Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 2419, Food and Energy Security Act of 2007

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding, and I really appreciate the good work that was done by my colleague from Tennessee, Zach Wamp, and my colleague from Illinois, John Shimkus, on this issue of what do we do about energy independence, what do we do about ethanol, what do we do about the alternatives that we have.

And I think it's important that we continue to point out the problems that we're facing in this country on achieving energy independence and to point out that we are dealing with basically a do-nothing Congress in terms of this issue. We are not dealing with this issue now, and I share the concern that my colleague from Nebraska Mr. Terry expressed about how everything's being blamed on ethanol and George Bush.

The Congress likes to blame George Bush for everything, thinking that's the mood of the American people, and the leadership thinks it can deflect any responsibility for the problem that we're seeing now.

But I want to point out that right now gasoline is $3.64 a gallon on average. That's 56 percent higher than when Speaker Pelosi was sworn in, and it is 745 days after she promised this: ``Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices.'' And that was when gas was just about $2 a gallon, not $3.64.

It's also 948 days after Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, ``Democrats believe that we can do more for the American people who are struggling to deal with high gas prices.''

And it's 653 days after Democrat Whip Jim Clyburn said, ``House Democrats have a plan to help curb rising gas prices.''

All of these statements were made in 2006 when the Democrats were making statements to fool the American people on what they could do to make things different.

Well, they got elected. They're now in leadership and what do we have? Blaming. We're looking for this secret plan that they have. They've never brought it forward, and we're still waiting for it, months, years after they promised it, 2 years actually after Speaker Pelosi promised that they had a plan to do this.

We have all the quotes on this and the dates. Again, April 2006, October 2005, July 2006 are the dates, but what they've done is they've raised taxes four times since they've been in office on energy in this country, and what they do then is blame the President.

Most people know, I think, that the President can't pass laws. All the President can do is sign them or veto them. It is our responsibility to do something about the way this country is operated in terms of laws. We operate under the rule of law, and it's no coincidence that article I of the Constitution is about the Congress and about our responsibilities, but the Democratic leadership has failed miserably in dealing with those responsibilities.

I also agree with Congressman Wamp that this is a national security issue, and that in addition to providing additional supplies of energy, we must do conservation and we must be more efficient. I don't think anybody on our side of the aisle disagrees with that. However, we have to do something to increase the supply.

We are dealing with a short-term and mid-term and long-term issue, and part of the problem that we're dealing with is the fact that in 1995 President Clinton vetoed the bill that would have allowed us to drill in ANWR. We have radical environmentalists who basically believe, if all the human beings in the world were to disappear, the world would be a better place because we're the ones to blame for all of the problems that we have in this country and in the world.

I don't believe that. I believe the good Lord gave us the resources that we need and the brains to use those resources and extract them. We should be drilling in ANWR. I've been to ANWR, I've been to Alaska, I've seen what happens there. The people who are opposed to drilling there won't even go to Alaska to see the situation there. I think that's terribly, terribly shortsighted.

We could have started doing that many years ago, and we wouldn't be in this situation that we're in now because that, along with other things that we could do, such as drilling in the outer continental shelf, such as creating other resources, such as cellulosic ethanol, would be providing us what we need.

And I also agree, again, with Representative Wamp that energy independence means to me we are not going to be dependent on OPEC countries. We don't want to be dependent on people who hate us. We don't want to help fuel the terrorists. One of the things that we're doing is providing money for the terrorists to fight us, and we don't need to be doing that.

We do need to conserve. We do need to use every resource available to us in this country, and it is time that the Democrats exert some leadership in this area instead of blaming George Bush and blaming others for the problem that we're facing. They absolutely refuse to take charge of what's happening here.

I heard today on a radio program that there is a theory that they want to make the American people as miserable as they possibly can because President Bush is still our President, and they are so good at blaming him for things rather than accepting responsibility for their own actions. I think that has to be one of the most cynical things that anybody could possibly be doing in this country. It's our responsibility here to do everything that we can to help the American people, not do everything that we can to make them miserable.

I want to give you a quote from Investors Business Daily from April 29, 2008. The title of the article is ``Congress vs. You,'' and one of the quotes, ``The current Congress, led on the House side by a Speaker who promised a `common sense plan' to cut energy prices 2 years ago, has shown itself to be incompetent and irresponsible.''

Again, we have quote after quote after quote from business journals and from responsible people to show us that the problems that we're facing now are not based in our situation with the war but is based in the incompetence and the do-nothing of this Congress.

And again, let me point out, President Clinton vetoed H.R. 2491, the Balanced Budget Act of 1995, which would have allowed environmentally responsible exploration for an estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil in a tiny sliver of ANWR. Senate Democrats have twice blocked energy exploration in ANWR via the Energy Policy Acts of 2003 and 2005. They have voted ``no'' on the American-Made Energy and Good Jobs Act which would open ANWR to exploration, over and over again. They've said no to new refineries. They've said no to the Energy Policy Act. As others have pointed out, they've said no use to using coal. They've said no to using nuclear. Everything they've done is say no, while Republicans have repeatedly said yes. Yes to Americans who drive to work and school. Yes to gasoline prices that Americans can afford. Yes to American oil. Yes to American common sense in the rules, and yes to an American future of abundant, affordable energy that working people can afford to buy.

I don't think the Democrats are going to be able to continue to fool the American people that someone else is responsible for the problem that we're now facing. They're squarely responsible. They continue to say no, Republicans continue to say yes, and I think the American people are going to understand that in the short-term and in the long-term.

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