[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 27, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H5207-H5211]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4733, ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT
APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2001
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the
Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 532 and ask for its
immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 532
Resolved, That at any time after the adoption of this
resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule
XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the
Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of
the bill (H.R. 4733) making appropriations for energy and
water development for the fiscal year ending September 30,
2001, and for other purposes. The first reading of the bill
shall be dispensed with. Points of order against
consideration of the bill for failure to comply with clause 4
of rule XIII are waived. General debate shall be confined to
the bill and shall not exceed one hour equally divided and
controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the
Committee on Appropriations. After general debate the bill
shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule.
Points of orders against provisions in the bill for failure
to comply with clause 2 or clause 5(a) of rule XXI are
waived. The amendment printed in the report of the Committee
on Rules accompanying this resolution may be offered only by
a Member designated in the report and only at the appropriate
point in the reading of the bill, shall be considered as
read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report
equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an
opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be
subject to a demand for division of the question in the House
or in the Committee of the Whole. All points of order against
the amendment printed in the report are waived. During
consideration of the bill for amendment, the Chairman of the
Committee of the Whole may accord priority in recognition on
the basis of whether the Member offering an amendment has
caused it to be printed in the portion of the Congressional
Record designated for that purpose in clause 8 of rule
[[Page H5208]]
XVIII. Amendments so printed shall be considered as read. The
Chairman of the Committee of the Whole may: (1) postpone
until a time during further consideration in the Committee of
the Whole a request for a recorded vote on any amendment; and
(2) reduce to five minutes the minimum time for electronic
voting on any postponed question that follows another
electronic vote without intervening business, provided that
the minimum time for electronic voting on the first in any
series of questions shall be 15 minutes. At the conclusion of
consideration of the bill for amendment the Committee shall
rise and report the bill to the House with such amendments as
may have been adopted. The previous question shall be
considered as ordered on the bill and amendments thereto to
final passage without intervening motion except one motion to
recommit with or without instructions.
{time} 1445
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). The gentleman from Washington
(Mr. Hastings) is recognized for 1 hour.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, for the purposes of debate
only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York
(Ms. Slaughter), pending which I yield myself such time as I may
consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is
for the purpose of debate only.
(Mr. HASTINGS of Washington asked and was given permission to revise
and extend his remarks.)
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 532 provides an open
rule for consideration of H.R. 4733, the Energy and Water
appropriations bill for fiscal year 2001. The resolution waives clause
4 of rule XIII, requiring a 3-day layover of the committee report and
requiring a 3-day availability of printed hearings on a general
appropriation bill against consideration of the bill.
The rule provides 1 hour of general debate to be equally divided
between the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on
Appropriations. The rule waives clause 2 of Rule XXI, prohibiting
unauthorized or legislative provisions in an appropriations bill, and
clause 5(1) of rule XXI, prohibiting a tax or tariff provision in a
bill not reported by a committee with jurisdiction over revenue
measures, against provisions in the bill.
The bill further provides that the amendment printed in the Committee
on Rules may be offered only by a Member designated in the report and
only at the appropriate time in the reading of the bill, shall be
considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the
report, equally divided and controlled by a proponent and an opponent,
shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand
for a division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the
Whole.
The rule also waives all points of order against the amendment
printed in the report, and authorizes the Chair to accord priority in
recognition to Members who have preprinted their amendments in the
Congressional Record. The rule allows the Chairman of the Committee of
the Whole to postpone votes during consideration of the bill and to
reduce voting time to 5 minutes on a postponed question if the vote
follows a 15-minute vote. Finally, the rule provides on a motion to
recommit with or without instructions.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from California (Mr. Packard), the
chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Visclosky), the ranking member of the
subcommittee, are to be commended for their efforts on this
legislation. H.R. 4733 appropriates funds for civil projects of the
Corps of Engineers, the Department of Interior's Bureau of Reclamation,
most of the Department of Energy, and several independent agencies such
as the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Bonneville Power Administration,
and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The bill appropriates $21.7 billion in new budget authority, which is
$546 million more than fiscal year 2000, but $952 million less than the
President's request. The vast majority of the bill's funding, $17.3
billion, goes to various programs run by the Department of Energy, such
as cleanup of nuclear waste on a number of Federal facilities,
including the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in my district.
