[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 113 (Thursday, July 29, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H6287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1020
                          OPPOSE THE CLEAR ACT

  (Mr. HASTINGS of Washington asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Madam Speaker, instead of directly 
addressing the gulf oil spill tragedy, Congress is voting this week on 
legislation, the CLEAR Act, that is stuffed full of unrelated items, 
legislation that will kill American jobs and raise energy prices.
  Simply put, Democrats are using the oil spill as an excuse to raise 
taxes and increase spending. The bill imposes a new $22 billion energy 
tax and has over $30 billion of new unrelated mandatory spending. What 
the Democrats are doing, Madam Speaker, is rushing ahead of the facts 
and writing laws before investigations into the spill are finished.
  Reforms are needed to make American offshore drilling the safest in 
the world, but that doesn't require tax increases or billions of 
dollars of unrelated spending and inflicting greater economic pain and 
lost jobs on Americans.
  I urge my colleagues to oppose the CLEAR Act.

                          ____________________