A serious Solution

Floor Speech

A SERIOUS SOLUTION -- (Senate - July 22, 2008)

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today the Senate will continue debate on the No. 1 domestic issue facing the Nation, but it now seems clear that the majority is not interested in a full and open debate, is not interested in good ideas from all sides, and is designing floor debate that is designed to fail. That is simply unacceptable. I was disturbed to read this morning that our friends on the other side are considering only a brief and limited consideration of this bill. It is troubling that at a time of $4.06-a-gallon gas, the Senate would treat the issue as if it is some technical corrections bill. Let me assure my friends it is not.

Let's be absolutely clear, Republicans will not accept a perfunctory approach to the problem. We are not content with a check-the-box exercise. More important, the American people will not accept a timid approach to such a major problem. This is the biggest issue in the country by far. The only thing I can recall in recent years that rivals it was terrorism right after 9/11. The Republican conference is interested in a solution. We are not interested in holding a pair of votes so that we can go home with political cover to blame the other side for our collective lack of accomplishment.

Let's be clear, speculation-only legislation is a very little piece to a massive problem. Americans are facing that problem every day at the pump. The American people are speaking very clearly about what needs to be done, and the Senate has the ability to answer their call. Americans are going to continue to demand a serious solution that gets at both supply and demand. Nothing less can be seen as a solution. Nobody can say with a straight face that simply addressing speculation, a very narrow part of the problem, is a serious approach.

The majority seems less concerned with passing a bill which can bring down the price of gas and more concerned with just passing some bill. But it wasn't too long ago that the majority party, regardless of which party was in control, welcomed an open debate on energy legislation.

Let's look back to last year. Last year, when the Senate considered the Energy Independence and Security Act and when gas was $3.06 a gallon, 49 amendments were agreed to out of the 331 which were filed. Of those amendments, 16 received rollcall votes. In 2005, when the price of gas was $2.26 a gallon, a Republican majority allowed 19 rollcall votes on amendments during debate on the Energy Policy Act of 2005. A total of 57 amendments were agreed to out of 235 proposed. Neither of these bills was rushed through in less than a week. We spent 15 days on the floor debating last year's Energy bill and 10 days in 2005 because we wanted to make sure we got it right, that ideas from both sides were considered, that the legislation would have the needed impact.

We need to do that again. The current cost of gas is a serious problem that requires a very serious approach. The Senate insults the American people if it treats this problem with anything less than the seriousness such a big problem requires. We need to find more and use less. We need to consider good ideas from all sides, and we need to take seriously that energy is the No. 1 issue facing our country and act on it now. We simply can't go through a failed process, claim credit for trying, and then go home. Americans know better, and Americans expect more.

I yield the floor.

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