Providing for Consideration of H.R. 6003, Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 6003, PASSENGER RAIL INVESTMENT AND IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - June 10, 2008)

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Mr. THORNBERRY. I thank my colleague for yielding.

Madam Speaker, whatever the outcome of this debate on Amtrak today is, it is not going to affect my constituents very much. What does affect them every minute of every day is the price of energy. I would suggest that we should defeat the previous question on the rule so that the gentleman, Mr. Sessions, can offer an amendment to this bill that would bring to the floor a bill that has provisions that will do something about energy, that will do something on the issue that affects every American every moment of every day.

That amendment would bring to the floor H.R. 3089, the No More Excuses Energy Act, and at the same time, a discharge petition today is being filed to require the House to vote on that bill.

The philosophy of that bill is that we need to produce more energy of all kinds here at home, and we have run out of time to make excuses on why we can't do that. And you have heard some of those excuses and some of the political blame game already today during the debate. Some people want to blame China and India for using too much oil. Some people want to blame big oil companies. Other people want to blame OPEC for not producing enough. Some people even want to blame suburban moms for using too much energy as they drive their kids to sporting events in their minivans.

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They want to say they're using too much oil. But the point is, we've had enough of this blame game. The point is, it's time for this Congress to act and actually do something. And the way to act today is to vote down the previous question so today we can do something about the cost of energy throughout the country.

The No More Excuses Act takes the approach that we need to do more of everything. Yes, it allows drilling in Alaska and off our coasts, but it also encourages companies to take the CO

2 that goes up the smokestacks and put it back in the ground to flush out all of the oil on existing wells so that we can get every drop we can out of the ground.

This bill encourages the building of more refineries. It encourages the building of nuclear power plants. It encourages more wind energy. There is a lot of wind energy activity in my district, but what I hear from all of those involved is, when Congress just extends the tax credit 1 or 2 years at a time, there is no way that we can make the financial decisions we need to make.

So this bill that ought to come to the floor today would extend it by 10 years so that we can have a major investment in wind, as well as all the other forms of energy that we can produce here at home, because every bit of energy we produce here at home is one less barrel of oil we have to buy from overseas. And that makes sense.

What we're trying to do is to force some action that will make things better, not worse. Unfortunately, what the public and what the markets hear from this Congress so far the last 18 months are ideas that make things worse. They want to put a windfall profits tax on ``Big Oil'' so that they are discouraged from producing more oil. They may not know by the way, Madam Speaker, that 90 percent of the wells drilled in the continental United States are drilled by independent companies, not Big Oil. But what people hear from this Congress is we want to take away the incentives that encourage us to drill the Deepwater in the gulf. So other countries are there drilling, but we want to tie our hands and not produce the energy we have; we'd rather buy the oil from Saudi Arabia or Venezuela or Nigeria. That makes no sense.

There is no one perfect answer, but Madam Speaker, my argument is that rather than pointing the fingers of blame, it's time for no more excuses. It's time for action today, and that action can come by voting down the previous question so that the rule can be amended and we can take action today that produces more energy of all kinds here at home. That will matter to my constituents, and that will matter to all Americans.

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