Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008

Floor Speech

HOUSING AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY ACT OF 2008 -- (Senate - July 25, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DOMENICI. Before the Senator leaves the floor, I wanted to say--I wanted to talk about three things, briefly.

First, the Senator is talking about an amendment that I cosponsored with him. He adequately explained that if the tree were not filled by the majority leader, that amendment could very well be before the Senate. It is very important and very simple. We would have a chance at some point in time to vote, would we not, on that amendment? And it would say we are going to open the 85 percent of the offshore of the United States that is closed today, and we are going to let the Governors work with us and try to give them part of the royalties so we can have a seamless growth in the offshore production, which could indeed change the supply-demand pendulum that is currently causing this big spiral upwards that causes gasoline prices to go up--that is what that amendment is for?

Mr. COLEMAN. I say to my colleague from New Mexico, if the tree were not filled, and the majority had not used that procedure, we could put it on the table and it would be another option for Americans to tap into the resources that we have, more production and more opportunity. That would have an impact today by telling folks we would have less scarcity in the future.

I tell my friend from New Mexico, because the tree has been filled, we are not going to have the opportunity to have that debate.

Mr. DOMENICI. I want to make one more point. I heard the Senator talk about his hope for a bipartisan bill. We could get plenty of people on because there ought to be Democrats who are for this. Wouldn't it help a lot if eight or ten Democrats on the other side were to tell their leader they do not like this, they do not like the way he has filled the tree, he ought to take down some of those amendments so we could go to work, bipartisan or otherwise, so we could try to have an amendment to vote on? That would help, wouldn't it?

Mr. COLEMAN. I tell my friend from New Mexico I certainly can't influence what the majority leader does. But I have to believe the American people are talking to me as I know they are talking to the Senator from New Mexico. When I go home, they are scared, they are anxious. They have to be speaking to folks on both sides of the aisle. If that voice is then heard by the majority leader, maybe then we could have an opportunity to fully debate and fully consider the most important issue facing Americans today.

Mr. DOMENICI. I don't know where the voices are going. All the voices in America, up to 75 percent, are saying they want to open the offshore so we will have that asset for them to use. You cannot do that without having a vote on the Senate floor. That would not happen but by a miracle; you would have a vote.

Mr. COLEMAN. I say to my colleague, as one who is on the forefront of renewable technology in Minnesota, we pride ourselves as being the land of 10,000 lakes. Actually, we have more than that. Minnesota is prone to understatement.

But clean water and clean air is an important part of where we live. We are an environmentally strong State. The people of Minnesota are telling me: Senator Coleman, we have to do it all. We need to open drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf; we need more production; we need commitment to consume less, but we also need the opportunity to find more and produce more. Those are the voices I am hearing in Minnesota. I have to believe we are hearing it in New Mexico and Arkansas and Pennsylvania and throughout this country.

Mr. DOMENICI. That amendment the Senator has spoken of that he was going to offer, but it is out of order--he is going to have to ask the majority leader for permission. That is a real strange U.S. Senate. I never understood that we had anybody of whom you had to go ask permission, but that is the way they have it set up. You will have to go ask him. If he says no, you can't offer this wonderful amendment.

The second part of your amendment is the part that concerns energy, and it could be working within a couple of years, couldn't it? The part on batteries that would help us with new electric cars, it could come on by the numbers, by the hundreds?

Mr. COLEMAN. I would say to the Senator from New Mexico, there has to be strong bipartisan support for moving forward on new battery technology. I do not know who is against that; it is part of the solution. More production is part of the solution. More conservation is part of the solution. Addressing speculation is part of the solution. But, unfortunately, because of this process that we are seeing so much more frequently today, we are losing the ability for the Senate to do what the American public expects the Senate to do, and that is to have a full debate, put the ideas on the table, and let it come to conclusion. I want to come to conclusion.

I want a bill. We have a process that is set up right now to fail, to say we addressed it or say somebody blocked it, and move on without any real desire to solve the problem. I think that is a great tragedy. I think it is inconsistent with the traditions of the Senate.

Mr. DOMENICI. I want to say, the Senator from Minnesota couldn't put it more clearly before the American people than he has done. He has tried to offer an amendment that goes right to the problem and confronts it head on. The Senator has heard from the Parliamentarian--you have requested permission to offer the amendment, and you heard you cannot. Why you cannot is because the tree is filled; that is, the number of amendments allowed has been filled by amendments by the majority leader, and there is no more room. There is no more room for something really good--your amendment. There is no room for it.

You have shown everybody what that all means. This means we are going to be around here telling the American people: We cannot help you. We cannot help you with the amendment that you talked about because we cannot consider it.

Mr. COLEMAN. Unfortunately, the Senator from New Mexico is right. We do not have the opportunity to come before the American public and say we fully debated, fully considered the opportunity to produce more energy, to find more energy, to do more with conservation because the tree has been filled. Now, I believe that right of the Senate, that obligation and responsibility, cannot be fulfilled.

I yield the floor.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I am going to proceed. How much time do I have?

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 2 1/2 minutes remaining.

Mr. DOMENICI. I think the Senator from Oklahoma wanted to speak?

Mr. INHOFE. I have been listening to the debate. We need more supply. We need to have about 10 Democrats come along and help us to pass the legislation, the amendments that we have that would allow us to go out and drill and bring in energy.

Mr. President, I have two unanimous consent requests. First of all, I ask unanimous consent that my statement be reflected in the Record tomorrow on the LIHEAP, S. 3186 vote; and, second, my statement pertaining to the housing, H.R. 3221 vote tomorrow be printed in the Record.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I have spoken on the Senate floor about how the majority leader has used this process and eliminated our ability to offer amendments. I refer my colleagues to a speech given on the floor last night by the senior Senator from Pennsylvania where he lays out a compelling case against the growth of this process known as filling the tree by the majority leader in the Senate. It is a good speech. My colleagues should read it and heed it, heed the warning, because the more it is used, the less this place is a Senate. The more it is used, the less we have the rights of Senators to offer amendments and debate and have votes because we are curtailed, cut off, eliminated by this process. You ought to read the speech and be fearful of the future of this institution but, more important--equally important--your rights as a Senator. You ought to be worried about that.

It will not be the Senate you thought it was if you sit around and let this happen. We are going to stay on it until the leader understands that there is a group of Senators who do not like it and are not going to sit here and take it.

I would like to speak for a minute for the American people. I would like to talk about a great amendment that is going to be pushed aside because of this short-circuiting in this bill. This amendment gets to the heart of what we have been saying. We need to find more and use less.

We have a great quantity of American resources on the Atlantic and Pacific offshore coast. So the first part of the Coleman-Domenici amendment which Senator Coleman has been speaking about would allow the coastal States--to say to those areas that we can open the waters within their offshore boundaries for leasing 50 miles out. Believe it or not, we know how to do that. Platforms can be built 50 miles out or 60 miles out, drill down 50,000 feet and have 12 or 14 wells under one platform. They do not have to drill a platform for each well.

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