion to bring down the price of gasoline. And let the Saudis know when they engage in market manipulation, that we're not going to take it lying down.

I don't know why we're in such thrall to the Saudi royal family. I don't know why this administration, and so many others on Capitol Hill, can't wait to do their bidding. It's about time we stood up for our own families in America, the ones that are struggling through this recession, the ones that have to pay these high gasoline prices, and the ones that find more and more of their disposable income going into their cars in the gasoline tanks.

This can come to an end, but it will take real leadership. I'm happy to be part of this letter and this effort to move the administration.