Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources Act Of 2010
Floor Speech
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Mr. CASSIDY moves to recommit the bill H.R. 3534 to the Committee on Natural Resources with instructions to report the same back to the House forthwith with the following amendment:
Strike section 231 and insert the following:
SEC. 231.--TERMINATION OF MORATORIA ON OFFSHORE DRILLING.
Notwithstanding, any other provision of this Act, the mortorium set forth in the Minerals Managment Service Notice to Lessees No. 2010-N04, dated May 30, 2010, the decision memorandum from the Secretary of the Interior to the Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement regarding the suspension of certain offshore permitting and drilling activities on the Outer Continental Shelf, dated July 12, 2010, and any suspension of operations issued in connection with the moratorium or the decision memorandum, shall have no force or effect.
Mr. RAHALL (during the reading). Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent the reading of the motion be dispensed with.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from West Virginia?
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Louisiana is recognized for 5 minutes in support of his motion.
Mr. CASSIDY. I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady).
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, with millions of American families out of work, Republicans will fight for American energy workers and their jobs. The question is will Democrats fight alongside us?
The drilling moratorium is killing American energy jobs now. It needs to end now. The rigs are already leaving overseas. So are the jobs, equipment, and the capital. Workers are being laid off, small businesses are struggling to survive, and they won't. The Melancon amendment doesn't save these jobs, these families, these small businesses whose livelihoods are at risk. It does not end the current moratorium that's devastating us now. The Republican motion to recommit will.
It is the only vote on this floor where each lawmaker can stand up and fight for these American energy workers right now.
Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. Speaker, the gulf oil spill has been terrible for the gulf
coast. But as bad as it has been, the Federal Government's moratorium on deepwater drilling can be worse. And the tragedy of it is that it actually is not going to measurably improve safety.
Now, it's not me saying that, it's the entity, the National Academy of Engineering, eight of them, the President appointed them and asked them to approve and to look at his plan. They issued a statement after the blanket moratorium. These are the petroleum engineers. ``A blanket moratorium is not the answer. It will not measurably reduce risk. The tragedy has very specific causes. The blanket moratorium will have the indirect effect of harming thousands of workers and further impact State and local economies. We would in effect be punishing a large swath of people who were and are acting responsibly in providing a product the Nation needs. Overcome emotion with fact.''
What does that mean? Overcome emotion with fact. We're all angry. Everybody in here is angry at BP. Everybody in here in some way wants to punish those responsible.
On the other hand, it's not Big Oil being punished. It's not BP. It is the workers. It is the blue collar welders, roustabouts. It is the service industry. It is the caterers. They are the ones who are going to be punished.
And, by the way, the BP fund to recompense them is only $100 million. Estimated wages lost are $700 million. It is not going to come close to covering it. These people don't want an unemployment check. They want a paycheck.
In case you think I overestimate, these are the most conservative estimates of the economic impact. Over 8,000 jobs lost in the gulf coast, 12,000 nationwide, $700 million in lost wages, $2.1 billion in lost economic activity in the gulf coast, and nearly $2.7 billion lost nationwide.
Now, it's not just the President's engineers; it's also the President's cochairs of his Presidential commission. Bob Graham said--former Senator from Florida--There is a disconnect between Washington and the gulf coast in the sense of urgency needed in winding down the moratorium.
Bill Reilly said, Questions were raised by witnesses. Unanimously, they opposed the moratorium, even among the fishermen.
Now, the other Reilly quote was, It is not clear to me why it should take so long to reassure oneself about safety considerations in those rigs.
So we have the engineers. We have the cochairmen of the Presidential commission. We also have a Federal judge. When the Federal judge threw out the first moratorium, he said, The administration simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs, the local economy, the gulf region.
So we've heard from engineers. We've heard from the cochair. We've heard from a Federal judge. Most importantly, let's hear from the families.
CHARLIE MELANCON earlier spoke movingly of families in his district who fear they will lose it all because of this moratorium. There are people who have walked up to me and said, Hey, I would be with you but my concern is my district won't understand. These people don't fear a district. They fear dissolution of their financial health. Think about it. These are blue-collar people who made decisions about buying a house, about buying a car. They're going to have a 6-month interruption in income. Can any one of those families tolerate 6 months of lost wages?
I ask you to overcome emotion with fact. Agree with the engineers, agree with the cochair, agree with the Federal judge, but, most importantly, agree with the families. End this moratorium now.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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