FAA Reauthorization Act of 2007--Continued

Floor Speech

FAA REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007--Continued -- (Senate - April 30, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

FORECLOSURE CRISIS

Mrs. MURRAY. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. President, as I come to the floor to speak this afternoon, millions of Americans are struggling to hold on to their homes in the wake of the foreclosure crisis. Thousands of them have lost their jobs, just in the last couple of months. Millions more are finding it harder just to get by because sky-high oil prices are forcing many of our families to pay more at the pump, more at the grocery store, and more in their power bills.

Yet while all of these working families are scrimping so hard today, the economic downturn has not even registered for one segment of America--big oil. The major oil companies reported their profits this week, and they are seeing record increases.

ConocoPhillips reported first quarter profits of $4.1 billion. That beats their previous record by $600 million. Shell and BP are also reporting huge gains.

Americans do not have to look very hard to figure out where the responsibility lies--why oil companies are seeing their profits soar--while working families are watching their bank accounts bottom out. Over the last 7 1/2 years, Republicans have backed an energy policy that does very little but gives big oil companies tax breaks and special favors. Meanwhile, our middle-class families today are paying the price, and they know it.

In the first month of the Bush administration, oil prices averaged $29.50 a barrel. Almost 8 years later, that price has quadrupled. It is almost $120 a barrel this week.

When President Bush first took office, Americans were paying just $1.46 a gallon to fill their gas tanks. Last week, gas prices averaged a whopping $3.60 a gallon.

I went home last week--like I always do--to Washington State, where drivers are paying even more. A gallon of gas in Seattle, WA, costs $3.70; up in Bellingham, near the Canadian border, $3.80.

Families across my State are telling me they are cutting back on everything from shopping errands to summer vacations, and they are pretty angry they have to pinch their pennies while oil companies are making record profits.

When I travel around my State, gas prices are one of the first things people come up and talk to me about. They have written me countless letters about this.

For example, there is a stay-at-home mom from Yakima, WA, who wrote me that she worries every single day because her husband now has started riding a motorcycle to work instead of his car in order to save money on their gas bill. She wrote to me, and I want to read to you what she said. She said:

It is unnerving to think of him riding his motorcycle after working a 10-plus hour shift. ..... It does not seem fair that my middle class family has to choose between paying the doctor--or putting gas in [our] car--while oil companies are making record profits.

High gas prices are not just affecting our drivers. Industries from shipping to trucking to commercial fishing in my State are all hurting. Our farmers in Washington State are especially concerned. We have thousands of farmers in Washington State. They grow everything from apples to wheat. They have to plow their fields and harvest their crops. Cutting back is not an option for them. They have no choice but to absorb the cost of fuel.

One woman--from the southern Washington farming community of Goldendale--just wrote to me that she and her husband are finding it hard to pay for groceries. I want to quote what she said:

We, the little people, are struggling. Meanwhile, the gas companies are still netting billions. When is it going to stop? Something needs to be done to stop the nonsense.

That is how a farmer's wife from southwest Washington sees it.

Republicans have supported the energy policy of tax breaks for the oil companies because, they say, oil prices would be higher without them. But even President Bush said that was not true. In April of 2006, he said:

Congress has got to understand that these energy companies don't need unnecessary tax breaks like the write-offs of certain geological and geophysical expenditures--or the use of taxpayers' monies to subsidize energy companies' research into deep-water drilling.

That was President Bush.

The reality is, not only have Republicans allowed oil companies to make record profits while gas prices have soared, but their policies have made us
more dependent on foreign oil than ever before. That has put our economy and our national security at risk. The amount of money we have sent to OPEC countries, such as Saudi Arabia, has skyrocketed from $41 billion to $140 billion since 2001. Just this week, the president of OPEC said oil prices could go as high as $200 a barrel.

Now, I come to the floor to talk about this today because over the last several days we have seen a parade of Republican Senators coming to the floor complaining about high gas prices. In many cases, they have been blaming Democrats for failing to address this crisis over the past 16 months. They are bringing out charts that show the price of gas when Democrats took over in Congress and the price now, and they ask all of us to simply forget the real reason for this crisis; that is, the misguided energy policy this administration has pursued for over 6 years.

But I have to tell you, the people in my State and the American people are not going to forget. They are not going to forget it was this administration that asked oil and gas companies to write that energy plan. They are not going to forget that the only real idea coming from the other side is to drill our way out of this problem. And they will not forget this is an administration closer to the oil and gas industry than any in U.S. history.

Now, we are not going to forget either, and that is why we are fighting for change. We have already won higher fuel economy standards and new investments in renewable energy sources. We all know we need to do more. We know that Americans cannot rely on big oil to solve our energy problems.

People in my home State of Washington are worried. They are worried about the future. They want to be sure their kids are going to have economic security. They want a solution to our energy problems that is going to keep us safe and protect our environment for the long term.

Democrats have been fighting for policies that will help cut our gas prices, help to create jobs, and help keep our air and our water clean and, importantly, our Nation secure. We are going to keep up that fight. We know it is not going to be easy. The oil companies and those who support them are not going to give up on the status quo. Still, I hope our friends on the other side of the aisle will see what I see when I go home: Americans have had enough. I hope they will join us in investing in America's future and putting our working families first again.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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