[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H5707-H5713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           PRICE OF GASOLINE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Courtney). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Klein) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure and an honor to 
be here tonight with the Members of the freshman class. All of us were 
elected this past November with great ideas brought to us by the people 
that we represent; lots of good suggestions on how to solve some of the 
problems that our country, of course some of them are overseas and some 
of them are home, but the great news is all of them are solvable. Every 
problem that we have in this country is something that there is a 
solution to. And it typically requires good faith, working together, 
Democrats and Republicans, Independents, people of good minds and good 
faith, to solve the problems.
  Tonight we are going to start out our conversation as the freshman 
class with something that all of us came to this Congress to talk about 
and to work on and to solve. And it has unfortunately risen up as 
another significant problem that I think that we are very unhappy about 
right now, and that, of course, as everyone who has filled up their 
tank lately knows, is gas prices.
  I am from Florida, the 22nd District, which is parts of Broward and 
Palm Beach Counties in southeast Florida. It is fascinating to me 
because I have watched gas go up and down and up and down over the 
years, and Congress has never seemed to have the backbone, if you will, 
the President and this administration hasn't shown much interest in 
dealing with gas prices. Maybe it's because of the backbone of some of 
the people of the administration, or maybe not; but the bottom line is 
that we have a situation now where gas prices in my area are at about 
an average of $3.25 a gallon, and as much as $3.59 a gallon.
  We understand what this means. This is a real problem for consumers, 
it is a real problem for our businesses. Whether you have 
transportation, whether your personal transportation to and from work 
or the shipping of goods to and from a location, this is something that 
is beginning to affect our economy.
  And I think I am going to throw it over to my colleagues here, but I 
just want to throw out a few rhetorical questions, because every time 
we go through this and the price spikes, we hear excuses. You know, 
last time the excuse was we had a hurricane called Katrina, and it shut 
down refineries. No hurricane this time. Last time we heard there is a 
disruption in the oil deliveries out of the Middle East. No disruption. 
Last time we heard, well, there is a summer spike because of demand 
during the summertime. It's May, no summertime. What is the excuse? 
What is the bottom line?
  What I am so pleased about is the fact that our freshman class, along 
with a more senior Member, Mr. Stupak, took on this issue this year and 
passed today, out of this Congress, in a bipartisan way, I am very 
proud to say that all the Democrats and I think 70 or 80 Republicans, I 
think, joined us and passed something called the Federal Price Gouging 
Prevention Act. The purpose of this act is to allow the FTC, the 
Federal Trade Commission, to go in with some teeth and enforcement 
authority, to go in and investigate what's wrong. If the price of oil 
per barrel is the same or even less than it was last year at this time, 
how could gas prices be so much higher? And all the commonsense things 
that we know.
  What I am going to do is I am going to introduce each one of you, and 
I am going to ask you all, I know you all have your own perspectives 
and some thoughts on this. I am going to start out with Congressman 
Perlmutter from Colorado. Please give us your thoughts.
  Mr. PERLMUTTER. Thank you, Mr. Klein.
  Every other Saturday I have a ``government at the grocery.'' I visit 
different grocery stores throughout my district. This past week I was 
at a grocery store in Edgewater, Colorado, and the number one topic was 
the price of gas. Usually it has been Iraq, and we certainly are going 
to talk about Iraq tonight, but the number one conversation was about 
the price of gas. And people were saying, look, we understand that on a 
per-barrel basis, it's down, the cost is down, the price is down. Why 
is the cost at the pump up?
  And, you know, we have excuses. The excuses this time, Mr. Klein, 
have been, well, we just needed to clean the refineries. They clean the 
refineries right at the beginning of the summer travel season because 
by restricting the supply, you drive up the price, and we can't have 
that anymore. We can't have our people being gouged in this country by 
manipulation of the market in that fashion.

                              {time}  2215

  What we are seeing is too few companies controlling too critical an 
item, a commodity, like gasoline, and that is what that price gouging 
bill was all about today. So I can assure you in Colorado, it is a 
major topic of conversation, and people want to see a change, and we 
are bringing that change to them by the bill we passed today and the 
direction we are taking this Congress.
  With that, Mr. Kline, I would like to turn it over to my friend from 
Vermont, who always has something to say on any topic, but particularly 
I know he has something to say today on this gasoline price gouging.
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Thank you, Mr. Perlmutter. The gas issue, 
obviously the price going way up is hitting people pretty hard. But it 
is a real metaphor in my view for the two economies we are seeing 
emerge in this country. We are at a time now where the stock market has 
never been higher. People who have significant assets have never been 
doing better. Large corporations are making record profits. Executives, 
CEOs at large corporations, have never gotten better and sweeter pay 
packages.
  But the vast majority of Americans are finding that their wages are 
stagnant, and the prices of things that they need, daycare, gasoline to 
get to and from work, to and from daycare, groceries, those things are 
going up and concealing this so-called ``tame'' inflation.
  So what we are having in this country is the emergence of two 
economies, and our goal here in Congress is to start having a Congress 
that stands up and represents the needs and aspirations of average 
folks. We give them a leg up.
  Every time the price of gasoline goes up about 10 cents, that is like 
a $16 billion hit on the consumer in this country. So you think about 
it. We have got a chart over here that shows gas prices going up, 
really doubling during the presidency of George Bush. But just

