Providing for Consideration of H.R. Targeting Resources to Communities in Need Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of and Providing for Consideration of S. Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building, and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the previous question so that we can immediately consider H.R. 6858, the American Energy Independence from Russia Act.

This administration's insistence on destroying our energy independence has worsened the financial strain on American families, who have already been burdened by crushing inflation under the Biden administration, and weakened our national security posture by making us more reliant on foreign sources of energy.

Thanks to the incompetence of the present administration and this House's failure to secure America's energy independence, Americans are left poorer, weaker, and with a bleaker outlook toward their future.

Mr. Speaker, it is pretty clear how we got to this point. The Biden administration's efforts to weaken our Nation's energy security began on their very first day in office when the President canceled the Keystone XL pipeline. Since then, the administration has taken further action to discourage domestic oil production by halting leases for drilling on Federal lands, the latest of which came just last week when the Biden administration canceled another round of contracts in Alaska.

These policies have forced our President to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to keep gas prices from rising even more, but it is not working.

At a time when Russia is fueling this barbaric violence on the Ukrainian people through its gas exports, holding countries around the world hostage due to their reliance on Russian oil, we need to ensure the United States not only ends permanently all oil imports from Russia, but that the United States has a sustained domestic supply to supplant Russia as a leading net exporter of oil. America, and the world, is safer when it is our country that is in charge of our own destiny.

Passing the American Energy Independence from Russia Act will also have a tremendous economic impact right here at home, at a time when our fuel costs continue to skyrocket and hurt the pockets of the American people. Instead of taking the commonsense approach put forward by this legislation, the President and his allies in this House send diplomats to negotiate with tyrants and dictators, sworn enemies of America, such as Iran and Venezuela, seeking deals to import their oil to the United States. Venezuela, in particular, which sits on the world's largest known oil reserves, cannot even keep its own people fed or electricity running due to the malice of its socialist and Russian- allied leadership.

Just today, we learned that the Biden administration is looking to ease the sanctions on Venezuela in exchange for promises that the Maduro regime will enter into dialogue with its opposition. Unbelievable.

Let's end this nonsense and pass the American Energy Independence from Russia Act. It is time the elected officials in this body, the ones elected to represent the American people, stop doing the bidding of our adversaries and promote domestic production of oil.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to move this extraordinarily important measure forward for our families and for our country's safety.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source