[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10326-10327]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       HOUSE NEEDS A TRUTH METER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, over the last several weeks this Chamber, 
and, in fact, the President of the United States, has been under 
withering criticism from the Democratic Party over a few issues that 
are important to me and to our Nation.
  They have launched attacks first on oil drilling off the coast of 
Florida, a proposal that they say is the hallmark of the President's 
oil strategy. They have also taken great pains to describe the Kyoto 
Treaty as a very important tool in helping the issue of global warming, 
and they have criticized the President of the United States for his 
reluctance to agree to this treaty. Let me take up the first issue.
  Recently in Florida, the President came to the Florida Everglades, a 
very important national park, a very important part of Florida, one we 
in the Florida delegation are proud of and have been aggressively 
working to support. Two of our Senators arrived with the President on 
this very ambitious occasion of announcing his commitment to the 
Everglades.
  Their immediate attack after the press conference on the positive 
nature of the Everglades was to single the President out with withering 
criticism of his decision, they say, to drill for oil in the Gulf of 
Mexico, potentially destroying thousands of miles of pristine 
shoreline. Now interestingly enough, when I woke up this morning to The 
Palm Beach Post, my hometown newspaper, the headlines read, 
``Democratic Control of Senate May Not Help Stop Florida Drilling. 
Democratic control of the U.S. Senate has turned out to be no windfall 
for Florida politicians trying to block oil and natural gas drilling 
off the State's shores.
  ``The change from Republican control made a drilling advocate, 
Senator Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural 
Resources Committee. Senator Bingaman is sponsoring a broad energy bill 
that would permit leasing 5.9 million acres for drilling in the Gulf of 
Mexico about 100 miles south of the Florida Panhandle.''
  Well, let me suggest to the Democrats, since they seem to be 
preoccupied with blaming us, that they ought to look to the new 
chairman of their own committee for advocating this very same policy. 
We in Florida, in the congressional delegation, the Governor of our 
State, Jeb Bush, strongly oppose oil drilling off our coast; and we 
remain steadfast in opposition.
  But for the Democrats to attack the President as the only one 
advocating this position is wrong; it is false; and it should cease. 
Certainly they want to take advantage of a political opportunity to 
cast this President as an anti-environmentalist. And I say shame on you 
for that attack when one of your own members is the prime sponsor 
moving to, in fact, drill off the coast of Florida.
  Before you launch these attacks and these negative air attacks on TV 
buys and radio buys, look first in the mirror before aspersions are 
cast. The new Senate chairman, evidenced by his own

[[Page 10327]]

bill, is interested in this proposal and wants to foist it on the 
people of Florida.
  The second issue I will present was in USA Today. It appeared in this 
morning's paper. ``Ex-Clinton Aides Admit Kyoto Treaty is Flawed.''
  ``Economists from the Clinton White House now concede that complying 
with Kyoto's mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases would be 
difficult and more expensive to American consumers than they thought 
when they were in charge.''
  President Bush said, ``America's unwillingness to embrace a flawed 
treaty should not be read by our friends and allies as any abdication 
of responsibility.''
  First and foremost, when you look at the Kyoto Treaty, several of the 
largest polluters on the planet are not willing or able or interested 
in complying: China being the lead among them.
  Somehow we are attacking the President as he embarks on a European 
trip by suggesting he is allowing the world to become more polluted. To 
the contrary. Our President suggested that we look at a treaty that is 
not only verifiable, but is capable of causing some of these problems 
to subside and start creating a cleaner environment.
  These two issues indicated that we need a truth meter around this 
place because those who would charge our party with abandoning 
environmental concerns are doing so for political gain and expediency. 
They are so desperate to control both sides of the aisle, they are 
willing to lie their way through these processes and procedures in 
order to point the blame at one party and one President alone.
  I think this clearly indicates that, yes, politically popular as the 
Kyoto Treaty may be in some quarters, the most important job of the 
President of the United States is to make certain that we can do it and 
do it affordably.
  One of the things in the Kyoto Treaty it suggests is if another 
country cannot clean up their own act, that they will help pay for 
another nation to help clean up theirs, which means it transfers the 
responsibility of payments from one country to another to clean up 
global pollution.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to see cleaner air and cleaner water, and I want 
our Nation to participate. But I support the President as he endeavors 
to make it a reasonable, meaningful, comprehensive agreement that 
includes all parties. Let us not leave the table waiting and wanting 
with political sound bite and rhetoric. Let us make certain that we 
send a signal strongly and clearly to the administration that we want 
to support a treaty, but we do not want it to be one-sided and we do 
not want the consumers of the United States to foot the egregious bill 
that will be left because of these types of treaties.

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