[[Page H5708]]

take a $1 increase in the price of gasoline, that is like $160 billion 
tax increase that all comes out of the pockets of working Americans, 
the people who can afford it the least.
  You look back at the last couple of years, what has happened when we 
have been talking about the oil industry are a couple of things. Number 
one, there has been very favorable legislation that has benefited the 
oil companies. At a time when the oil companies had record profits, 
$125 billion over 3 years, $125 billion over 3 years, at that time not 
our Congress, but the Congress that preceded us, the Republican 
Congress, gave tax breaks to the oil companies. The mature and very 
profitable industry got $13 billion out of taxpayer funds on top of the 
record profits they had received.
  What we have done here is try to change the rules of the game and say 
that there has got to be a cop on the beat. It doesn't make sense for 
the prices to be going up on gasoline when we have seen the price of a 
barrel of oil go down and we haven't seen an increase in the demand, so 
that the laws of supply and demand are really being thwarted by the 
oligopolistic power of the very few oil companies that are able to 
manage the price and inflate their profits.
  What we are doing is first taking back those tax breaks that went to 
big oil. We did that earlier on this year, hoping our friends on the 
Senate side join us. But, secondly, we are saying that the Federal 
Trade Commission should be active and aggressive in answering these 
questions on behalf of the American consumer.
  Every 10 cents, $16 billion, that is a tax increase right out of the 
pockets of working Americans. Our responsibility to the American people 
is to make sure that consumers are protected so they are not getting 
ripped off. It is that simple. They need to keep that money in their 
pocket and not just be subject to the abuse of the monopoly power 
really of big oil.
  So, that is a little perspective from Vermont. I will turn it over to 
my colleague from Connecticut, Representative Murphy.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Thank you very much, Mr. Welch. I just 
want to point out to the Speaker and the Chamber that Mr. Welch just 
used a word with six syllables in it, oligopolistic. We have freshmen 
that are courageous, we have freshmen to take on big industry, but we 
also have some pretty smart freshmen too in this case. So I don't want 
that to go unnoticed.
  Mr. Welch, let's call it for what it was. For a long time this 
Congress was run by the oil industry. Whatever they asked for, they got 
here. It was sort of a sense that if you did really, really well in 
this economy and you came and asked for something from this Congress, 
then they were going to give it to you. You were going to be rewarded, 
in essence, for coming out on top of the heap. The same could be said 
for the pharmaceutical industry, the same could be said for 
multimillionaires, as was the case for the oil companies.
  If you probably turned on the television and you watched people get 
up here on the other side of the aisle for the last several years, you 
probably heard them say a lot things like we are saying. You probably 
heard them complain about gas prices. You probably heard them say that 
they were going to do something about it.
  Well, they didn't. They didn't do a single thing about it, and we see 
the evidence of it today. Gas prices spiraling higher and higher. Mr. 
Perlmutter is going to show a chart here which shows the average price 
of a gallon today pretty soon. You are going to see the average price 
for today is on an 8\1/2\ by 11 piece of paper sort of precariously 
stuck on to the poster board. Why? Because, guess what? It moves every 
single day. We have to change that piece of paper on that chart every 
day as the price goes higher and higher and higher.
  So what happened when a bunch of us went out there and decided that 
we were going to come to Washington to try to change the priorities 
here, do what Mr. Welch said, which is finally put regular middle-class 
folks, working-class folks in charge of government again, was that we 
started matching action with words.
  We are going to get up here and talk about how gas prices are hurting 
regular Americans, how they have less and less ability to spend money 
on other family needs, but then we are going to go and do something 
about it. We started with the price gouging legislation. We are going 
to take on some pretty important legislation to end the antitrust 
exemptions for OPEC and international oil cartels.

