E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 110 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 154 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2008 No. 74 House of Representatives The House met at 10:30 a.m. and was running for the Senate, our former col- most people in the House and the Sen- called to order by the Speaker pro tem- league, Rick Lazio, called for sus- ate. pore (Mr. PASTOR). pending the 18.3 cent Federal gas tax And, of course, the irony as Senator and actually repealing the 4.3 cent per f CLINTON herself intimated is that this gallon surcharge that had been en- gas tax holiday is actually a holiday DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO acted. ‘‘What Mrs. CLINTON needs to for the big producers, refiners and im- TEMPORE do,’’ he said, ‘‘is get out of the motor- porters. They’re the ones who pay the The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- cade, get out of fantasyland and get in tax. The tax is charged to them. In fore the House the following commu- contact with the issues that are affect- nication from the Speaker: ing real New Yorkers, the prices at the order for any of the savings to trickle down to the pockets of motorists, the WASHINGTON, DC, pump.’’ May 6, 2008. It’s instructive what then candidate oil and gas interests would have to de- I hereby appoint the Honorable ED PASTOR CLINTON had to say. She and her aides cide that they’re going to pass their to act as Speaker pro tempore on this day. fired back immediately at Mr. Lazio savings on to the rest of us. As Senator NANCY PELOSI, for offering what they said was a short- CLINTON pointed out in 2000, it’s a po- Speaker of the House of Representatives. sighted solution that could jeopardize tential bonanza for them. There’s no f money to fix highways. In fact, they indication that they’re looking to MORNING-HOUR DEBATE handed out fliers that used quotes from share. Look at what they did with Republican leaders to bolster her point record profits of $10.6 billion for The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- that repealing the gas tax surcharge ExxonMobil. Did they use that extra ant to the order of the House of Janu- could be harmful. The Republicans dis- money to reduce prices at the pump? ary 4, 2007, the Chair will now recog- couraged such measures, the flier said, nize Members from lists submitted by because they could diminish highway The good news is that the American the majority and minority leaders for construction money. public is not buying this political morning-hour debate. Senator CLINTON said, in debating trick. Even though they are aggravated f Mr. Lazio: at spiraling high gas prices and some- ‘‘We’re totally reliant on the gas tax body is offering them, in a sense, free FEDERAL GAS TAX HOLIDAY A to do things like finishing I–86 in the money, the American public sees BAD IDEA Southern Tier, or the fast-ferry harbor through that. Fifty-one percent agree The Chair recognizes the gentleman works up in Rochester, as well as work that it is a bad idea, even in the face of from Oregon (Mr. BLUMENAUER) for 5 we need to do here in the city. So you high gas prices. Even more tellingly, in minutes. can count on me to support infrastruc- the New York Times survey published Mr. BLUMENAUER. Thank you very ture,’’ as she explained her opposition. yesterday, when the public was asked much, Mr. Speaker. And indeed she lashed out at the plan are politicians proposing this tax holi- One of the most disappointing turns for the outright repeal of the 4.3 cent day because it’s good for America or in the current campaign has been the gas tax, calling it ‘‘a bad deal for New because it’s good, they think, for the proposal of Senator CLINTON and Sen- York and a potential bonanza for the politicians, 70 percent said CLINTON and ator MCCAIN for the ‘‘gas tax holiday.’’ oil companies.’’ MCCAIN are doing this because it’s good One doesn’t want to be cynical, but Well, the facts that Senator CLINTON for the politicians, not for America. thinking back to Senator MCCAIN’s argued in 2000 are still true today. The Straight Talk Express in the year 2000, timing, if anything, is worse, because Mr. Speaker, I hope that we can get it would be hard to imagine that he for the first time in history, the Fed- past the campaign silly season, that thought it was a good idea back then, eral highway trust fund is going into people explain to Senator MCCAIN and that he wouldn’t have stooped to this deficit, and this would call for an addi- Senator CLINTON that their earlier op- political trick. It wouldn’t have been tional reduction of $9 billion to $10 bil- position is more important today. This consistent with what he was saying and lion and 300,000 highway construction is one area ought to be beyond sort of how he represented himself. jobs. It actually is coming at a time the partisan political warfare: It is As far as Senator CLINTON is con- when we should as a country be finding time for us to rebuild and renew Amer- cerned, we don’t have to guess about ways to invest more in infrastructure, ica, to deal with the first deficit in the her position in 2000. We know because not less. Virtually every independent trust fund, and not play political her opponent in 2000 when she was first expert acknowledges that as well as games. b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H3053 . VerDate Aug 31 2005 00:34 May 07, 2008 Jkt 069060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A06MY7.000 H06MYPT1 jbell on PROD1PC69 with HOUSE H3054 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE May 6, 2008 NON ENERGY POLICY tries, foreign dictators like Chavez And that’s just the way it is. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The down there in Venezuela and OPEC, f they set the price on crude oil in the Chair recognizes the gentleman from ENERGY PLAN NOW Texas (Mr. POE) for 5 minutes. world, not American oil companies. So Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, as gasoline we need to take care of ourselves. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The prices soar, as our truckers are about Now here’s a map, Mr. Speaker. We Chair recognizes the gentleman from to sit on the side of the road because drill off the coast of Texas, where I’m South Carolina (Mr. BARRETT) for 1 they can’t get enough money to buy from, we drill off Louisiana and part of minute. fuel for those diesel trucks that they’re Mississippi and Alabama. But you see Mr. BARRETT of South Carolina. driving up and down our highways to all these red zones here? Even off the Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This past week for the first time, deliver goods, people are wondering, sacred coast of California, there’s crude some Americans paid $4 a gallon for how did we get here? oil out there and we can drill for crude Well, there are several reasons how oil but this Congress won’t let us take gas. The national average for regular we got in this mess, and Congress is care of ourselves. Why? Because the en- unleaded gasoline now is $3.61 a gallon. partly to blame. First of all, we had vironmental lobby is so strong in this Americans have never paid such a tre- this theory that ethanol is going to Congress that they have had fear tac- mendous amount of their hard-earned save us all, so we subsidized the pro- tics that prevent us from drilling here, dollars on gasoline, Mr. Speaker, and duction of ethanol. What that has done off the east coast, and way up here in the high gasoline prices are taking a toll on their pocketbooks. is drive food prices up around the ANWR in Alaska. Open up the Outer Many issues are responsible for the world, because in the United States, in- Continental Shelf and start drilling. You might be interested to know higher gas prices, but in order to lessen stead of eating corn or letting it go to America’s dependency on foreign and feed our beef, we’re burning it in our right here off of Florida, 47.5 miles, there’s a new rig going out there and unstable energy sources, we need to be vehicles, and that’s caused world food looking right here at home. We’re rely- prices to go up, not just in the United it’s built by the Chinese and the Cu- bans because there’s an oil field out ing too much on foreign energy sources States but all over the world. and our dependency on these sources is Costco and Sam’s Club are now ra- there. But we won’t drill there. a risk for our national security. We tioning rice. Who would have thought So we need to drill offshore. And we have natural and technological re- in this year, 2008, in America we can’t need to let our refineries produce more.