The bill also allocates $4.1 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers
and $770 million to the Department of the Interior. The funding in this
bill is necessary to protect important investments in our Nation's
water and energy infrastructure and to maintain and operate the wide
range of facilities and programs within the subcommittee's
jurisdiction.
As a Member of Congress from the West, I am particularly aware of the
importance of these projects. Therefore, I commend the members of the
Energy and Water subcommittee for their effort on this legislation, and
I urge my colleagues to support both the rule and the underlying bill,
H.R. 4733.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Washington
(Mr. Hastings), my colleague, for yielding me the customary \1/2\ hour,
and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
(Ms. SLAUGHTER asked and was given permission to revise and extend
her remarks.)
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the open rule, but
have several concerns regarding the underlying bill. Despite the best
efforts of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development chairman
and members to put together a bipartisan bill, the fiscal year 2001
Energy and Water Development appropriations bill is yet another
spending bill that misses the boat.
On the one hand, the bill funds numerous projects of critical
importance to many of our districts. At the same time, however, it
leaves serious spending gaps that fail to address real-world concerns
that will have to be dealt with before the bill is signed into law.
For instance, gas prices have topped $2 per gallon in many places.
While the Federal Government has launched an investigation through the
Federal Trade Commission in hopes of uncovering the answer to what is
behind the soaring prices, the bill fails to adequately address the
roots of the gasoline price problem.
When oil prices plunged to $8 to $10 a barrel in March of 1999, the
current leadership took little action to protect domestic oil
producers, and when gas prices across the Nation stood at $1 per
gallon, the majority party leadership pushed to eliminate the Energy
Department entirely. They ignored efforts by Members to replenish the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve with oil from struggling domestic
producers. Had they acted, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve could have
115 million barrels more of oil, and we might have a healthier domestic
oil industry.
Fortunately, the rule will protect efforts in committee by the
gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) to amend the bill to
reauthorize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Were it not for the
gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) offering this amendment
adopted in the committee, the floor amendment proposed today would not
be germane to the bill. The full House will also have an opportunity in
the amendment process to establish a new regional home heating oil
reserve in the Northeast, a program of critical importance to my
district in Rochester and one I have long supported.
Nevertheless, the underlying bill is $100 million short of the
President's request for solar and renewable energy research, stifling
hope for developing marketable solutions to what promises to be a
perennial problem. This makes little sense. The majority continues to
criticize the administration for failing to have an energy policy, yet
has systematically shut down administration initiatives to fund energy
research efforts that could help in finding a solution to this problem.
During consideration of this bill at full committee, the gentlewoman
from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) offered an amendment to restore the line for
Solar and Renewable Energy Research to the level requested in the
President's budget. The amendment was rejected by the committee on a
party line vote.
This has been a continuing pattern throughout the appropriations
process. The House has just passed the VA-HUD appropriations bill,
which slashes the President's budget request for the National Science
Foundation by half a billion dollars. Floor action on the Interior bill
made a bad situation worse by leaving the bill $100 million below last
year's level on energy efficiency.
[[Page H5209]]
The Congress does not have the ability or the desire to set fuel
prices, but we should have the good sense to support research into ways
to avoid the kinds of shocks high fuel prices can deliver to our
economy and encourage the development of alternative energy sources and
domestic energy production.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I would advise the
gentlewoman from New York that I have no requests for time, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Visclosky).
Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me
this time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to set the record straight as far as the
rule that is before us. The Energy and Water bill, as reported out of
subcommittee, includes only the language offered in committee by the
gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) that would deal with the
critical issue of rising gasoline prices, and I want to make that very
clear today.