  Then we are going to take on the big enchilada. We are going to start 
making this country energy independent. We know that is a triple 
whammy. That is about gas prices and energy prices, it is about making 
energy more affordable for people, that is about cleaning up our 
environment, and it is also about national security.
  That is what happened here for a long time, was that the inaction 
wasn't just about trying to stem the bleeding in one particular summer, 
it was about avoiding a problem that could have been solved 5, 10 years 
ago, if they had started doing the things that we are about to do to 
invest in alternative and renewable energy.
  So I am so proud to stand here with members of the freshman class, 
because we can stand here and talk about what we want to do to start 
transforming this society back so that the priorities of regular 
middle-class Americans matter again. But we also need to do something 
about it.
  We also get to stand here and cast some votes that have not been cast 
in this Congress for a very long time, and that is what makes me 
especially proud to be a member of this freshman class, certainly proud 
to be a member alongside my friend from Iowa, Mr. Bruce Braley, who I 
will turn the microphone over to at this point.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Connecticut. 
I am just a simple country lawyer from Iowa, which is the center of the 
renewable fuels explosion. I don't think I have ever used a six 
syllable word, so I feel a little inadequate.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. I think you get locked up in Iowa if you 
do that.
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. I think people are making fun of me.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Here is a three syllable world I will throw out 
right now: Paradox. Right now it is planting season in Iowa, and 
farmers are going out and growing renewable energy, so that we can 
become energy independent, we can reduce our dependence on Mideast oil, 
we can promote national security, we can promote economic security, we 
can provide jobs, good paying jobs, to the people of this country.
  Yet, at the same time, while those Iowa farmers are out there driving 
around in their pickup trucks, getting deliveries from their co-ops for 
their crop inputs, the cost of producing renewable fuels is directly 
impacted by what you see on that chart. Whether it is gasoline in the 
pickup truck, whether it is diesel fuel that is affected by periodic 
price influxes, one thing we know is that the cost of getting energy 
independence goes up. And is it any wonder when we look at who we are 
shifting our dependence from, people who create energy from fossil 
fuels, and look at who is going to benefit from these record oil 
company profits, that many of us campaigned on and made the case to the 
American people, give us a chance to have an impact.
  That is why I was very proud to be a cosponsor of Representative 
Stupak's bill. This whole Congress has been about increased 
accountability, increased oversight, because that is what the American 
people demanded when they sent us to Congress.
  Yet every day in these oversight hearings we are talking about 
important problems that the people demand solutions to. We take 
important votes on progressive bills that are going to change the 
direction of this country. And every day we get the same message from 
the White House: If you pass this bill that is good for the American 
people, I won't sign it.
  A good example of that. The first bill I had to be voted on on the 
floor of the House of Representatives, the Small Business Fairness in 
Contracting Act. It sounds pretty good. It sounds consistent with the 
President's statement on the importance of creating fair contracting 
opportunities for small businesses in 2002. Overwhelming bipartisan 
support in committee. Everybody voted for it. Overwhelming bipartisan 
support here on the floor. 409 people voted for it. Yet the President 
said it was a bad bill.

[[Page H5709]]

  That is a symptom of the greater problem we are talking about. It is 
an interrelated problem, whether you are talking about energy, whether 
you are talking about ethics. That is why we are here tonight, to start 
shedding some light on the important point of where the buck stops on 
the problems we are talking about.
  I yield back on that to my distinguished friend from the great State 
of Florida, which, unfortunately, entered the Union right before the 
State of Iowa, Mr. Kline.
  Mr. KLINE of Florida. But who's keeping track?
  I think everyone in the room here sees that there is some good logic, 
some common sense, that is being applied in the development of this 
legislation. I just want to touch on a couple points ever the 
legislation itself, this law that we passed today so overwhelmingly, 
because Americans really are hurting.
  We talked about teeth, the Federal Trade Commission, which is an 
existing Federal agency that is responsible for fair trade. It is self 
explanatory, fair trade. What can we do to make sure that 
organizations, businesses, big oil in this case, that in fact if there 
is market manipulation, if it is going on, what can we do to get to the 
bottom of it?
  Well, the questions will be asked. What does it cost to drill? What 
does it cost to refine? Why is there a difference between the cost of 
crude and the cost of a gallon of gas? Why does gas cost more in Fort 
Lauderdale, right near a port where the gas comes in, than it does 500 
miles inland? These are common sense questions. When there is 
transparency in pricing, there is no price gouging.
  So what we are asking for is something very simple. We want 
competition. We all believe in the capitalistic system. We want to see 
thriving competition. Competition is good for quality, pricing and 
everything else. But when there is something so out of whack here, when 
you see there is no common sense, a barrel costs less, price is up. No 
disruption in the oil, no disruption in the refining. Nothing that 
really should cause this kind of surge.
  In fact, we see by this chart on the day that President Bush was 
sworn into office, back January of 2001, gas was at $1.47. Today, it is 
$3.22 on average in the United States of America. What is wrong with 
this picture?
  Now, this is a matter, as it was said by one of our colleagues, a 
matter of national security. It is a matter of our economy. Certainly 
it is a matter of our environment over time.
  So one of the other things that we are also committed to, I know 
every one of us in the whole freshman class, and I would say many of 
the Republicans came with the same view, but we are going to take some 
action this time in a bipartisan way, we have to move this country 
toward energy independence.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. If the gentleman will yield for a question, the 
argument we hear over and over in this body is just let the market play 
out. Let it take its course. What is wrong with that argument?
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Well, I think it is fairly clear. 
Unfortunately, what has happened in this industry is there is a 
consolidation. Do you remember there was a term a number of years ago 
called the seven sisters? That was a term many years ago talking about 
large oil companies. Well, there has been big consolidation with 
multinational oil companies that obviously have lots of different 
people that are tending to their interests. And at this point in time, 
if you look in any community, I can look at my own community in Palm 
Beach and Broward Counties, there are fewer competitive stations, 
company stations versus independents, fewer independents, you don't see 
a lot of independents at all, which really drives the market a little 
bit. Then, at the end of the day, there really is very little activity 
that would show there is true competition.
  But I think the real question, of course, and what this law is going 
to get to, is there is market manipulation, are there antitrust 
violations. We are going to define it, we are going to strengthen it, 
and there are consequences.
  By the way, don't let anybody tell you, some of the Republican debate 
on the floor, some of the Republicans that opposed it said, oh, we are 
going to knock down the independent service stations, the little mom 
and pop groceries that have a pump in front of them.
  We are not talking about them. The minimum size of activity that can 
become subject to this is a company that sells $500 million of fuel.

