OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Tax Relief And Health Care Act Of 2006

Date: Dec. 8, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Health and Health Care


TAX RELIEF AND HEALTH CARE ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - December 08, 2006)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for all of his leadership, and I congratulate the dean of our delegation, CHARLIE RANGEL, for working hard on this bill and restructuring of the bond issue for New York City, among other issues.

Why I am rising today, however, is the audit report that came out 2 days ago of the Department of the Interior. It was a scathing indictment of mismanagement and cronyism. In my years on the Committee on Government Reform, it is the worst report I have seen and it documents billions of dollars that are owed to the American people for oil and gas extracted from federally owned land, land owned by the American people. These revenues are not coming into the Treasury, but into the pockets of the oil industry.

I rise in support of the Markey-Hinchey amendment, which includes, among other things, a renegotiation of these leases to pay a fair price to the American public and to our country. It is long overdue. We should not tolerate this type of mismanagement. It showed that the number of audits have gone down, the number of auditors have come down. They have a paper compliance review board that has oversight which amounts to pushing paper around. It is not a watchdog, but a lap dog, for private industry as opposed to documentation of what is fairly owned to the American people and to our government.

Correcting this will literally bring 10 to $30 billion into the Treasury of the United States. It is the fair thing to do. It is the right thing to do. We should all follow and read this important report and vote to renegotiate the rip-off leases and have them pay a fair deal for what they are reaping for their own pockets.

Our constituents are paying record prices at the pump and for heating oil; yet the oil companies are not paying their fair due for their leases on American federally owned property. This is an important amendment, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov/

arrow_upward