[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 11 (Friday, January 26, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S395]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        U.S. DEPENDENCY ON FOREIGN OIL BOX SCORE (FIRST REPORT)

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I have been deeply troubled for most of the 
23 years I've been a Member of the Senate about the United States 
having become more and more deeply dependent upon foreign countries--
many in the highly volatile Middle East--to supply the bulk of the 
energy needs of the American people. I held hearings on this perilous 
problem when I was chairman of the Agriculture Committee a decade ago, 
and more recently in my capacity as chairman of the Foreign Relations 
Committee.
  The administration acknowledges that this is a national security 
concern, but, Mr. President, there obviously is a lot of fiddling while 
Rome burns--the administration has done precisely nothing about U.S. 
dependency on foreign oil.
  Mr. President, Americans now are forced to rely on foreign oil for 
more than 50 percent of our needs. Not too long ago, 50 percent was 
pegged as the perilous threshold which must not be crossed. But, it was 
crossed, under President Clinton's watch, after U.S. blood was spilled 
in the Middle East in Desert Storm.
  So, Mr. President, I begin today a report on this matter, a report 
that I will make to the Senate regularly. The American Petroleum 
Institute has confirmed that, for the week ending January 19, the 
United States imported 7,696,000 barrels of oil each day, 12 percent 
more than the 6,488,000 barrels imported daily 12 months ago.
  Mr. President, as I say, I shall report to the Senate--and to the 
American people--on a regular basis regarding the increasingly 
dangerous U.S. dependency on foreign oil. We must not delay in seeking 
to solve this troubling problem.

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