Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007

Floor Speech

FLOOD INSURANCE REFORM AND MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2007 -- (Senate - May 07, 2008)

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I support the flood insurance bill that has been reported out of committee. I think it is a good bill.

However, as important as it is that we strengthen the flood insurance program and get it back on sound financial footing, we cannot continue to ignore the No. 1 issue on the minds of the American people, and that is high gas prices.

Two years ago, Democratic leaders told us they had a ``commonsense'' plan to lower gas prices. But since they took control of the Congress, gas prices have risen by $1.29 a gallon, according to AAA.

At home in Kentucky, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is now $3.58. Diesel fuel--which runs our trucks and farm machinery--is now $4.11. This creates incredible hardships for families, small businesses, and farmers.

Apparently, the Democrats' commonsense plan is not working so well.

In fact, the general thrust of their plan is to increase taxes on energy companies which would raise, not lower, gas prices. But Republicans do have a plan to reduce gas prices over the long term by increasing our supply of energy, American energy and American jobs, right here in our own country.

In last year's Energy bill, we passed a number of provisions that most of us supported to reduce the demand for oil, increasing fuel economy standards for both cars and trucks and increasing the use of alternative fuels. All of that was important and needed to be done. Those were important provisions. I certainly supported them and most of the Senate did as well, but we cannot seriously address the root cause of today's high gas prices without also addressing the issue of supply.

The senior Senator from New York, for example, said last week that 500,000 more barrels of oil per day on the world market would bring relief at the pump--500,000 barrels of oil per day would bring relief at the pump. I agree with him. The difference is, I believe we should produce those additional barrels of oil right here in America, with American jobs, to bring prices down. The fact is, if President Clinton had not vetoed a bill to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 13 years ago, 1 million barrels of oil would be flowing from ANWR to American consumers every day--twice what the senior Senator from New York said would bring relief at the pump.

We will have a good debate on the flood insurance bill, and ultimately we will pass it. I certainly support that. But first we are going to discuss the only real plan that would address the root cause of today's high gas prices by increasing America's supply of oil and supporting American jobs here at home.

I yield the floor.

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