Why is this the case? Perhaps it is because the appropriations bill
that should have been dealt with on this issue was the Interior bill.
That bill passed the House on June 15 after the House rejected a
proposal by the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) to include funding
for the Northeast home heating oil reserve, as requested by the
President of the United States.
The majority's interior appropriation bill did nothing to address the
rising gasoline prices in this country. After their refusal to do
anything in the full Committee on Appropriations, the gentlewoman from
Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) did seek a vehicle, that is this bill, the
Energy and Water bill, to address the issue. I would also
parenthetically add that she follows on other initiatives taken by many
Members on our side of the aisle from New England, the State of
Pennsylvania, and other areas, pursuant to negotiations and meetings
with the President in January, in February, and other legislative
initiatives.
The gentlewoman from Michigan did take the lead in full committee to
add a simple reauthorization for the short-term extension of the
strategic petroleum reserve. If it was not for her efforts in full
committee and the efforts of her Democratic cosponsors, the amendment
in order by this rule would not have been germane, and it would not
have been allowed to be offered today in this Chamber. In fact, the
Chairman of the authorizing committee, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr.
Bliley), wrote to the Committee on Rules asking that the Kilpatrick
language not be protected from a point of order since it was
authorizing in an appropriations bill. If the chairman of the Committee
on Commerce objected so strongly to the Kilpatrick language, a simple
1-year reauthorization of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve just to get
the process moving, then surely he must have even more vehemently
objected to the language made in order by this rule, which goes much
further.
Mr. Speaker, this rule makes in order an amendment by the gentleman
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Sherwood) that basically duplicates language
that was in the bill passed by the House a few weeks ago, the same
language of the majority of the other body. So I do want to make one
thing clear. We are today considering a bill with language put into it
at full committee by the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick).
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Frost).
Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, not only has there been a failure of
leadership on the part of the Republican majority when it comes to
energy independence, there has been a concerted effort to undercut the
efforts of the administration to address energy issues. In fact,
members of the Republican leadership have jeopardized our abilities to
address our energy needs by attempting to abolish the Department of
Energy, slashing energy efficiency programs, and selling off the
strategic petroleum reserve.
In the past few weeks, as the price of gasoline has soared, the
Republican majority has offered not one solution to America's
consumers.
{time} 1500
Instead, where American families see an energy crisis that
jeopardizes their summer vacations, Republican leaders see an
opportunity to score political points and cover up their 6-year record
of negligence on energy independence.
The Republicans have cut crucial energy supply programs by 23 percent
below the President's request, including $106 million less than
requested for solar and renewable energy programs. They have even cut
these programs by $61 million below the current appropriation.
The Republican bill also cuts research by $320 million, or 10 percent
below the President's request.
Mr. Speaker, today the Congress is rightly taking action to
reauthorize the President's ability to use the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve, establish a Northeast Home Heating Reserve, and authorize the
Department of Energy to purchase oil from stripper wells when the price
drops below $15 a barrel, all measures Democrats have long been
advocating, as indicated by the previous speaker, the ranking member on
the subcommittee.
But the Republican budget continues to ignore many of the crucial
long-term investments that are vital to America's future energy
independence. I call on the Republican leadership to call a halt to the
photo ops and press releases and stop attempting to abolish the
Department of Energy, and finally work with Democrats to make
investments in research and renewable energy sources that are vital to
America's energy independence.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman
from Colorado (Mr. Udall).
(Mr. UDALL of Colorado asked and was given permission to revise and
extend his remarks.)
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the
gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter), for yielding time to me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule and in general support of
the bill. The rule appropriately provides an opportunity for the House
to consider germane amendments to this important appropriations
measure.
On the bill, I am sure each of us might want it to be different one
way or another. For example, I do not think it does enough for solar
and renewable energy programs. That is why I will be joining many
others in trying to improve that part of the bill. Overall, I think the
committee has done a good job, especially considering the limits
imposed by the budget resolution.