                              {time}  2230

  So we are not talking about the mom and pops. We are the one who are 
protective and interested in our communities in the mom and pops.
  I think there are lots of questions out there that need to be 
answered. Again, I think the consequences of violating our Federal law 
is what is going to change this.
  Mr. PERLMUTTER. If the gentleman would yield, I think we have to get 
back to basics here. We have to have a diversified energy portfolio.
  One of the things that you were talking about and Mr. Braley was 
talking about was renewable energy. The American people are way ahead 
of Congress, and it is our job to change the direction of the Federal 
Government on this subject because it is good for national security, 
and it is good for the climate, and it is good for jobs.
  Quite frankly, if we have a diversified portfolio where we have 
biofuels, and where we use solar and wind where appropriate, and have 
hybrid types of cars, we will not be so beholden to a particular 
company or companies in the gasoline business.
  Also we are going to stop funding both sides of the war on terror.
  We need to talk about the war in Iraq. We will be voting tomorrow on 
supplemental funding to the President that will keep him on a short 
leash through September to see exactly where we are going with this 
war.
  We have asked for a timeline. The President has rejected. He vetoed 
it. We have set benchmarks. He doesn't like those; but apparently, 
based on conversations we have seen in the paper, he may accept 
benchmarks. We need to see what is happening.
  We had a briefing today from General Pace and from Secretary Gates 
and Ambassador Negroponte. The best they could say about what was going 
on in Iraq, mixed results. With the surge in one part of Baghdad, there 
was some reduction in casualties in Baghdad, but an explosion of 
casualties in the suburbs. You push in one place, and it pops out 
another place. They call it the balloon effect or toothpaste effect, 
the squeeze effect.
  We have to make some changes here, and that is what this Congress is 
about. We will be keeping this President on a short leash. We will be 
imposing some benchmarks to see if there really is any progress in 
Iraq.
  I know we all want to see progress and stability, but that is not 
what we are seeing on the television or reading in the newspaper. And 
the American public knows that. They are not being fooled any longer. 
We are going to change the direction of this war. We cannot continue by 
paying this kind of money at the gas pump funding both sides of the war 
on terror.
  One of the things I am going to talk about tomorrow is the fact that 
by being in Iraq, we have stretched our military forces to the breaking 
point, both Active military and our National Guard. The National Guard, 
88 percent of the equipment of the National Guard has been deployed to 
Iraq and hasn't come back. We are coming into a hurricane season. We 
have forest fires that are plaguing the West and Florida. Is our 
National Guard prepared to deal with that?
  Their mission, they have three missions. The first mission is 
homeland defense, protecting our country against attacks that might 
happen here, whether it is a 9/11 or some other type of attack. The 
second is civilian support, helping in the event of another Hurricane 
Katrina. The third is to be deployed overseas.
  Now, we know that our National Guard, I don't know if, in fact, in 
either of your States, but the Colorado Air National Guard is going to 
be deployed for the third time within the last 3 or 4 years to Iraq, 
which is stretching their ability to deal with things in Colorado or to 
assist other State National Guards in the event of a natural or man-
made disaster.
  We as a Congress have an obligation to look after this country and 
not to continue to pursue things where we are

[[Page H5710]]

refereeing a sectarian civil war. Things have to change.
  I heard our friends on the other side of the aisle in the hour that 
proceeded us saying we have an obligation to protect and defend the 
Constitution, and they are absolutely right. And we have an obligation 
to protect and defend this country. We cannot continue the way we are 
going in Iraq. So the President wants to stay in Iraq. He vetoed a 
timeline that establishes a thoughtful redeployment of our troops. But 
at this point we will let him have, I believe tomorrow's vote will 
allow him, mostly with Republican votes, to have funding through the 
end of September. At that point we will see where this surge is going, 
whether it is better than mixed results. If that is the best you can 
say about the surge, it is mixed results, that is not very good, and it 
is time for a change, and we intend to bring a change to this country.
  We all know that one of the issues in Iraq is oil. We can't forget 
about that. We need to decrease our dependence on foreign oil so that 
we don't have to be in a place like Iraq unless it is there for real 
humanitarian reasons and not there for oil or other purposes.

