Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I yield myself 5 minutes.

I thank Chairman Simpson for his leadership.

This energy, water, and nuclear security bill is liberty's business. It is about national nuclear security, about energy security, about jobs and economic growth here at home through upgrading our ports, preventing flooding, assuring fresh water from coast to coast, and inventing the new energy technologies required to reposition America for energy security in our homeland for a new century. Bottom line: our bill is about the business of ensuring liberty for our country.

The United States entered this 21st century with a net reliance on foreign oil. Renewed conflicts in Iraq, Ukraine's Crimea, and Syria once again warn us that U.S. energy dependence on imported product remains our chief strategic vulnerability. Throughout the last century, American reliance on foreign oil grew dangerously. Our share of imports in the Nation's total energy supply rose from 42 percent in 1990 to more than 50 percent by 1998 and, frankly, keeps bobbing between 40 and 50 percent now. It consumes over half of the trade deficit we hold with the world. This energy dependence seriously weakens America.

As Michael Klare states in his book, ``Blood and Oil'':

Every economic recession since World War II has come on the heels of a petroleum shortage.

I would add, the millions of lost jobs associated with those recessions has harmed America gravely.

Just since 2003, the United States has spent $2.3 trillion--trillion--importing foreign petroleum. At a price per barrel of $100, the total bill for America importing oil over the next 25 years could cost us over $10 trillion. That is $10 trillion of hemorrhage of U.S. wealth, millions of lost jobs, and the economic muscle that goes with it.

If you want to understand why our middle class is shrinking and more people are falling into poverty, just look at the energy trade deficit this country endures and has endured for a quarter century. Those numbers clearly demonstrate the lost energy opportunity inside our own Nation. We are ceding wealth, jobs, economic power, and our national security. If you really want to understand why America has developed a horrendous budget deficit, you had best take a look at the energy trade deficit as a major cause of our condition as we have ceded our wealth elsewhere. In fact, the entirety of our committee bill at $34 billion cannot begin to compensate for the over $200 billion in imported foreign oil that will pour into our country this year alone--eight times more than the value of our bill.

Recent natural gas discoveries and added domestic oil drilling provide our Nation with some breathing room, but only for a while, as these supplies are not endless--they are precious--to help us as we transition to a broad, diversified energy portfolio that captures the energy wealth here for our Nation.

Congress must lead our Nation to restore energy security and greater prosperity for our Nation through the innovation that this bill incentivizes. The horizontal drilling technologies that are creating a boom in domestic natural gas discoveries were made possible by research done through our bill at the Department of Energy.

America must invest in our own energy future across all energy sectors. We must restore some of our lost economic luster. Alternatively, if we cede our future to China, Russia, and Singapore, we will have missed the call of our generation.

A focus on high-impact energy research at the Department through renewable technologies, advanced energy, and applied energy are critical, as well as funding for the Advanced Manufacturing Office to lead us to a new era of energy and job creation.

Further, the increased allocation for the Corps of Engineers is vital to restore our infrastructure, supporting thousands of jobs in economic growth as we upgrade our fresh water systems while our Nation adapts to climate change and more parched places as deserts grow in places we thought were easily habitable.

Though our bill provides $5.492 billion to support the Corps, keep in mind there are no new starts in it, and there are over $60 billion worth of project requests that are backlogged that we simply can't address. Imagine what potential job creation could be induced coast to coast by meeting this massive Corps backlog.

The bill before us today takes a modest step forward in diversifying America's energy sources. Frankly, based on the challenge facing our Nation for almost a third of a century now, this bill's bottom line should be tripled to get us faster to a solution for liberty and security. We know with energy conservation and additional innovation we can meet our goal, but our imperative must be sooner rather than later. Our generation should make it easier for the next generation, not hand the problem to them.

I do have concerns with amounts provided to certain accounts within the nonproliferation activities of the National Security Agency and the Defense Environmental Cleanup account, where, despite the chairman's best efforts, the subcommittee's allocation was simply insufficient to address the many competing needs.

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Ms. KAPTUR. I thank the gentleman for raising this important issue. I agree we should set our public transparency standards high when looking at taxpayer-funded projects. A portion of the risk-based data management activity is intended to be used for improving FracFocus, and as we move forward I will work with the gentleman to ensure that our intent is included in the conference report language.

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Ms. KAPTUR. I am prepared to close, Mr. Chairman, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, an energy-hungry world will continue to push up global energy prices and availability. America must not get caught in this ensuing juggernaut. Our liberty and economic security truly are at stake. The world is changing and so America must adapt, and adapt sooner rather than later.

Over a quarter century ago, President Jimmy Carter was not wrong when he equated the struggle for energy independence as the moral equivalent of war. America, since, has been engaged in plenty of fighting abroad in oil-rich, unstable regions of our world. Instead, we must refocus and draw forth the powers of our own land, performing something worthy to be remembered, as Daniel Webster reminds us every day. Energy security is such a calling.

Certainly, this bill leaves unmet opportunities on the table--too much, in my view--but its direction is clear. It aims at liberty. It looks forward to meeting that objective by moving this bill forward.

I want to thank Chairman Simpson, Rob Blair, Taunja Berquam, and our entire staff for their willingness to work together, for preparing a bill that is inclusive and pragmatic. I appreciate Chairman Simpson's gentlemanly reach out to our side of the aisle.

I also want to thank all the staff who helped. Their countless long hours, late nights during holidays and so forth, and their thoughtful insights have been critical to helping us prepare this legislation that is aimed at restoring liberty, creating jobs in America, reassuming economic power here at home, strengthening our energy portfolio and water security for future generations, and, fundamentally, our national security.

I ask our colleagues as we move through the amendment process to help us move this bill forward in America's interest.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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