[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 189 (Wednesday, October 27, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7408-S7409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the nomination.
  The bill clerk read the nomination of Christopher H. Schroeder, of 
North Carolina, to be Assistant Attorney General.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.


                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3086

  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, right now, American families are 
worried. The White House thinks inflation is a high-class problem. I 
clearly imagine the price of Prada bags has gone up, but what the White 
House continues to miss is that inflation is killing the buying power 
of Americans on low and fixed incomes.
  Across America, families are going through grocery store aisles, 
seeing higher prices, and having to figure out what they can afford to 
eat this week. Folks are passing by gas station after gas station, 
looking for lower prices--to no avail. These aren't just headlines and 
stories; these are real families who are living paycheck to paycheck 
and struggling to keep up.
  I grew up poor. When my parents' bills went up, it made it more 
difficult for my family. When gas prices went up, it meant we had less 
food to put on the table. None of us would wish that on anyone, but 
that is exactly what is happening in Biden's America--high prices on 
food, high prices on gas, empty shelves and supply shortages, 
skyrocketing debt, and Big Government overreach--and that is just the 
start. Energy prices are through the roof.
  Let's take a look at the rising cost at the pump.
  Just this week, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel ran a story with the 
headline: ``Gas prices hit their highest levels since 2014. When will 
we get a break?'' As gas prices keep rising, the message from Florida 
couldn't be more clear.
  Last week, the national gas average was $3.36 a gallon. It was $2.16 
per gallon this time last year. That is a 55-percent increase in just 1 
year. If you are driving a car, that means you are seeing an extra cost 
of about $800 annually. If you are driving a truck, that means you are 
probably seeing an extra cost of $1,400 annually.
  More than 5,000 gas stations across the country are charging more 
than $4.50 a gallon. In one California community, gas was nearly $8 per 
gallon last week. That is insane. Prices may go up even more as 
forecasters warn that oil could rise to more than $100 a barrel.
  But rising costs don't stop at the pump; they follow you home. For 
the nearly half of U.S. families who use natural gas to heat their 
homes, it is going to cost them $746 just to stay warm during the 
winter months. If you are using electric heat, prepare to spend more 
than $1,200 on your electric bills. Reports show that, this winter, 
home heating prices are going to rise by more than 40 percent for homes 
that use heating oil, more than 30 percent for homes using natural gas, 
and 54 percent for homes using propane. Factor in the rising cost of 
meat, diapers, milk, and other everyday items, and things are looking 
pretty dire for the American family.
  Last week, President Biden said he ``doesn't have a near-term 
answer'' for reducing gas prices. He doesn't appear to have a long-term 
answer either. In the meantime, he expects families to just hang tight 
while he does nothing until next year, when things will magically get 
better.
  We all know President Biden likes to play the blame game. This time, 
he is blaming OPEC for not pumping out more foreign oil. Remember when 
America was energy independent? Not anymore, thanks to Joe Biden. He 
has done everything in his power to cut off America's domestic supply 
and resources needed to warm our homes and run our cars.
  In his first month in office, he cut the Keystone Pipeline permit and 
killed thousands of American jobs. Then he suspended new oil and gas 
leasing and drilling permits for Federal lands.
  He filled his administration with people who have been longtime 
advocates of a carbon tax, including Treasury Secretary Yellen, which 
would only make the current problem worse. He has others, like Interior 
Secretary Haaland, who want to completely ban fracking.
  Oddly enough, he supported Russia's getting the Nord Stream 2 
Pipeline, which gives Russia a massive win, and he has put us back into 
the Paris climate accords, which are already ruining Europe. European 
countries are scaling back on oil and gas production to meet the Paris 
Agreement. In Portugal, electricity prices have tripled over the past 6 
months, and Germany's prices are three times the U.S. average. Across 
Europe, they have to rely on energy imports from Russia.
  Instead of pursuing a path of energy independence, Biden continues to 
push ridiculous energy policies in his massive $5.5 trillion spending 
package that will cut our legs out from under us and cause America to 
become even more dependent on Russia and the OPEC countries, and he is 
relentlessly pursuing a reckless tax-and-spending spree even though we 
know reckless spending causes inflation.
  These effects might not be felt by President Biden, but I can tell 
you that, since Biden took office, more families across the State of 
Florida and across the Nation have felt the pain of having to count 
their pennies.
  For the sake of American families, we need to figure out what the 
heck is going on. This is why I have introduced a very simple bill to 
get to the bottom of these sky-high prices. I am thankful for Senators 
Marshall, Lummis, Capito, Johnson, Moran, and Blackburn, who have 
cosponsored this legislation.
  The GAS Price Act will simply require the Energy Information 
Administration to report publicly to Congress on any Federal Agency 
policies or regulations that it determines will cause energy prices to 
rise. All my bill does is ask a Federal Agency to provide important 
information to us in Congress with a statement of facts on what is 
causing rising energy prices since President Biden was sworn into 
office. Then we can take this information, see what needs to be fixed, 
and help the American people. That is it. Let's tell Americans why this 
is happening, and let's figure out how to fix it. It is as simple as 
that.
  I am sure none of my colleagues would disagree to keeping Congress 
informed about new rules or policies that have a negative financial 
impact on families in our great State.
  Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3086, 
which is at the desk. Further, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be 
considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I rise to 
object to the Senator from Florida's request to pass this legislation 
through unanimous consent.
  If we want to tackle rising fuel costs, let's do something that will 
actually protect American consumers and actually promote our energy 
independence. Let's reinstate the fossil fuel ban that was lifted in 
2015.

