Offshore Production and Safety Act of 2011-Motion to Proceed

OFFSHORE PRODUCTION AND SAFETY ACT OF 2011--MOTION TO PROCEED

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, once again I come to the floor to urge my colleagues to support the Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act. To be honest, I am disappointed this bill is facing so much opposition. All across the country, people are talking about ways to rein in the debt and deficit. In Washington, DC, we are having a vigorous debate about the best ways to do that.

I happen to think we should cut spending responsibly while continuing to make investments we need to grow the economy and create jobs for our middle-class workers. There are difficult issues we have to work through, but the bill before us should be an easy one. It says that the biggest oil companies in the country should not be getting subsidies from American taxpayers. It says that the $2 billion a year we send to these hugely profitable companies should be used instead to pay down the deficit.

I do not understand why this seems to be so controversial. The big oil companies are already making billions of dollars in profits from families across the country who are paying sky-high prices at the pump. In fact, the five biggest oil companies have made nearly $1 trillion in profits in the last decade and $36 billion in the first 3 months of this year alone.

It is not enough they are making money hand over fist from families who are now paying sky-high prices. They then come before Congress and make the outlandish claim that they need to be subsidized by taxpayers as well. It does not make any sense, and it has to end.

Budgets are more than numbers on a page. They are about our priorities and our values as a nation. I think before we cut spending in areas that will impact our middle-class families and the

most vulnerable among us, we should focus right now on cutting out wasteful subsidies to huge companies that do not need it. That is what this bill does.

I also want to talk about the high prices families are paying for gas in my home State and across the country. I was recently at home with Senator Cantwell, and we had the opportunity to meet with some local small business owners who talked about the impact these skyrocketing prices of oil and gas were having on their businesses. They are hurting. These small business owners are already struggling to keep their doors open in these tough economic times. Every time prices go up at the pump, they are pushed one step closer to the edge.

That is why I believe as a country we need to move away from our dependence on foreign oil and toward a more secure clean energy future. It is why I called for a crackdown on the speculation that is part of what pushes up gas prices and why I was so disappointed that the House Republican budget slashed funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That is the very agency that is charged with protecting consumers from the excessive speculation in the markets.

I think that gets to a big difference between our two parties today. Democrats are here fighting to rein in the deficit by ending the wasteful subsidies that the biggest oil companies are getting from the American taxpayer; Republicans are fighting to cripple the agency that is charged with protecting middle-class families from being ripped off and preyed upon. These are two additional approaches to tackling the deficit. I am going to keep fighting to make sure middle-class families are protected.

I urge our colleagues to support this legislation that will put taxpayers and the middle class ahead of Big Oil. It will end the wasteful giveaways to oil companies and use that money to pay down the deficit in a responsible way.

So I, too, wish to thank Senators MENENDEZ, MCCASKILL, TESTER, and BROWN for their great work on this issue, and I hope we can finally put this to rest and save taxpayers $21 billion over the next 10 years.

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