  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. When we went into Iraq in the first place, they 
were supposed to be able to pay for their entire rebuilding through 
their own oil revenues. Unfortunately, that has not happened.
  I know Mr. Perlmutter has been one of our leaders on renewable 
energy, as has Mr. Welch.
  Mr. Welch, you have brought many ideas forward on renewable energy 
and alternative energy and energy independence. Why don't you bring us 
up to date on some of your thoughts.
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. First of all, Mr. Perlmutter is right, oil has 
made us vulnerable in foreign policy. A big reason we are in Iraq 
clearly is related to oil. I think we have to be much straighter with 
the American people than Congress has been.
  We are doing two things here. One, with this legislation, the price 
gouging legislation, we are providing basic protection against rip-
offs, and that is just the fundamental responsibility that people's 
government has is to make sure that the people with a lot of money, 
corporate power, don't use that power to rip them off. That is one.
  Second, we have to develop an energy policy. An energy policy, as has 
been said, is going to give us a lot more freedom in foreign policy, 
not create these enormous pressures to get involved in wars that we 
shouldn't be involved in.
  Secondly, it is obviously good for the environment.
  Third, as the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Braley) has been saying, it is 
good for the economy. The legislation we have to pass is not just on 
protecting the consumer, it is about creating a projobs, pro-high-tech, 
progrowth approach to addressing in a straightforward, confident way 
the energy challenge that we face.
  One of the small bills that I have sponsored and you are a cosponsor 
of, Mr. Perlmutter, and I am soliciting more, is to make our offices 
carbon neutral here in Washington. When I got here, I was concerned 
about global warming. I checked into how much carbon pollution did I 
create just by turning my lights on here in Washington and Vermont, 
flying back and forth to my district, and then driving around. It is 
quite staggering: 754 tons. That is a lot just to show up for work.
  I tried to find out how to offset that. Change the light bulbs, turn 
the thermometer so you don't use as much air conditioning or heat, and 
then invest in renewable energy that would allow a farm in southern 
Vermont to do a digester, a methane digester, which adds to the bottom 
line of farms, and all of our farms are struggling to make ends meet. 
We have to keep our farms in production and have local production of 
agriculture for the ag economy, but also for a way of life that a lot 
of folks in Vermont and Iowa want to maintain.
  Mr. PERLMUTTER. If the gentleman would yield, following your lead on 
this carbon-neutral office, we actually next week are going to have a 
press conference on a carbon-neutral office. We are buying power from a 
wind energy farm in Lamar, Colorado. We have talked our landlord into 
putting solar on top of the office building. We use the stairs and not 
the elevators, and we are working with the National Renewable Energy 
Lab, which is the lab Mr. Klein was referring to, to assist us in 
coming up with a carbon-neutral, energy-efficient, sustainable type of 
office.
  In Colorado, we don't have the moisture or quite the fertile ground 
as it is in Iowa, so there is a lot of dry-land farming. One of the 
other ways for farmers to derive an income is going to be through wind 
energy. We have a number of wind energy types of plants developing in 
Colorado as well as solar farms.
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Right. What you are describing is the fact that 
you are going to produce your energy locally, so you are not going to 
have to go to the Middle East and ship it all of the way back here. The 
money you spend on energy are going to be dollars that stay in Colorado 
or Iowa. Every dollar you keep in your local economy gets circulated 
and multiplied. That is what creates jobs. We have to break the 
stranglehold of our addiction to oil. It is all about building a local 
economy.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. We all are very committed, and we are seeing 
some great ideas. This is about business and consumer behavior 
changing.
  You also mentioned something about National Guard. In Florida, we are 
coming up on our hurricane season June 1. The National Guard has played 
a big role in emergency services.
  Mr. Braley, I know you have a lot of specific information about your 
National Guard.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. All of us have our own natural disasters we deal 
with on an annual basis. This point was driven home with me in February 
when a huge ice storm hit my State. We had 350,000 people without 
power. The 133rd of the Iowa National Guard has been stationed in Iraq 
for over a year and had their deployment extended by another 120 days. 
They were struggling with people available to respond to this very 
significant demand for assistance. So that is when you understand in a 
very real way how foreign policy affects domestic policy in your 
district.
  But as my friend from Vermont knows, when he was talking about the 
need to preserve the heritage of agriculture in this country and its 
importance to our economy, my great-great-grandfather, George 
Washington Braley, walked from Vermont in Mr. Welch's district to Iowa 
in 1855 looking for better farmland, Mr. Perlmutter, better rain.
  My parents both grew up on farms in Iowa during the Depression, and 
the whole sense of stewardship and preserving the land for the next 
generation is something that is almost a spiritual quality about 
farming. I know there are very many people looking for ways to 
diversify their agricultural economy.
  Mr. Klein, you raised a very good point about the multiplier effect 
of renewable energy. Right now Iowa ranks third in the production of 
wind power, which surprises people. They go to Palm Springs and see 
those huge wind farms, and they know there is also a lot generated in 
Texas, but Iowa ranks third. Part of the reason for that is windmills 
have been a way of life in my State for over 150 years.
  But there is a very acute shortage of wind turbines in this country. 
People who want to convert to wind energy and want to have the ability 
to produce electricity from wind are facing significant shortages of 
turbines, specifically those manufactured in the United States. A lot 
of people, municipalities that are looking to convert to wind have to 
go to the European market because they are on long waiting lists from 
U.S. wind turbine manufacturers.
  Recently there has been an incentive to factories that are creating 
new wind turbines. There is a new factory in Iowa that opened up 
recently. So when we are talking about how this has a ripple effect 
throughout our economy, it creates jobs and incentive for people to try 
new and innovative energy technologies, and we all benefit from that. 
That needs to be part of the overall discussion we are having about how 
we create incentives to move people to clean energy sources.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Another big issue that many of us ran on was 
ethics reform and lobbying reform and the whole notion of this 
connection between lobbyists and legislators and Members of Congress.
  I know in Florida before I left Florida, and I was in the Florida 
Legislature for a number of years, we passed a law that said you can't 
take a cup of

[[Page H5711]]

coffee. It used to be fancy meals, fancy trips and wine. You know 
something? The average person and most of us who ran said that was not 
necessary. It creates an impression that there is this unholy 
connection between a lobbyist and a Member of Congress.

