Franks Joins House Republicans to Hold a News Conference on the Continuing GOP Floor Protest

Press Release

U.S. Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) joined Minority Whip Roy Blunt (MO-07), Congressmen Phil Gingrey (GA-11), Jeff Flake (AZ-06), John Linder (GA-07), Jean Schmidt (OH-02), and Virginia Foxx (NC-05) in holding a press conference today on the ongoing GOP Floor protest, calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold an up-or-down vote on energy legislation that would lift the bureaucratic red tape currently holding America's energy reserves under lock and key.

Excerpt:

BLUNT: Well, thank you all for joining us again today. We've had 109 members on the floor since the Congress adjourned, and we're going to have more members coming back.

Our members are finding at home that what we're doing here in Washington is appreciated that at least somebody is willing to fight for the number-one issue for their families today, and that's gas prices, soon to be followed by energy prices, as we get to the fall.....

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FRANKS: Well, thank you. You know, I think that the economic implications of this issue have been very well stated here already. And I would just like to bring two perspectives.

One, as a former oil and gas producer myself, I can suggest to you that, if you can get the bureaucratic red tape out of the way, companies can move in and drill very quickly and turn this process around very quickly.

Secondarily, small companies are the ones that usually find the new reserves in this country, and then the big companies come in and develop it. Currently our protocol and regulatory scheme have made it almost impossible for small companies to really be effective at finding new reserves in this country.

Then I'd also like to talk about implications that go beyond the economics. Every day, we have terrorist enemies doing everything they can to plot attacks against this country.

Iran is enriching uranium every day. And I would suggest to you that, if we didn't buy so much foreign oil, some of which finds its way into terrorist coffers, terrorists wouldn't have enough money to buy a box of sparklers to hurt this country.

It is very important that we do what we can to become energy self-sufficient so that we don't fund those enemies that are willing to kill their children in order to kill ours. And if we don't do something pretty soon, it may come to a day when high gas prices will be the least of our problems.

Thank you.

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