Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank the gen tle lady for yielding.
I rise in support of this amendment. This is the last opportunity we have, really, to rein in spending that's literally bankrupting our country in this bill.
It's interesting. All the talk of the billions of dollars of subsidies that we continue to dole out to dubious enterprises are all unfulfilled promises of energy independence. You would think after 30 years those promises are starting to ring hollow. After 30 years of such promises, we're more dependent on foreign energy than when we began and even deeper in debt.
I rise also to draw to the attention of the House a provision of this measure relating to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Under current law as that reserve is drawn down either for maintenance or for market manipulation, the proceeds from the oil must go back into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That guarantees that it's maintained in a constant state of readiness to provide for our national security. Whenever a dollar comes out of that reserve, a dollar has to be put back into it--until this bill. There is a half-billion dollars going out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, not to replenish the reserve, but to fund additional spending in this budget. That is a scandal.
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