Providing for Consideration of H.R. 4348, Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012, Part II
Floor Speech
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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I would just add one more thing: the amount of subsidies that we are giving to multinational corporations who are taking their jobs overseas, let's stop that. Let's stop the subsidies that are going to Big Agriculture all over this country, not small mom-and-pop farms, people who are taking care of themselves. But Big Agriculture, let's stop that.
Let's also stop $147 million going to Brazilian cotton farmers as a subsidy every year. They will not tell you. They will not tell you about these subsidies. American taxpayers are footing the bill for that and paying high prices at the gas pump to get their gas, and the oil companies are rolling around in that money.
I rise in opposition to this rule.
Yesterday I submitted an amendment to this bill that would have provided the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or the CFTC, with a steady, sustainable source of funding so that it could do the job that it has been assigned to do--that's oversee the futures markets and curb rampant speculation in the oil market that is causing families pain at the pump.
Again, this House majority has put the profit margins of Wall Street and oil speculators over the needs of American families and the American economy. They refuse to allow an up-or-down vote on this amendment. Specifically, the amendment would authorize the collection of user fees to offset the cost of the Commission's operation. It would simply bring the CFTC into line with all other Federal financial regulators, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
This is in keeping with a pattern by this majority
to hamstring this Commission at every turn. Last year, their agricultural appropriations provided only $172 million in funding, 44 percent below the request, meaning that we have less cops on the beat to stop speculation. We fought back. We got that up to $205 million in the final 2012 budget, but it's not enough for the Commission to do its job.
Meanwhile, high oil prices affect every aspect of Americans' lives, not just the cost of traveling but of heating homes, food, other purchases. The cost of gas is irrefutably affected by rampant speculation in the oil market. Goldman Sachs has estimated that speculators increased crude prices by about 20 percent and the price of gas by 56 cents a gallon. The chairman of ExxonMobil talked about speculation going on on Wall Street.
We're here to represent the American consumer, not oil speculators.
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Ms. DeLAURO. I am going to repeat it, our job, the job that all of our constituents gave to us--they gave us this job--we are here to represent their interests and the consumers, not the oil speculators.
We need to ensure that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is the agency to regulate the oil industry, that it has the resources that it needs to do the job and is doing it.
The amendment that I proposed is a commonsense solution to this problem. It should have had an airing, and it should have been passed by this Congress because that is in the best interests of American taxpayers. That's our job. And if we're not prepared to do our job, the American people should turn their backs on us and shut the place down.
I urge my colleagues to oppose this rule.
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