[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 58 (Friday, April 1, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H4116-H4119]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. SCALISE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of 
the majority leader the schedule for next week.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), 
the majority leader of the House.
  Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman, the Republican whip 
from Louisiana, for yielding.
  On Monday, the House will meet at 12 p.m., Madam Speaker, for 
morning-hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes postponed 
until 6:30 p.m.
  On Tuesday and Wednesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning-
hour and 12 p.m. for legislative business.
  On Thursday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business.
  The House will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. 
The complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of 
business today.
  The House will consider a resolution from the Select Committee to 
Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol recommending the 
House ask the Justice Department to charge Peter Navarro and Dan 
Scavino, Jr., with criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to 
testify about their actions and knowledge relating to the violent 
effort to prevent the certification of the 2020 election.
  Additionally, Madam Speaker, the House may consider legislation 
related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional legislative items are 
possible.
  Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, as we look at the schedule for next week, 
obviously, there are a lot of concerns about the continuing rising 
price of gasoline that we have been seeing for the last year and a 
half. President Biden talked about some things that he will do.
  In regard to some of the long-term fixes to lower gas prices that 
have been filed, I know I have mentioned them to the majority leader in 
the past. H.R. 6858 is one of the bills that would address some of the 
real impediments to getting more oil and gas production here in the 
United States. There are a number of other bills, including six 
different bills that were filed by the Natural Resources Committee 
recently, that would address some of the other specific challenges that 
are holding back the ability for America to produce more oil and gas.
  I would ask the gentleman if we could get those bills on the calendar 
so that we can move to actually address the problems that are holding 
back American oil and gas production, thus leading to higher prices.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that question, 
and I have been thinking about that because he asks that regularly.
  I particularly have been thinking about that question in the context 
of the fact that we have so much available acreage on which to produce 
oil and gas currently permitted. When I say a number, we are talking 
about literally millions of acres.
  Madam Speaker, there are 9,000 unused, approved permits right now. 
There are 26 million acres of public land available right now. There 
are 11 million acres of Federal waters available. That is 37 million 
acres in total.
  In addition to that, 80 million acres in the Gulf were put up for 
auction last fall, 2021, under President Biden, which was the largest 
lease sale in U.S. history. Unfortunately, the private sector bought 
only 1.7 acres out of 80 million.
  Frankly, it appears to be that no matter what we pass, no matter how 
many permits we make available, there is not an appetite in the private 
sector for producing more.
  I say that in the context of the producers. To their credit, they are 
claiming victory. They are claiming victory at the extraordinary 
profits that they have gotten. They are buying back stocks. They are 
paying large dividends. But they are not producing more product.
  Now, it may well be that they think the price is pretty high, and 
they are making a good profit and don't need to do anything more. But 
the gentleman's questions, Madam Speaker, continually imply that there 
is some impediment to producing more product.
  Of course, the United States is the largest producer of oil and 
natural gas in the world, and we have increased very substantially over 
the past few years in production.
  I say to the gentleman the committees are looking at the bills the 
gentleman refers to. But in terms of production, the United States is 
producing 18.61 billion barrels per day, which is 20 percent of the 
world's production.
  The President announced, just the other day, the release of a million 
barrels per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That is going to 
be 180 million barrels over the next 6 months.
  In fact, when he did that, I don't know whether it had direct impact, 
but as the gentleman knows, the price on the global market has come 
down. I think it came down $7 in the last month or $7 in the last week.
  The administration is clearly making some substantial policy changes, 
one of which is use it or lose it. I said there were 9,000 permitted, 
ready to go, ready to drill, right now, today.
  The President has said, in his policies: We have given all these 
permits. If you are not going to use these permits, then you are either 
going to pay a fee or give them back, and we are going ask other people 
who want to produce more product.
  You would think in the capitalist system which we have, which I 
strongly, strongly support, that given the price of oil being so high, 
people would look for more product, unless they want to limit the 
availability of product and, therefore, keep the price even higher.
  I don't know which is the option there, but I will tell the gentleman 
that the President has activated the Defense Production Act, looking 
for critical materials, not just oil, but lithium, nickel, cobalt, 
graphite, manganese, for all sorts of things that we need. The 
President has taken very, very strong steps.

