Domestic Energy and Jobs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend, and I would have come up here just for that introduction. I thank him so much.

I am pleased to follow my friend, the distinguished majority leader, Mr. Cantor. I'm going to have some remarks. But before I get to those remarks, I want to give you some statistics that I know you'll find very interesting. I want you to take them to heart.

The Energy Information Administration reports that oil production from Federal lands and waters was higher the first 3 years of the Obama administration than the last 3 years of President Bush's administration.

In addition, oil imports are at the lowest they have been since 1997. In 2011, U.S. crude oil production reached its highest level in 8 years, increasing by an estimated 110,000 barrels per day over 2010 levels to 5.59 million barrels per day. We now produce more than 50 percent of the crude oil we use domestically.

The U.S., by the way, has 1,971 rigs in operation. The rest of the world has 1,471.

The U.S. natural gas production is record breaking. In 2011, 28.5 million cubic feet. In 1973, which was the previous record, it was 24 million cubic feet. But hear this: In 2005, during the Bush administration, it was 5 million less.

Net imports as a share of total consumption has declined from 2005, where it was 60 percent in the Bush administration, to 2011, where it is 47 percent.

The administration has announced that the 2012 2017 5-year leasing plan will open up more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources. The U.S. production for Federal lands on shore is similar to and has surpassed the Bush administration. In 2005, it was 649 million barrels; in 2010, it was 739 million barrels, otherwise known as almost 100 million more barrels.

Ladies and gentlemen, we understand that we need to produce and use energy in America. Mr. Chairman, we should be working, however, together to find real solutions to meet our pressing challenges. We ought to pass a long-term highway bill to create thousands of construction jobs. We ought to address the looming deadline when student loan interest rates are set to go up on July 1. We ought to get to work on taxes so we can keep low rates in place for middle class families. And we ought to get serious about comprehensive deficit reduction before we find ourselves on the edge of a fiscal cliff this year.

Instead, Mr. Chairman, once again, we have a solution looking for a problem. Our Republican friends have called up two bills on the floor this week that make this very clear.

While gas prices have thankfully retreated, the first bill would enact an extreme drill-only energy strategy that won't lower gasoline prices. That bill is notable for what it doesn't do: invest in diverse energy sources that create jobs, reduce our oil dependence, and enhance energy security; nor does it make our Nation a global leader in energy technology.

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

The second bill, which we considered yesterday, would impose a radical policy on our border areas that would undermine security coordination and bring polluting industries to some of our most pristine parks and historic sites, even though our border enforcement officials have said such legislation is unnecessary.

That's what we worked on yesterday. Not jobs, not student loans, not transportation, but a piece of legislation that they said wasn't necessary.

These are not what Congress ought to be focusing on this week or next week. Let's turn our attention to our most pressing issues--student loans, construction jobs, keeping middle class taxes low, and reducing deficits--instead of wasting the American people's time on partisan bills that won't solve any of our real problems.

Mr. Chairman, I'm hopeful that either in the next 24 hours or in the next 9 days we will, in fact, pass a jobs bill that will create jobs, and everybody knows that that's the highway bill.

The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has again expired.

Mr. RUSH. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. HOYER. The Senate has passed a highway bill in a bipartisan fashion with half of the Republicans in the United States Senate voting for it, and with a very conservative Republican ranking member, Jim Inhofe, and a very liberal chairwoman, Barbara Boxer, who came together and had the ability to compromise and come to agreement.

I tell my friends on the Republican side, that's what the American people want us to do. If we do that, it will raise the confidence of our people, of our business community, of our country. That will be the best thing we can do for our country, to come together in a bipartisan fashion, as the United States Senate did, and act.

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