[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3707 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3707

To provide the President with authority to temporarily freeze the price 
                of gasoline and other refined products.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 8, 2005

 Mr. Hinchey introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide the President with authority to temporarily freeze the price 
                of gasoline and other refined products.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Hurricane Katrina Emergency 
Temporary Energy Price Freeze Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    (a) The Congress hereby finds that--
            (1) Hurricane Katrina has caused extensive damage to 
        petroleum production, refining, and transportation facilities, 
        and extensive damage to port facilities and electricity 
        generation facilities, causing additional shutdowns of 
        refineries and loss of transportation capacity for petroleum 
        products;
            (2) the shutdown of refineries and reduction in 
        transportation capacity for petroleum products caused by 
        Hurricane Katrina has led to massive price increases for 
        petroleum products throughout the United States;
            (3) these massive price increases have caused severe 
        hardships for millions of Americans who depend upon affordable 
        and adequate supplies of gasoline and petroleum products for 
        transportation and other daily necessities; and
            (4) these massive price increases threaten the availability 
        and affordability of many products in interstate commerce.
    (b) To address these problems caused by Hurricane Katrina, the 
President should temporarily freeze the price of gasoline and other 
petroleum products to reduce the burden on millions of Americans and 
interstate commerce from rapidly increasing prices of gasoline and 
other petroleum products.

SEC. 3. PRESIDENTIAL AUTHORITY TO FREEZE PRICES.

    (a) The President is authorized to issue such orders and 
regulations to temporarily freeze wholesale and retail prices of 
gasoline and other petroleum products at or below the levels prevailing 
on August 27, 2005. Such orders and regulations may provide for the 
making of such adjustments as may be necessary to prevent any gross 
inequities.
    (b) The President may delegate the performance of any function 
under this Act to such officers, departments, and agencies of the 
United States as the President considers appropriate.

SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT.

    (a) Whoever willfully violates any order or regulation under this 
section shall be fined an amount up to three times the amount of the 
gain from such violation.
    (b) The President, or any person delegated authority under this Act 
by the President, shall have authority to seek a temporary or permanent 
injunction in the proper United States district court to prevent or 
halt violations of orders or regulations issued under this Act.

SEC. 5. TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY.

     The authority under this Act shall terminate upon a finding by the 
President that the domestic supply of petroleum products meets or 
exceeds the level of domestic supply as of August 27, 2005.
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