Barring Access of Long-Haul Mexican Trucks
Floor Speech
BARRING ACCESS OF LONG-HAUL MEXICAN TRUCKS -- (House of Representatives - September 09, 2008)
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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I thank my friend for yielding, and I think the underlying bill has some merit.
I'm curious, my friend from Oregon getting so exercised and excited about this debate. I appreciate his passion. I would, however, correct his amnesia because bill after bill after bill that resulted in legislation passed through this House that would increase American-made energy for Americans did so over the previous 6 years before this Democrat majority came into office and was stymied in the Senate by 41 Democrats. That's all it takes in the Senate, as you know, Mr. Speaker. That's all it takes.
So what we heard over the last 5 weeks--I know it's what my friend from Oregon heard at home--is that the American people are tired of all this. They want action. They want American-made energy for Americans. They want to decrease our dependence on foreign oil, and they want action.
And so over the last 2 days we've been debating bill after bill, and they've been some wonderful bills. We've named a number of post offices. We've done a lot of interesting work, but what we haven't done is address the number one issue of the American people, and that is the high cost of gasoline and energy.
So we look forward with great anticipation to the bill that will be rolled out later this week. Granted it hasn't been an open process. Granted it hasn't been a fair process. But we hope that an open rule will allow that bill to come to the floor so that we can have an opportunity to have Members of this House of Representatives, as the rules would allow, have input, to represent their constituents, again, on the most important issue of the day.
We hope that the bill doesn't include remarkable tax increases on domestic
oil producers so this Democrat majority takes us further in the direction of dependence on foreign oil. We hope that isn't the case.
We hope that the bill doesn't include ridiculous components that make it so that it would be impossible to utilize 80 percent of the resources that we have offshore.
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Mr. PRICE of Georgia. We hope that the Democrat majority has listened over the last 5 weeks when they've been home on their vacation. We hope that they've listened to their constituents and recognize that folks at home want us to explore offshore, not just off four eastern States, Mr. Speaker, but off the areas where there is significant resources that we know is there. That means off the western coast of Florida. That means off the west coast. That means utilizing deep sea exploration in Alaska and also onshore exploration.
We hope that the bill contains limitations on the ability to sue and hold up leases. Every single lease that has been let by this administration in the last 2 years is now in court, over a thousand of them, because of the lax laws on liability.
Mr. Speaker, we look forward to a commonsense bill. We look forward to an all-of-the-above bill. We look forward to a bill that will answer the number one concern of the American people, that they want American-made energy for Americans now.
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