  In addition to that, which is very important, Madam Speaker, what we 
have done is passed legislation which will, in the relatively near 
term--not tomorrow, not next week, not next month--make us less and 
less reliant on overseas suppliers of energy that clearly have shown 
themselves to be not reliable and clearly have been seen to be people 
who want to create a monopoly, a cartel, so that they can keep prices 
unusually high and, of course, in the process continue to assault the 
environment and damage the climate of this global community, which will 
have an extraordinary cost.
  In answer to the gentleman's question, the committees are looking at 
those bills that you mentioned. I will mention to them again looking at 
those bills.
  Very frankly, any implication that we are not producing more product 
because there is some constraint by the Federal Government on 
production is simply not accurate, Madam Speaker. Again, 9,000 leases; 
37 million acres available--26 million on public lands--permitted, 
ready to go, and they have not been drilled on.
  The President is saying: If you don't drill, if you are not going to 
produce more product--we want more product. We need more product in the 
short term. If you don't want to produce it, then we are going to give 
those leases to somebody else.

                              {time}  1245

  Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, a number of problems with the way that 
the President's plan was described is that that is not what the 
President has done. The President has worked aggressively through many 
of his Federal agencies to, in fact, block the production of oil and 
gas.
  And let me bring you back to candidate Barack Obama. There are a

[[Page H4117]]

