[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 23, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H2575]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     ENERGY CRISIS LOOMS AS REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION DOES NOTHING

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, we are today, I think, at about the 120th 
day of the Republican energy follies play in this House.
  When the President became President in January, everybody knew there 
was a crisis in California and on the West Coast generally. We met with 
the Vice President, who has been appointed as the Energy Czar, and 
explained the problems. Republicans and Democrats sat with him. The 
Vice President looked us in the eye and said, this is not a national 
problem, this is a State problem. We are not going to do anything.
  Now, they have come out with a sort of weak, namby-pamby plan for 
energy that is going to go on 10 years from now, but does not deal with 
the crisis now.
  The Senate has now entered the stage, stage left or stage right, if 
you will. They have come on the stage and they have said, we are going 
to pass tax cuts. The President says we need those tax cuts because we 
have the energy crisis. What they mean is, we are going to reduce the 
taxes so that people can pay more to energy companies.
  Mr. Speaker, it is wrong. We should stop them.

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