In particular, I want to express my appreciation for the fact the
committee has included all the money that was requested for the nuclear
facilities closure projects, an increase of more than $21.8 million
over this year's amount for that purpose. This is crucial for my
district because the Rocky Flats facility, located in my congressional
district, is just a few miles from the center of our State's major
population areas. Safe, effective, and timely clean-up and closure of
the flats is a matter of highest priority for all Coloradans. I greatly
appreciate the committee's inclusion of the requested funding for this
purpose.
I also want to join the committee in urging the DOE to ensure that
the complex-wide funding issues are addressed as they relate to closure
for Rocky Flats. As the committee has correctly noted, if DOE is to
keep on its timetable for closing Rocky Flats, important tasks must be
completed at other sites, as well.
I urge support for the rule so the House can begin to consider this
very important measure.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3
minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen), a member
of the subcommittee.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding
time to me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the rule, to make brief comments in
support of the energy and water bill, and to make a few comments on
security issues and the current oil crisis.
Mr. Speaker, our committee, under the leadership of the gentleman
from California (Chairman Packard), rightly has addressed the critical
issues of security at our Nation's nuclear labs by providing an
additional $331 million
[[Page H5210]]
for the National Nuclear Security Administration, for a total of over
$6 billion.
Mr. Speaker, the problem of security at our national labs is one of
leadership, not of resources. The security at our national labs, or at
least some of our labs, has not just been compromised, it has been
violated. It is time for Secretary Richardson to accept the
responsibility for the ongoing security violations and to take whatever
actions are necessary to restore the faith of the American people in
their ability to secure our Nation's nuclear secrets.
Furthermore, even with the strong congressional support from our
committee, the leadership of the Department of Energy has been lacking,
particularly in regard to developing a comprehensive energy strategy.
Getting as much oil as we can for as little as we can is not energy
policy. Recent oil prices clearly show that the Secretary has once
again been negligent.
One of the core missions of the Department of Energy, and I quote, is
``to develop and implement a national energy policy.'' Congress has
provided the necessary resources, and the increased funding for the
Department contained in this bill needs to be spent wisely and with
strict accountability so that a workable energy strategy can be
developed to address exorbitant energy costs.
On the issue of national security, on the issue of an energy policy,
the Secretary needs to do better.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick).
(Ms. KILPATRICK asked and was given permission to revise and extend
her remarks.)
Ms. KILPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule today, and
to thank our ranking member for the tenacity that he has shown and the
leadership he has shown in protecting a very important amendment as we
address the high gas prices in America today.
To the gentleman from California (Mr. Packard), I thank him for his
work and for the product he has brought before us today. This, unlike
some of the other bills, is a close call. We can support this bill. It
is not perfect, it could be better, but we certainly are going to
support the rule and the bill that will be before us.
I want to urge the Federal Trade Commission, who has been now
assigned the task, to look at the high gasoline prices that Americans
are facing today. In our State of Michigan, people who are on fixed
incomes, who do work, who have to drive to work, find buying gas at
over $2 a gallon is too much. It restricts their family resources, it
restricts what they need for their housing, what they need for their
children. We ought to take a look at that.
Additionally, truckers have advised me that the high gas prices
really make it impossible for them to bring in revenues, bring in
profits that they use to take care of their families. Many independent
truckers find that the high gasoline prices, in Michigan anywhere from
$2.19 to $2.39 a gallon, are not adequate. We have to look at it. I
want to urge the Federal Trade Commission to take a good look.
In the State of Michigan, tourism is our third revenue producer for
our State. With the high gas prices, many people are rethinking their
travel plans. Many people are not going to be going as far or coming to
our State because of the high gasoline prices.
I believe we have to do something, that we have to have the Trade
Commission act on it soon and not take a long time, and at the same
time, that we do not posture as Congressmen and Congresswomen to get
credit. This is not a credit issue, this is an American issue.