number of specific examples I am going to give the gentleman because 
the gentleman gave a number of specific examples that just don't comply 
with the facts, starting with the 9,000 leases, the thousands of acres 
that I know the----
  Mr. HOYER. Millions, millions.
  Mr. SCALISE. President has talked about and others have talked about 
that, frankly, don't tell the picture of what the President is also 
doing to ensure that you cannot develop on those lands. You cannot 
develop with those 9,000 leases.
  And I will go back to candidate Joe Biden. This is what Joe Biden 
said when he was a candidate for President. ``No more drilling on 
Federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the 
oil industry to continue to drill, period. It ends.''
  That was Joe Biden as a candidate. The problem is he continued to 
take steps to carry through on that, starting with the 9,000 leases. If 
you have a lease to drill, it sounds really good until you realize that 
you still have to go through other steps to develop that. First of all, 
in some cases, you may actually go test wells, and you find out that 
they are not producing.
  Thousands, by the way, of those in the 9,000 are not producing wells, 
meaning they are dry holes. There is no oil. Now, I don't know if you 
are going to fine a company because they are not drilling in an area 
where there is no oil, but maybe that is what the President is talking 
about, or maybe he doesn't understand the process of drilling for oil.
  So then you go to some of the other areas, and I will give you 
section 1002 of ANWR, as an example. There needs to be seismic 
development where you go and test to see where the oil is.
  We have a lot of advanced technology where, in the past, they might 
drill even more dry holes. Today, you can actually go and develop 
through seismic technology to know pretty well where the oil is, where 
the biggest reserves are, and then that is where you go and drill.
  And so the Federal agencies are blocking the ability to do seismic 
activity, so you can't find out what is under the ground. So great. You 
have got a permit. You can't find out the seismic because the Biden 
administration is blocking it, so you can't make the multibillion-
dollar investment because you don't know what is under the ground 
where.
  In other countries, they allow that to happen. These companies are 
making investments, by the way. They are just not making the investment 
in America because they can't get cooperation from the regulating 
agencies because the regulating agencies don't want them to drill. 
Because, again, President Joe Biden as a candidate said, ``There will 
be no more drilling. . . . No ability for the oil industry to continue 
to drill, period. It ends.'' And then he directed his agencies to do 
it.
  Another example that has been brought up just the other day, less 
than a week ago. Again, we are talking about prices hovering in the 
$100 range. Raiding, in the short term, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve 
actually makes our country less safe because the Strategic Petroleum 
Reserve is there to be a safety net. If there is a national crisis 
somewhere, you can rely on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to get you 
through the next few weeks while you are working on a supply chain 
issue. That is not what is going on. The President is just raiding the 
Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to cover up for his failed policy.
  And so if you look at what he just did the other day, President 
Biden's Securities and Exchange Commission just put out a whole new set 
of rules and regulations to make it hard, not just for oil and gas 
companies, but any other company to use fossil fuels.
  Again, he has talked about this publicly. He wants to move away from 
fossil fuels. The problem is, he is telling his regulatory agencies to 
go make it incredibly difficult and more expensive to use fossil fuels. 
In his budget just earlier this week, he proposed $45 billion in new 
taxes on oil and gas in America.
  Now, I know he has been, in the past, begging Putin to produce more. 
He is begging Venezuela, other dictators, Iran, to produce more oil. He 
is not proposing to raise their taxes. He is proposing to raise the tax 
on oil and gas produced in the American to the tune of $45 billion in 
his budget he just released Monday.
  That would mean higher gas prices. But what it also does is it tells 
the oil and gas companies, don't drill in America because that is what 
President Biden as candidate said, No more drilling, period. It ends.
  Then the SEC continued to do other things; this ESG movement where 
they are trying to get the big oil and gas companies to not drill for 
oil. So you are an oil and gas company, you are Exxon, and they are 
pushing to try to get those companies to separate into two different 
entities so that they can cut off financing for oil and gas development 
projects. They are doing it right now.
  We have got a number of bills to fix this. And as the gentleman talks 
about, we want to do these things. We want to open it up. Except if you 
are saying on one hand, I am going to build this road, and I don't know 
why you are not driving down the road. But on the other hand, you have 
got people barricading the road, and then you say, look, nobody's using 
the road, so why even bother. You know, fine them for not using the 
road. And then you go look at the on-ramp, and you find out that they 
have put 10 barricades in front of the on-ramp so you can't get on the 
road.
  That is what President Biden has done to oil and gas drilling in 
America. He has actually failed to comply with the law on the 
requirements that he conduct lease sales that he has not conducted 
which the law requires him to do. There are actually lawsuits that we 
have won in court, and he continues to obfuscate those laws.
  So there is a bill called the Restore Onshore Energy Production Act. 
It immediately resumes oil and gas lease sales and requires quarterly 
lease sales in each State with an oil and gas program. That is 
something the President should be doing if he wanted to actually lower 
the cost of gasoline and produce in America, he would be doing, but he 
won't do it. So this bill would require him to do it. I would love us 
to bring that bill up.
  And, again, if the gentleman says, Hey, why don't we produce on those 
9,000 leases? This would actually help the ones that aren't dry holes 
where companies are trying to find out how they can go and drill, but 
they are being blocked by President Biden's different regulatory 
agencies. This would remove some of those roadblocks.
  The Strategy to Secure Offshore Energy Act would actually require the 
publication of the 5-year plan for offshore oil and gas lease sales and 
require timelines for developing subsequent leasing plans. That is 
supposed to be done under law. The President's not doing it. This would 
require he do it.
  The Energy Permitting Certainty Act requires the Department of the 
Interior to process applications for permits to drill under a valid 
lease, regardless of any unrelated civil actions where some of these 
groups use other laws like the Endangered Species Act to block 
drilling, again, saying there are leases. Why aren't you using them?
  President Biden is saying, We are going to fine you for not using 
them as he is using his other agencies to stop them from using the 
leases.
  You have got EPA over here and the Department of the Interior over 
there. You have got the SEC over there, all putting up roadblocks to 
the roadway, and then the President says, Look, there are no cars on 
the road. We are going to fine you for not using the road.
  Well, how about you take the roadblocks off the on-ramp so that you 
can actually get on the road and drill? President Biden is trying to 
have it both ways. He is trying to appease the people who he promised, 
I am going to shut down drilling. Unfortunately, he is doing that. But 
then he is going and telling the public, I want them to drill. And in 
fact, I am going to fine them if they don't drill, while he is stopping 
them from drilling.
  Again, other bills that we have to fix these problems that President 
Biden is putting up as roadblocks: The Securing American Energy and 
Investing in Reliancy Act requires the Department of the Interior to 
conduct all remaining offshore oil and gas leases in the current 
leasing plan and issue the leases, one, as a result of Lease Sale 257; 
additional impediments he has put

