House Energy Action Team

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. I want to thank the gentleman from South Carolina for taking on this Special Order tonight and for bringing with him a group of his colleagues who are called ``freshmen'' around here, but I will tell you the people watching this tonight don't know you guys are freshmen. You're doing a wonderful job, and I want to compliment you on the fantastic job you've taken on here to explain to the American people some of the issues related to energy independence.

I was home, like you were, during the Fourth of July and Independence Day, the little break that we had. I was home, talking to people about the fact that we need to declare a new war for independence, and that is a war for energy independence. So I agree with all of the comments that you all have made, and I want to piggyback on what our colleague from South Carolina was talking about.

In April 2011, families spent an average of $369 each month on gasoline, which represented 8.9 percent of monthly household income, which was an increase from the average of 5.7 percent. Now, that is hurting the people in my district, and it is hurting the people in your district.

We need to continue to point out that this administration has created these problems. These weren't created by Republicans. Democrats were in control of the Congress from January of 2007 to January of 2011. We were in the minority during those 4 years. In the last 2 years, the President and the Democrats were in charge of the entire Congress. They have the responsibility for what has happened in terms of energy prices.

What Republicans have done in the last 4 years, as well as this year, is we have put forth and passed legislation that would eliminate needless permitting delays that have stalled energy production. We have put forward commonsense solutions to these high energy prices. Again, we believe in an all-of-the-above principle. We want to see us have all of the things that we need in this country to make us energy independent.

Our government should be promoting our energy resources, not blocking their development. If we don't do that, we are going to continue to have a 9 percent unemployment rate. As for all of the comments that have been made about what producing energy in this country can do to unemployment, we must do that, and until we get an administration that understands that and a larger number of people in Congress who understand that, American families are going to be hurting.

So I want to compliment all of you tonight who have come here and spoken out about these issues.

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