Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1229, Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1230, Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on this very important issue, important in having an immediate impact on America's families.

They are feeling the pain at the pump. Our families, our workers, our small businesses, every day it gets worse for them, the price at the pump. So what can we do about it? Well, we can do a number of things, and we will, that we have been advocating for.

Of course we must increase domestic production, and there is a way to do that. But that is not all that we have to do. The American people understand that their tax dollars are going to subsidies for Big Oil. If we ended those subsidies, we could save over $30 billion for the American people.

To put it into context, my colleagues, for the first quarter of this year, the Big Five oil companies made profits of over $30 billion. Why are we, the taxpayers, subsidizing their drilling of oil when they are making huge profits, doing it in the free market?

President Obama has written to leaders in Congress asking to bring a bill to the floor to end these subsidies. I have written to Speaker Boehner asking him to do so. He has said the oil companies should pay their fair share. Mr. Ryan, the chair of the Budget Committee, has acknowledged that in his own district. And yet, in the budget that is proposed by the Republicans, Big Oil still gets a big subsidy from the taxpayer. It would mean a great deal to us, in a situation where we are saying to seniors, We are going to cut Medicare; you are going to have to pay $6,000 a year more, at a minimum, for fewer benefits because we want to cut Medicare at the same time we are giving tax cuts, big tax breaks to Big Oil.

So here we are today. Just last week, ExxonMobil reported $10.7 billion in profits during the first quarter of 2011. Over $10 billion in profits, a 69 percent jump from last year. In fact, this quarter marked some of the largest oil profits since 2008.

Democrats are introducing comprehensive legislation. Mr. Tim Bishop is going to be leading us on the previous question, which we urge our colleagues to vote ``no'' on so that we can bring up Mr. Bishop's legislation.

Much of what that does is to eliminate tax breaks for the five largest oil companies, saving over $31 billion over 10 years. Think of it. We are trying to just save $31 billion over 10 years, when the oil companies made $31 billion in profits in the first quarter of this year. That is so unfair to the taxpayer.

Legislation to ensure that oil companies are paying the royalties that are due the American taxpayer. Hold Big Oil and the industry accountable for price gouging at the pump. Use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to increase the oil supply and combat price hikes. In addition to that, we must end the harmful speculation which Wall Street tells us accounts for a large percentage of the increase in the price at the pump.

We also will have measures that increase American energy production. It is very important. We don't disagree that we have to have production, but we do agree that we have to do other things that have a more immediate effect on the price at the pump. And we can do that. And we must invest in our clean energy future, which will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, which is a national security issue, which will enable us to create new green jobs in our country, a jobs issue which is a moral obligation we have to the American people to create jobs.

But what the Republicans are proposing today has blinders on it. It does not recognize that what it is doing does nothing to reduce the price at the pump in the short term; that there are many other avenues that we can proceed down in addition to increasing domestic production; and that the American people need something fresher and newer on this than being sabotaged every few years about the price at the pump while we, the taxpayers, are giving subsidies to Big Oil to drill while they are making profits in the first quarter of 1 year that are almost more than what we would save for the taxpayer.

They don't need a subsidy to drill. They don't need an incentive. They have the profit motive, and it has served them well.

We in this Congress have to be thinking about the future. How do we prevent this from happening again, but also how do we have the most immediate effect on the price at the pump? Congressman Tim Bishop gives us that opportunity today, recognizing that we want to have the full diversity of energy possibilities available to us so that the American taxpayer and the American consumer are well-served.

So I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question, to allow Mr. Tim Bishop to bring up an initiative that he will talk about that addresses concerns of the American people that they know about, that they want to end subsidies on Big Oil, especially when we are talking about it in the context of we must cut investments in Medicare, seniors must pay more, but don't ask us to cut subsidies to Big Oil.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question.

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