I want to thank the Committee on Rules as well as the subcommittee
for doing their work. It seems possible that in this great, prosperous
time of ours, we can succeed as a nation.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman
from Maine (Mr. Baldacci).
(Mr. BALDACCI asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. BALDACCI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time
to me.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the ranking member, the gentleman
from Indiana (Mr. Visclosky), for doing outstanding work as the ranking
member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development of the
Committee on Appropriations.
I am supporting the rule and I support the bill. It is completely
unfortunate that the circumstances in relationship to the heating oil
and petroleum and gasoline supplies in our country have taken this long
to address.
There has been a delegation from the Northeast and New England that
have worked together since early January meeting with the President,
meeting with the Energy Secretary, trying to get this Congress to
confront the issues. All we have been able to get from this Congress,
the leadership of this Congress, is to cut and gut the weatherization
conservation efforts, not to address fuel efficiency standards, not to
do anything to lay the groundwork to having a comprehensive energy
policy so we can become energy-independent and not energy-dependent.
It is easy to try to blame people, but it is a lot harder to work
together and establish these policies. We have been working very hard
in the Northeast and the Southeast and throughout the country to
establish a comprehensive, bipartisan energy policy.
Many months ago, legislation was authored by the gentleman from
Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey),
and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Barton) and many of us in the
Northeast and across the aisle to try to get the heating oil reserve
established, to try to lay the groundwork for the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve reauthorization, to give the President the power to be able to
do that.
Congress and the leadership in Congress, where have they been? It has
been weeks since the last action was taken. We have the legislation in
an amendment form before us that has been submitted, and it takes away
the issue from the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) and
others who have worked on this legislation. Nowhere do we see any
credit being able to be given for all of the hard work they have done
in regard to this legislation.
We must seek to have a bipartisan, comprehensive energy policy. It is
way beyond time that any reasonable person would have taken action. Mr.
Speaker, today we are considering an amendment that is identical to the
legislation that this Congress should have sent to the President a long
time ago.
Mr. Speaker, we must act on this legislation. We must get it to the
President, or history is going to repeat itself again in the Northeast.
That is not going to be pleasant for the people that we seek to
represent.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Bentsen).
(Mr. BENTSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. BENTSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule and in
support of H.R. 4733, the fiscal year 2001 energy and water
appropriations bill.
I would like to thank the gentleman from California (Chairman
Packard) and the ranking member, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr.
Visclosky), for their hard work on this important legislation, as well
as my good friend, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) for all the
help they have provided our constituents in the greater Houston area.
In particular, I want to highlight that the bill fully funds the
request for important U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects in the
greater Houston area. In particular, the bill provides the second
consecutive year full funding for the Brays Bayou project in southwest
Houston at $6 million for fiscal year 2001.
This project is necessary to improve flood protection for an
extensively developed residential area along the Brays Bayou in
southwest Harris County. This project was originally authorized in the
WRDA 1990 act as part of a $400 million local flood control project.
Subsequently, the Brays project was reauthorized as one of the
original sites for a demonstration project for new Federal
reimbursement program as part of the WRDA 1996 bill based upon
legislation drafted by my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
[[Page H5211]]
DeLay) and myself, which has strengthened the core and local sponsor
role in giving the local sponsor a greater responsibility.
Recently, the local sponsor, the Harris County, Texas, Commissioners
Court, approved the Brays redesign per the WRDA 1996 Act, and now this
project can move forward with strong public support.
I am also gratified the subcommittee decided to fully fund the Sims
Bayou project at $11.8 million. This is a project that also affects an
area of southeastern Harris County that is heavily residential. This
project is 2 years ahead of schedule. It is about midstream right now,
scheduled to be completed in 2004. It is critically important to a
number of my constituents who live in areas that are otherwise ravaged
by continual flooding.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I am gratified that the committee chose to
fully fund the request for the Houston Ship Channel deepening and
widening project. This is the largest deepening and widening project
that the Corps of Engineers has been involved in since the Panama
Canal. It is important to the local economy that I and my colleagues in
the Houston area represent. It is also being done in a very
environmentally sound manner in reestablishing natural habitat
throughout the Galveston Bay.