[[Page S7409]]

  Listen to what has happened here in our Nation since 2015, when every 
Republican on this Senate floor--when they controlled the Senate--voted 
to lift the ban on the exportation of oil from the United States. That 
ban had been in place for 50 years to keep American oil here.

  Well, here's what the Republicans did in the House and Senate back in 
2015: they lifted the ban.
  Oil companies from the United States now send our oil overseas. And 
get this: In 2020, we exported more than 8.5 million barrels of 
petroleum every single day out of the United States to other countries. 
And, in 2020, pursuant to Republican Senators in 2015, we, in 2020, for 
the first time in more than 50 years, exported more barrels of 
petroleum every single day--exported--than imported.
  Is that energy independence?
  I don't think so.
  And why do we do it?
  I will tell you why we do it. It is for the oil companies. That is 
why we do it.
  The Republicans don't want to do anything on climate change--oil 
companies. The oil companies want to export American oil, drill for it 
here in the United States, because they can make more money selling 
that oil into the international marketplace. Of course, that is what 
the Republicans are going to vote for back in 2015.
  And here's what happened: we got up to 2021, and we now are net 
exporters of petroleum in our country.
  So the bill that is being proposed would actually do nothing to help 
consumers at the pump. The one thing that we could do is reimpose the 
ban on the exportation of these 8.5 million barrels of oil a day. Keep 
it here. It is lower priced. It is drilled for in the United States. 
Our economy would get the benefit of that lower priced oil and people 
would be going up to the pump, paying a lot less per gallon of gasoline 
than they are doing right now.
  But you are not going to hear anything from the Republican Party that 
takes on the oil industry and their international market using American 
oil to make more money because people in the rest of the world will pay 
more for it. But that leaves less American oil here for drivers, as 
they are pulling in to the pump every single day.
  So this is just the greed of the domestic oil industry so that they 
can have unlimited international energy markets so that, ultimately--
and this is the beauty of it--they make more money overseas and they 
get to tip American consumers upside down at the pumps as they have got 
their fingers on this nozzle and watching this price of gasoline go up 
even as they are looking at it. It is a beautiful world for the oil 
industry to have the cooperation of the Republican Party on this 
agenda.
  And so all I can say is that this proposal is just the opposite of 
what we should be talking about. The Republicans should be reexamining 
their own conscience about what they did in 2015, instead of shedding 
crocodile tears today as though Joe Biden did this. This net export of 
petroleum products is a Republican idea driven by the Republicans who 
sit here on the Senate floor.
  And so in no way should this resolution pass, and so I object to the 
Senator's motion for unanimous consent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. That would be interesting if it was true. When 
you think about it--and you can look at oil prices, and they are 
international oil prices--it is illogical to believe that the American 
oil companies want to spend the transportation dollars to send the oil 
overseas if they could sell it in America.
  So, first off, I am truly shocked that my colleague would say those 
things. I am shocked that he would object, but I get it. I know my 
Democratic colleagues have to bend over backwards to protect the Biden 
administration's disastrous energy policies. But I find it hard to 
believe they would go so far as to object to having basic transparency. 
Maybe, if what my colleague said was true, then my bill would show--
they would come back and say: Yup, that is exactly what happened.
  My bill would simply provide us with greater insight into the cause 
of rising gas and energy prices in the United States.
  We must be committed to making the American dream work for everyone, 
ensuring that every family, including poor families, have a chance to 
get ahead.
  I think about my mom and dad. I watched them struggle to make ends 
meet. This inflation, these gas prices, food prices, all these things, 
are hurting the poorest families in this country. When you get very 
little, like we did, and prices go up--gas prices, food prices--it 
means it is a very difficult time for these families. Hard-working 
families are trying to get by.
  We need to provide more information to Congress so we can make good 
decisions to figure out why these gas prices are going up the way they 
are.
  So I am disappointed that my colleague would object to a simple way 
of trying to figure out exactly what has happened here, why gas prices 
are going up, and what should Congress be doing to make sure that 
doesn't continue.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip.