Former Vice President Protection Act of 2008

Floor Speech

Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, I don't rise in opposition to the Former Vice President Protection Act; I appreciate the work that has been done by the committee on this measure. I don't come here to deride any of their efforts. It's legislation that we probably need to pass.

But I do have to say that I just returned from my district in Florida that extends all the way from the suburbs of Orlando to Jacksonville city limits and has the suburbs on the south of Jacksonville through six counties, 32 cities. I spent a wonderful weekend with my constituents, more than a dozen meetings, probably saw more than 1,000 folks this past weekend, enjoyed being home, Florida sun, actually, just a beautiful weekend.

But I have to tell you, my colleagues, from one end of my district, and my house is just within a few blocks of the southern border, all the way to the Jacksonville city limits, traveling through most of those six counties, not one person came to me and said, Mr. Mica, go back to Washington, pass the Vice Presidential Protection Act. But I will tell you that everywhere I went there was one thing on people's mind, and that's the cost of energy.

With the storms, our heart-felt thoughts and prayers go to the people of Texas and all the area that was hit along the coast and up through the heartland of America this past few days. Another natural disaster, my area was hit some time ago by three hurricanes. We have had tornadoes, and we have had floods. We all have to deal with those.

From that hurricane that we saw hit the coast, that had immediate impact in that we had, unfortunately, some price adjustments, some price gouging by people taking advantage of the situation with just the slight turnoff of the refineries and delay and production of energy.

As I traveled up and down my district, some of the gas stations closed early. Many of them had plastic bags over the lower cost grade of fuel. People were concerned about energy.

I am not talking about people, and I have some very wealthy people on the south end in the suburbs and in the north end, that don't have to worry about $4 and $5 fuel costs per gallon. I am talking about working men and women, single parents, people struggling, retirees that are trying to pay their bills.

Again, none of them talked to me about passing a vice presidential protection act, but they said, Congressman Mica, go back to Washington, and whether the cameras and lights are on, and whether the gallery is full or empty, whether the press is here, or whatever the subject, you bring, as our elected representative to the people's House, the House of Representatives, our concern that we want our government, our Congress, our House of Representatives and the United States Senate to act to pass a comprehensive energy plan.

Now, they get it out there. They understand that Congress has that responsibility, and it has the ability to do that.

Now, I served as a leader of the Transportation Committee, and let me tell you how quickly this place can work if it wants to. I have agreed with Mr. Oberstar, my Democrat counterpart. He is the Chair of the Transportation Committee; I am the Republican leader. I agreed on a Friday to introduce legislation which we agreed to, again, on a Friday. On a Monday, we introduced it in the House. On a Tuesday, we passed it through the House of Representatives. On a Wednesday we passed it through the United States Senate. On a Thursday night at 7 o'clock, the President signed it into law.

After 9/11 we came together in a national emergency. Now, we didn't have a terrorist hit, but we had a national emergency. Our people are hurting, people are hurting. It's the folks that the other side of the aisle claim to be trying to be the advocates for, and they have been standing in the way.

I have been around this place for more than two decades. I come from the most bipartisan family since 1889 to serve in the House of Representatives. I have never seen the House closed or Members denied the opportunity to discuss in a time of national crisis, and we have a crisis on our hands. Energy is not only affecting the price of gas, if you haven't been to the supermarket lately, my friends in the House, anyone who is in elected office who may not get to the supermarket, I advise you to get to the supermarket and see the sticker shock that the same folks are seeing, exorbitant prices at the fuel pump people are paying for average goods just to try to keep food on their table.

So we have a crisis. I have never seen a time when we weren't even allowed to bring an issue that would deal with a crisis, and here we know need a comprehensive approach. It's not just drilling, although I have a record way back to my days on the floor of the legislature of promoting responsible exploration, development of our domestic resources.

Sometimes it was a pretty lonely caucus that I belonged to. I was the only member from the Florida delegation, Democrat or Republican, to support us keeping energy independent in a responsible manner. Maybe I was ahead of my time, but I didn't want us to become dependent on foreign energy. That's where we are right now.

They have got us right where they want us. When you have a natural disaster, like we had this weekend, it drives speculation. It drives the cost up. It drove the availability up, because there is nothing like driving to a gas station and seeing a plastic bag over all of the pumps and no fuel available.

I am disappointed. Again, I don't want to detract, what this committee is doing is a responsible act, but no one asked me to come here to pass a Vice Presidential protection act. But I am telling you, they told me to come back to Washington to, to stay in Washington, to work in Washington, and, in a bipartisan fashion, to pass all of the above.

They get it, it's drilling, and we are not talking about the politics of drilling, and I have seen the politics of drilling in my own State of Florida for years. That was bad politics, and it got us in this bad situation.

What we need to do with extracting oil or gas or natural resources from off our shores is use the latest technology and base our exploration and development on sound science and good practices that do not harm the environment. Don't tell me you can't do it, you can do it. We can do it. We can extract it.

Why should we be dependent on the Mid East, Nigeria, Venezuela, and other foreign sources of energy? Folks, it doesn't make sense.

But you know what? The American people got it. They have been busy out there. They are trying to raise a family. They are trying to put food on the table. They are trying to send their kids to school. They are struggling to keep their jobs in a depressed market right now, and all they want is a little help from the people they sent here to do their job.

They get it about drilling. They get it about alternative sources. You know, just drilling isn't going to do it, and just developing our resources, which we can do, and we can do it in an expedited fashion. But they know the long-term fix is to get off that, to have alternative fuels.

I submit that the proposal by the Republicans, the American Energy Act, does just that. It's all of the above. Somehow we have gotten it.

Now we can't afford a sham in coming forward, and you know, some people are looking for political cover. They have an election around the corner. We have got to have a vote on something to make it look like we are doing something. But that does not solve the problem.

I plead, on behalf of those people that I saw this weekend in the Seventh Congressional District, to do something meaningful, to do a comprehensive energy act. It will start to solve some of our problems.

We can start becoming energy independent. We can lower the price of fuel and food that people depend on to feed their families. Then we can start building this economy again. The great opportunity that I have had in the last year and a half, leading the Transportation Committee, is not just see the projects and things going on in my district, but see the magnificence of this country from sea to shining sea.

This is an incredible country, and there isn't any challenge that we have never been able to undertake and also win at. We are creative people. We can do it.

All those people out there that are working so hard, sending their money here, relying on us to do something, to be their representative in this governing body that has so much say, let's just do our job. Put the politics aside, put November aside, put these people forward. That's all they are asking is for us to do our job.

So I stayed here when the lights went out last week until I had the opportunity to speak, and C-SPAN was turned off and the Speaker had left and the place was closed down. I came back early today to tell you that they did not ask me, not one of them, to pass the Former Vice President Protection Act, but they did ask me, please do something about our energy, Mr. Mica. You are our Representative. Go back there and tell them that we need their help to get the economy going, to get this situation under control so we can give a great opportunity to our children, to our hopes and dreams for this great country.

I know we can do it. I know we can do it. Our predecessors have done it. I don't know why we are not doing it.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

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