                              {time}  2245

  Of course, we also know that many people who give us information are 
lobbyists, too, but they come in the unpaid variety. One of my teachers 
talked to me about No Child Left Behind. That's a lobbyist as well. 
We're talking about the paid ones.
  I'm very proud that this Congress, this House, in the earliest going, 
one of the first packages we passed out of this chamber was to change 
the rules that this House governs itself by, and the freshmen of this 
class, of course, once again took the lead because we felt we were the 
closest ones, having heard the most from the public that we said no 
more cups of coffee, no more fancy meals, none of that.
  You know something? It works just fine. I think all of us can buy our 
own cup of coffee. We had a little cup of coffee before. Mr. Welch and 
I, we had our dinner together and were glad to pay for it ourselves.
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. A good chicken sandwich, $7.16.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. But it goes beyond that. I think there are 
other ways that we can break this link, and I think some of the 
discussions going on right now of continuing to do things and 
disclosure and all those kinds of things are very important in making 
sure that the history of this Congress, particularly over the last few 
years, whether it was the Cunningham and the Tom DeLay and the Bob Ney.
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. That was illegal. That was beyond us. That was 
pure criminal conduct.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. That's right, and there's still unfortunately a 
few that are still being investigated, and that's going on and that's 
wrong. It's wrong at home, in any business. It's wrong in any community 
whether it's done person-to-person, and certainly when you run for 
higher office in Congress, you have a higher responsibility to make 
sure that you do the people's business and you're an independent 
thinker.
  So I think I'm very proud and I know these discussions are going on 
right now.
  Mr. PERLMUTTER. Very first thing as you said that we did was an 
ethics reform to the rules. So we took a huge step the first day we 
were in this Congress. Tomorrow, we are going to add to that from a 
bill that came over from the Senate as to certain other parts of 
lobbying reform. So we are continuing to make strides so that this 
place is open and transparent and people really know that we're working 
for the betterment of the entire country, you know, not a select few, 
and that's really the change that's going on here.
  That's why people wanted to see a new direction in this Congress. 
They wanted to see a new direction in Iraq. They wanted to see a new 
direction in how we did business within this chamber, and they're 
getting those very things.
  I'm proud to be part of the impetus, the catalyst to make those kinds 
of changes, to make the big change when it comes to energy. We can't 
wait any longer to change the way we deal with energy in this country, 
whether it's because we're just continuing to put more and more exhaust 
into our climate or we want to wean ourselves from foreign oil or we 
want jobs.
  I mean as Mr. Braley was saying, we need turbines, we need solar 
panels. There's construction jobs by the thousands and thousands as we 
move to a new type of energy for this country, and we're making that 
change.
  This Democratic Congress is making the change that was so desired by 
the people of this country. They wanted a new direction, and that's 
what we're giving to them.
  And I do want to tell you that your great-grandfather was George 
Washington Braley. My grandfather was George Washington Bristow anyway, 
for just pure information.
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. It's very important the American people know 
that.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I thought it was George Washington Perlmutter.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. I have to say I'm really the rookie of this group 
because all of my colleagues who are still here tonight had the great 
privilege of serving in their State legislatures. They've had to 
struggle with these issues, especially these important issues on 
ethics.
  One of the things that I talk to people a lot about coming from Iowa 
is how it just amazes me how other people really struggle with the 
sense of open and fair government because the State that I come from 
has probably the most fair reapportionment system of any State that I 
know of. In fact, there's been national news articles written about it.
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Remarkable.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Because there's a bipartisan commission every 10 
years that is balanced by geography and that's required to come up with 
a plan that is fair and equitable, and the State legislature can only 
vote the plan up or down on the first two tries, and not until the 
third try can they tinker with the boundaries. And in all the years 
that plan has been in place, not once has the legislature ever gotten 
to the point of redrawing districts, and people accept it because it's 
done in a way that creates a sense of fairness, a sense of openness and 
a sense of accountability.
  And I think that really gets to the heart of what we're trying to 
talk about in the need to make sure that people have confidence that 
this body that we are proud and privileged to serve in is that same 
type of open, honest and accountable place to do business.
  So I'm very, very excited to be with my freshmen colleagues talking 
about why we ran on a platform of restoring ethics and accountability 
in Congress, and I'm very pleased that we are bringing together 
collective experiences from all over the country, the experience that 
you bring from your backgrounds of working in your own State 
legislatures, and knowing that people have a right to expect this type 
of accountability when they walk into the voting booth and put your 
name on their ballot.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. If you think about accountability and 
confidence, if you have confidence in the people that are representing 
you, you will certainly have a lot more confidence in the policies and 
the things that they do in Washington.
  And what happens in Washington, whether it's dealing with Iraq or 
whether it's dealing with the cost of health care, which is another 
huge issue which hopefully we're going to start tackling soon, or 
whether it's dealing with any number of issues that we are talking 
about right now, I feel so much better now just watching the process 
than looking last year and seeing the Medicare bill that was drafted by 
pharmaceutical companies that had a big donut hole and really took 
advantage of people's good intentions of needing health care at an 
elderly age. And certainly in Florida, in all of our communities, we 
have a lot of senior citizens.
  So the Medicare and the pharmaceutical issues unfortunately were not 
handled the right way, you know, the energy issues. These are solvable 
problems. We started talking about that in our opening tonight, 
solvable issues.
  Little bit of backbone, little bit of roll up your sleeves, and turn 
off the air conditioning, and put a coffee down and nobody's getting up 
and out until you finish the job, that's the kind of can-do attitude 
that I think we have and we're going to continue to have over the next 
year.