[[Page H4118]]

in front of people that have already followed the rules, but he is 
still not letting them actually go do what they want to do.
  They want to drill in America, and he is forcing them out of America. 
That is why he is begging foreign countries when he, himself, can 
remove the roadblocks that he put in place to stop drilling in America.
  And there are more bills. There are a number of other bills. We will 
be happy to go over each of them with you.
  But what we are saying is, there are very specific things President 
Biden has done to impede the ability for us to drill in America.
  There are companies all across the country that know how to drill and 
can't drill in America. And instead of the President trying to use 
taglines and divert and talk about Putin and everybody else, when he is 
the one that is giving Putin leverage by shutting America off--and, 
again, this isn't accidental. He, as a candidate, said, ``No more 
drilling on Federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No 
ability for the gas industry to continue to drill, period. It ends.''
  Unfortunately, it has ended, and we are trying to get it started up 
again by reversing the very things Joe Biden did to stop it. And we are 
asking for help here on this floor to address these very specific 
problems.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. HOYER. Well, I am not surprised that the gentleman, and many of 
the bills that he refers to, want to undermine the regulation to 
protect the health and welfare of the American people which those are 
designed to do, and most of which I think, you know, the gentleman's 
side of the aisle did not support or enforce when they were in charge 
of the Presidency.
  Madam Speaker, all of that rhetoric about the President doesn't want 
to do this, doesn't want to do this, 80 million acres. 1.7 million 
acres bid on. If, in fact, people were looking for additional ways and 
means to produce at a price that is historic, they would do so. And he 
dismisses, Madam Speaker, the 9,000 leases that exist. Now, maybe----
  Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, for correction, that is not what I did. I 
actually went through how those 9,000 leases are being blocked by the 
President from being utilized properly.
  Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, yes. If, in fact, that was the reason for 
non-production, we all would have heard of the fact when we are not 
producing, and the stock market would have heard about that, and the 
companies would be lamenting the fact that they are not producing more.
  In fact, when you read their reports, they are indicating we are 
making very high profits. We are not putting money into production at 
this point in time, and we are buying back stocks, and we are paying 
high dividends.
  I do not criticize them for making what is a business decision. That 
business decision, however, has had an adverse effect. Why? Because we 
are not moving quickly enough to not be reliant on fossil fuels which 
the President, in his remarks, wants to get to.
  We have a disagreement between our parties, Madam Speaker, on that 
issue. Drill, baby, drill. That has been the mantra forever. And it was 
73 degrees yesterday. And our planet is hurting.
  The trees on my property produced blossoms long before they usually 
do. They are confused. But not only are they confused; it is dangerous 
for agriculture. It is dangerous for human beings. It is dangerous for 
animal life. It is dangerous for our seas. And we have a difference of 
opinion.

