[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 147 (Tuesday, September 16, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H8146]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          DEMOCRAT ENERGY BILL

  (Mr. BLUNT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BLUNT. We're here today to talk about a bill that nobody had 
seen, or at least no Republican had seen as late as 9:45 last night.
  No committee has seen the bill. In fact, I asked has this been to the 
Energy and Commerce Committee? I thought, as a member of that committee 
I must have missed the hearing. But, no, it hasn't been to the Energy 
and Commerce Committee.
  And so I asked has it been to the Resources Committee because it 
deals with our natural resources. No, it hasn't been to the Resources 
Committee.
  I asked has it been to the Ways and Means Committee. There's a $1.2 
billion project in this bill that the chairman of the Ways and Means 
Committee has wanted forever to extend subways in New York, so I 
thought surely it had been to the Ways and Means Committee. But it 
hadn't been to the Ways and Means Committee. In fact, it's been to no 
committee anywhere, and it does nothing.
  Republicans have worked for years in this House to send good 
legislation to the Senate, joined by Democrats who agree with us on 
this issue. We worked all of August to call attention to the fact that 
we weren't dealing with the number one problem facing the American 
people, and now we have a bill that we find will not produce any more 
energy and we know will increase energy prices.
  The renewable portfolio standards that raise everybody's electricity 
bill are unreasonable. But that really doesn't matter because nobody 
expects this bill to become law. The drilling in the Outer Continental 
Shelf can't really occur. But maybe that doesn't matter either because 
this bill's not about something that would become law.
  I'm offended, Members of the House are offended, and we should be by 
this process. And the American people should be offended that we're not 
doing the job for them that really matters.

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