  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. I agree with you. It is very exciting and an 
incredible privilege for all of us to be here. And there aren't free 
meals and there aren't free trips and all of the things that have been 
abused in the past, and that cuts across Republicans and Democrats, and 
it's all so that we can try to do a good job and give confidence to the 
American people.
  But the challenge we have is giving us confidence, giving this Nation 
confidence that the Congress actually has as its first priorities the 
needs of the American families, not the needs of the corporations that 
are doing really well, which is not to say get in their way because 
we've got to have jobs and corporations do good things and create 
wealth, but we have to have a commitment to building a middle class.

[[Page H5712]]

  What's always been the great hallmark of American democracy has been 
we've had an economic agenda that has said to people, who are willing 
to work, that they could climb the ladder of opportunity, and we 
pursued policies that gave them the chance to do it. Affordable and 
accessible education, affordable and accessible health care, 
nondiscrimination, the big fight that this country had for years that 
ultimately we've made enormous progress on. So people, regardless of 
the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, their religion, they 
have something to offer and they want to work, they're going to have a 
chance to get ahead.
  Much of what we're trying to do on ethics, I agree with you. We 
served in the State legislatures. We had sunshine laws. We didn't have 
lobbyists buying things. It's all an alien situation that has been 
described here in D.C., but we're trying to bring the Iowa values and 
Vermont values, Florida, Colorado, here to D.C., and we've got to hang 
on to that. But it's all in service of trying to get the job done so 
that we have an economic agenda that helps average people.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. I want to just follow up on your comment that I 
think is very prudent that we hear about that people don't talk about a 
lot, and that is the disappearing American middle class. And I'm here 
surrounded by distinguished colleagues, and I'm going to make you the 
economic physicians and make a diagnosis.
  If you look at the symptoms of what we talked about, all of us, out 
on the campaign trail leading up to last November's election, you look 
at the fact that you've got 47 million Americans without health 
insurance, 37 million Americans living below the poverty line. That 
sets a floor of where your middle class starts, and when those numbers 
keep growing, we know, at least I think we should know, that we've got 
a problem, that we need to do more to drive those numbers into what 
we've traditionally associated with the middle class, which says that 
if you work hard, you play by the rules, and you get minimum 
opportunities to assist you to get up a rung on the economic ladder, 
you're going to do better, your family's going to do better, your 
children are going to do better and you're going to create a stable 
environment that contributes not just to this society but to the way 
that we think of ourselves as Americans.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I was just thinking as you're talking about the 
economic dream and the responsibility, and one of the things that I 
heard on the campaign trail over and over and over again, and I just 
felt that in my own heart as a small businessman, we had 75 employees 
in our business, was the fact that this government, for so many years, 
was just operating in this deficit higher and higher, spend and spend 
and spend.
  And it's one thing we talk about lower taxes, which obviously we want 
lower taxes, but you have to have lower spending. It has to balance, 
and it still just goes beyond my imagination as to why Members of 
Congress over the last number of years could spend and spend and borrow 
10s of billions of dollars.
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Hundreds.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. From China, and seems like such an 
unfathomable, unsustainable kind of thing. Did you ever operate your 
small business that way or you personally? You balance your checkbook.
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Well, all of us come from States where you've 
got to pay your bills.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. A balanced budget. Every one of our States at 
the end of the year, we all participated in a balanced budget, for 14 
years.
  Mr. PERLMUTTER. If I could jump in here, I mean what was happening 
under the prior Congress and under this President, President Bush, is a 
classic borrow and spend, borrow and spend. There was no limitation on 
what you would buy or what you'd spend, but you'd cut taxes and you'd 
prosecute a war that's cost us, by the end of 2008, $750 billion. The 
budget of Colorado is about $15 billion for a year. We'll have spent 
$750 billion in Iraq by the end of 2008. Right now we're at about $550 
billion.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. My math is not good, but that sounded like about 
30 years of a Colorado State budget to me.
  Mr. PERLMUTTER. It's a long time, and it means that we've given young 
men and women to this fight in Iraq, we've given our treasure to Iraq, 
and we did it without the sacrifice that ordinarily comes when you 
fight a war and that is through taxes. So we ran this gigantic deficit.
  Now, the Republican Congress last year didn't even pass a budget, and 
this year the Congress sent a budget to the President that balances the 
budget within 5 years, as opposed to continuing to run deficit and 
deficit and grow the debt and grow the debt. We will balance this 
budget within 5 years. Quite a feat. There's some places where we've 
got to tighten the belt, but as you said, we rolled up our sleeve, made 
some tough decisions and took on a budget that was absolutely out of 
control under the prior Congress, and we're doing something to benefit 
the American public and not saddle them with debt.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. The discipline it takes to do this Federal 
budget, which we're doing right now and I'm really proud we're doing 
it, is the same discipline that you do with your own family budget. You 
don't keep borrowing and borrowing and borrowing if you can't afford to 
pay it back. And these are the kinds of things that are absolutely 
necessary. What is this principle that we passed I think unanimously in 
this House.
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Pay-as-you-go.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. PAYGO, pay-as-you-go. You can't keep borrowing, 
you can't keep spending, adding new programs unless there's money in 
the budget. You can't pretend there's some trickle-down future great 
thing. If it happens, wonderful, but you know something, we all want 
lower taxes. We all want a reasonable amount of spending, but you've 
got to be fiscally responsible.
  I'm just proud that we're getting things back on track. So maybe like 
in the 1990s, when we moved into a budget surplus, which we should have 
been proud of and sustained that over time, we want to go back to the 
old ways of the 1990s and certainly not the way of the last seven or 
eight years.