  That is what the President was speaking to, that we need to move 
towards that end, but he understands, as we all understand, that fossil 
fuels are necessary right now.
  Natural gas is--we are the biggest producer of natural gas in the 
world. We are the biggest producer of oil in the world. That hasn't 
stopped. And, yes, we need to get to, as our Build Back Better bill 
does, that none of the Republicans voted for, it gets to a reliance on 
fuel that will not help Putin.
  Now, there are some people in the Republican party who apparently 
think Putin is a pretty good guy. He is a genius. He is this, that, and 
the other.
  We don't think so. We think he is a war criminal. And we think there 
are some other folks who are providing us with oil on whom we ought not 
to rely, not only for the global health, but also for our national 
security.
  And to the extent that we invest in alternatives which, by the way, 
every energy company in America, and I think the world, probably--I am 
not going to say that, but in America--that I thought wants to do. They 
are all doing research on alternative energy sources because they know 
that at some point, we need to get off of the reliance on fossil fuel. 
That is what the President was speaking about.
  But he leased--he put 80 million acres in the Gulf for lease. Well, 
why would anybody put 80 million if there was no more drilling? He put 
80 million acres, and only 1.7 million the private sector even sort of 
nodded at, before any tests, before any knowledge. You know, they need 
the lease to test it.
  So I say to my friend, we are going to need fossil fuel, and we need 
to bring gasoline prices down. But, very frankly, we are not going to 
bring prices down if we don't produce more product, and the focus is 
not higher profits, buying back stock, and making high dividends. There 
is no incentive to do that.

                              {time}  1300

  We need to do it. I have urged the President to talk to the leaders 
of the energy companies in our country. They are part of the success of 
America. We are at war. We are at war with Putin, a war criminal, a 
tyrant, and that has destabilized world markets; since the last month 
up a dollar. That is Putin's dollar we are paying. We are paying that 
dollar because of Putin.
  Madam Speaker, the whip mentioned Putin as an aside; just as an 
aside, as if the contemplation, as the President pointed out, Madam 
Speaker, that Russia was going to invade Ukraine. Even Mr. Zelenskyy 
thought maybe you are overstating the case. Extraordinarily courageous 
leader in Ukraine.
  So even in preparation for the instability that this war that Putin 
has criminally undertaken without any provocation--murdering people, 
women and children, people in hospitals, people in schools--yes, oil 
prices have gone up because the world market was very concerned about 
this. We don't control it here.
  So although it is a dollar since he invaded, I am convinced that a 
substantial amount of the increase was caused by the instability of his 
threat. Marshalling troops at the border of Ukraine and Belarus from 
Russia destabilized the market, no doubt about it.
  I tell the gentleman again, there is an ability to drill. There is an 
ability to do research and discover and do the seismic tests. There is 
that ability now. I don't accept the gentleman's premise that there is 
a roadblock.
  The President does not want to expand. You understand that. He has 
said that; you quoted him. He wants to get to alternative energy 
sources. He wants to save the planet. I share that view with him. But 
we are going to have to have fossil fuels in the short term because we 
won't be able to power our economy or our people for some years to 
come.
  Hopefully, by 2035, we will have a substantial reduction, and 
hopefully, by 2050, a very, very substantial reduction, perhaps zero. 
But in the short term, we are going to need a resource that has been a 
critical resource for the growth of our economy and other economies 
around the world.
  Nobody is criticizing those who produce that. I say nobody. At least 
I am not criticizing them. But I really believe that we could get more 
production under present circumstances, and that is what we ought to be 
doing.
  Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, clearly the gentleman and I disagree on 
many of these items. Drilling in America is the cleanest way to produce 
oil in the world. If it is going to come from Russia, which I don't 
want, if it is going to come from any dictator, they actually emit more 
carbon than if you make it in America.
  But I want to point out, as the gentleman talked about, this magical 
lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and why no one bid on it, the reason 
is because it didn't happen. The Biden administration did not move 
forward with that lease sale. That is what we are trying to address 
with these bills.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Biden didn't make that decision; the courts made that 
decision.
  Mr. SCALISE. But the gentleman was saying it wasn't bid on; the oil

[[Page H4119]]

companies didn't want to do it. They did. They wanted to invest in 
America. An environmental group went to block it and got a court to go 
along with them. The normal practice is the administration stands up 
for America and American policy and objects, and the Biden 
administration refused to challenge it in the courts because they 
didn't want the lease sale to go forward. And the lease sale did not go 
forward. That is why no one bid on it, because there was no lease sale.
  We fix that with these pieces of legislation we would like to bring 
to the floor, but we will continue this discussion. Hopefully, we can 
resolve it. We will continue pushing for it.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________