Press Conference with Senator Mitch McConnell

Statement

Press Conference with Senator Mitch McConnell

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SEN. MCCONNELL: I was home in Louisville over the weekend. The Louisville television market happens to cover Southern Indiana. I saw numerous Obama and Clinton television commercials related to the Indiana primary, which is May the 6th, which will be followed shortly by the Kentucky primary on May the 20th.

Both of them were about gas prices. Obviously the candidates for president get it. The top issue in the country these days is the price of gas at the pump. It's gone up $1.25 since the Democrats took over the Congress.

Gasoline today at the pump is $1.25 more on average than it was when the Democrats took over Congress. Why is that a good place to measure? Because during that period, we've had an opportunity to build more refineries. And the Democratic majority voted it down.

We've had an opportunity to open up additional parts of the Outer Continental Shelf, even in a place like Virginia, where you had one Democratic senator, one Republican senator in favor of it. And the Democratic majority voted it down. It's clear that on the production side of the equation, this new majority is not interested in doing anything.

And the markets get it. Wall Street gets it. They see this total inattention, lack of interest, in any kind of progress on the production side. And it exacerbates the problem.

It's time to do something meaningful that would actually change the equation.

And on the production side, two good places to start would be building refineries and opening up portions of the outer continental shelf where you have states that are actually in favor of it and Congress won't let that happen.

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SEN. MCCONNELL: We'll take a couple of questions if there are any.

Q Can you tell us about the nature of your conversations with the administration on pulling the SPR right now?

SEN. MCCONNELL: I have not had any conversations with him about that. Anybody want to address that?

Q Do you support that -- (off mike) --

SEN. HUTCHISON: The president today said he wouldn't.

SEN. MCCONNELL: Oh, did he?

SEN. HUTCHISON: Yeah.

SEN. MCCONNELL: What did he say today?

SEN. HUTCHISON: The president said that he was going to continue filling the SPR because he felt that it was in our national security interests. There are members of our conference who believe that maybe now is the time to take a pause because we have three months of reserves in place and at these prices and with the economic situation as it is that perhaps it should be considered. But I think the president is looking out for the national security interests and we respect that.

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Q Senator McConnell, what part does OPEC play in the current crisis, if any, in your mind?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, I don't know exactly what we can do to impact the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. I know there are a lot of people who want to discuss that.

What we could do is do something about our own domestic supplies, as we've all outlined here. A large part of the solution to this problem is in our hands, not in somebody else's hands, in our hands. And we simply refuse, for a variety of different, I think, not very good reasons, to increase our independence and to move away from the kind of vulnerable situation we're in right now, as a result of importing 60 percent of our petroleum.

Q Senator McConnell, what did you make of Senator Schumer's call -- (off mike)?

SEN. MCCONNELL: I guess my reaction is, I'd believe Senator Schumer really wanted to do something about this, if he'd join us to vote to open up ANWR, to open up the Outer Continental Shelf and to build some refineries, so we could actually do something about the problem here in the United States for the long term.

I don't have a particular reaction to his proposal. I'd be happy to think about it. But you know, what we know is we could go a long way, toward dramatically improving this situation, by our own actions right here at home, right here.

Q Senator, today, the president called the farm bill bloated. I was wondering if you shared his concern. (Off mike.)

SEN. MCCONNELL: Yeah.

I think the whole movement on the farm bill is still under discussion. I understand what he had to say about it.

Thanks.

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