House Happenings for This Week

House Happenings for This Week

Hello, everyone. We had another busy week here in the House of Representatives. We spent a lot of time talking about the gas crisis which is happening across America. And it really is a crisis. Gas is over $3 a gallon in many parts of the country. Our families are hurting. Our businesses are hurting. It's placing a real drain on the monthly budget. Our economy is strong, and we want to keep it that way. And that means getting a handle on our nation's energy problem. I've talked to our Republican members about this a lot, and we want to do everything in our power to help.

Last week, Rep. Adam Putnam, who is the chairman of our Republican Policy Committee, agreed to spearhead our efforts. He's going to talk to the committee chairmen and see how we can move several additional pieces of legislation that we believe might help us deal with some of America's energy problems. In fact, we're hoping to bring two of these measures to the House floor this week.

The first proposal deals with price gouging. Right now, the states are responsible for enforcing most price gouging statutes. We want to establish some federal civil penalties for violations, and we want to empower the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to work with state attorneys general and improve standards and enforcement mechanisms.

The second initiative in our plan deals streamlining the process for building refineries. We touched on this issue with legislation passed after Hurricane Katrina. We hope to do more to end some of the bureaucratic hurdles that slow refinery siting.

Soon after we'll deal with opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which is in Alaska for those of you who don't know. There are untapped resources there, and we simply want the ability to produce energy safely and protect our environment. House Republicans have long supported this measure. But Democrats, particularly in the Senate, have killed it every time.

Also, we want to limit the boutique fuels that are out there. For those of you just hearing about this, it's an out-of-control situation. Environmentalists have lobbied for too many different types of fuel blends. The result has been higher costs for consumers. We want to get a handle on this situation. Consumers shouldn't bear the brunt of environmental lobbying.

We agree with the President that we should limit deposits into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during the summer months. Our reserve is at or near capacity so limiting the deposits for a few months shouldn't hurt.

Finally, we want to further explore alternative sources of energy, like hydrogen. I've said time and time again, we need to lessen our dependence on foreign sources of oil. We do too much importing from unstable nations like Nigeria, Iran and Venezuela. We need to diversify our energy sources so that we aren't reliant on foreign governments. I think hydrogen is key to this effort. It can be produced from virtually any energy source, is almost emission free and has great potential. It's worth a try. I rode in a hydrogen car recently. In fact, I'm such a proponent of renewable fuels, I have plans to soon buy my own flex fuel car that can run on E85, which is an ethanol blend. They're good cars, and we all need to do whatever we can to ease America's energy problems.

We're working hard to bring some relief to this energy crisis. Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are determined to block every piece of significant legislation we offer. Like I said last week, the Democrats are guilty of "Democratic doubletalk." They say and do one thing in the halls of Congress. Most times they're playing politics and other political games. But when the cameras start rolling, they claim no responsibility for any of America's problems, even though they're the ones blocking the solution.

We're also going to take up a lobbying reform bill this week. This bill is needed. I've said that time and time again. The people elected to represent you in Washington should be held to the highest ethical standard and have the confidence of people back home. It also reforms the earmark process to bring greater transparency and accountability to our nation's Capitol. I think this bill is a good start, and I'm committed to making sure we get this done.

We also have a budget resolution scheduled to come up soon, and we're still waiting to see if the Senate will pass an immigration bill so we can begin working with them on a compromise.

I've talked to our Members and I know this much: House Republicans are committed to getting the hard work done for the American people. It's easy to stand to the side and criticize without offering an agenda like the Democrats do. We put forth the hard solutions, and then we really work to make them successful. And at the end of the day, that's what good lawmaking is all about.

That's it for now. Until next time, this is Denny.

http://speaker.house.gov/journal/060502_weeklyupdate.shtml