I appreciate the fact that the committee has kept this project on
track and fully funded the administration's request.
I urge my colleagues to support the bill.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Connecticut (Mr. Larson).
(Mr. LARSON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. LARSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time to
me.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr.
Visclosky) for his outstanding work, and the gentlewoman from New York
(Ms. Slaughter), as well.
I would note to my colleagues that victory has many fathers, and
defeat, of course, is an orphan. But defeat is not an option,
especially for those who are dependent upon home heating oil and have
to make the awful choice between heating their homes, providing
themselves with prescription drugs that they need, or in fact the food
that they place on their table.
Mr. Speaker, I associate myself with the remarks of the gentleman
from Maine (Mr. Baldacci) who spoke eloquently about the coalition of
those of us in the Northeast who have sought bipartisan support,
especially in the area of the release of the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve and the establishment of a strategic home heating oil fuel base
for those who need this kind of relief.
I further concur with the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick)
about the need for the Federal Trade Commission to further pursue these
companies with respect to what seems to be gouging at the gas lines.
Further, I would also note that there is an important need for an
investment that is not addressed in this legislation. We currently
import somewhere in the area of $5 billion worth of oil a month. That
is $60 billion a year. We are making cuts in the very area of research
and development, specifically in the area of fuel cells, that could
benefit us and allow us to compete in a global economy, and get us to a
point where we are not dependent upon foreign sources of oil, so we can
provide ourselves with efficient home heating oil and the means to
provide us with transportation to and from our jobs.
{time} 1515
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Vermont (Mr. Sanders).
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York for
yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the specific rule to permit
an amendment on the floor offered by the gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Sherwood), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), and the
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) authorizing the establishment
of a Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve. Not only do we need to pass
this rule, but what we really need to do is to appropriate funding for
the creation of a Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve.
Mr. Speaker, we are experiencing an energy crisis in this country.
The price of gasoline is skyrocketing. In the Midwest and other parts
of the country, the price of a gallon of gas is now over $2 a gallon.
Throughout the rest of the country, including my State of Vermont, it
is well over $1.50 a gallon, and that is unacceptable.
Mr. Speaker, the price of crude oil has more than tripled since last
year and is the highest it has been since the Gulf War. The reason the
prices are high is because the supply for gasoline is low. This can
only mean one thing. If we do not adequately prepare for next winter,
we will have a home heating oil disaster on our hands.
But my colleagues do not have to take my word for it. I quote from an
article that appeared in USA Today just yesterday: ``Those who heat
with oil will shiver this winter and pay a premium. Just 15.3 million
barrels of heating oil are stockpiled for the East Coast, which uses 75
percent of the Nation's heating oil in the winter. That's well down
from 41.3 million barrels on hand last June.''
Mr. Speaker, we all know what happened last year. Home heating oil
prices were the highest they have ever been in history. And now we are
faced with a home heating oil stockpile that is 37 percent lower than
last year. It does not take a genius to figure out that we are setting
ourselves up for a huge heating oil crisis next year unless Congress
acts now.
According to Bill O'Grady, oil analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons, ``If
we have a cold winter early, we could end up seeing in heating oil what
we're seeing in gas prices in spades.''
Mr. Speaker, we must not let this happen. We must make certain that
the huge increase in home heating oil prices that we experienced last
winter never happens again. Too many people were hurt by that huge
increase in home heating oil prices. The astronomical prices that our
constituents were forced to pay for home heating oil in order to stay
warm last winter was unconscionable. Let us unite behind the creation
of a Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, and let us make sure that we
have adequate funding to guarantee that it is up and running as soon as
possible.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of
my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.
The previous question was ordered.
The resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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