                              {time}  2300

  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. I think one of the things that the American 
public doesn't really fully appreciate is how difficult it is to 
operate under pay-as-you-go budget rules, where you have to find 
someplace to cut in order to introduce a new program. Everybody has 
needs, everybody has wants, everybody comes here with their wish list.
  But the harsh reality is we have to make difficult decisions every 
day about how we are going to allocate resources. That's one of the 
things that makes this job so important and so difficult.
  Mr. PERLMUTTER. One of the things that I think is also important is 
we have taken steps to be fiscally responsible. We dealt with a budget 
early on in February. We are dealing with a budget right now. We are 
dealing with the supplemental emergency request.
  We are able, in those budgets, to put our fingerprints and our 
values, our budgets reflect our values, and one of the things, that we 
had a number of bills that came through here today, some things that 
are going to happen tomorrow, is back in February, we increased 
benefits to veterans like hasn't been done in the 77 years of the 
Veterans Administration, because we recognized the service and the 
sacrifice that these men and women made for our country.
  We have increased their benefits; instead of scrimping along and they 
get the last little bits, we are increasing those benefits. We are 
working on the military hospitals, the hospitals. We changed the 
fingerprint. That's a value that we hold. We added money for renewable 
energy research. That's another value that we hold. We are increasing 
money for children's health insurance, another value that we hold dear.
  We have done this within these budgets where Republicans in the prior 
Congress couldn't even pass a budget. We are showing the values of 
improving the lives of the people in the middle, not the wealthiest 1 
percent, but the hard-working people in the middle and the veterans who 
so valiantly served our country over the many years.
  I am just proud to be part of a Congress, part of a class with all of 
you where we really are changing the direction of this Nation. This is 
a big ship

[[Page H5713]]

that we are steering here. It doesn't change very easily, but in the 
last 3 or 4 months, we made some major changes.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. I would just like to encourage all of my 
colleagues to watch a very special edition of ``60 Minutes'' this week. 
It's going to be focusing on the Ironman Battalion, the 133rd, based 
out of my hometown of Waterloo, Iowa. It is the whole 60 Minutes 
program. They are currently stationed in Iraq.
  A member of the Iowa Legislature, Representative Ray Zirkelbach, has 
been serving and has missed two sessions of the Iowa Legislature 
because of the extension of their deployment.
  I am very, very proud of the Ironman Battalion. I am in frequent 
contact with their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ben Correll, 
who is also from my district, Strawberry Point. I think it's 
significant that as we head into this Memorial Day weekend, people like 
me, my father served in the Marine Corps on Iwo Jima, that affected his 
entire life, my brother works at a VA hospital in Knoxville, Iowa; it's 
important that we pause and reflect on these sacrifices that we talk 
about every day in this Chamber, but also that we honor the brave men 
and women serving this country.
  I think this program is going to do an excellent job of exposing 
everyday, middle-class Americans who picked up out of their very busy 
lives to serve this country in its time of need, and I think it will be 
a very informative and rewarding experience for everyone.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I thank you for that close, because as we do 
approach Memorial Day, we do want to extend our appreciation and our 
acknowledgment to our families all over the United States whose lives 
were affected by brave men and women who served our country and made 
the ultimate sacrifice.
  We conclude this evening. I would like to thank my colleagues, Mr. 
Perlmutter, Mr. Braley of Iowa and Mr. Welch, representing our freshmen 
class. We look forward to, every week, coming back here and giving a 
little update on what is going on.
  We look forward to another busy week, and, of course, a working week 
at home catching up with our friends and family. Have a nice weekend, 
everyone, and we will see you soon.

                          ____________________