[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11049]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              A DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT ISSUES FOR AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, today we passed a resolution to honor our 
troops in Bosnia. I personally want to thank the National Guard troops, 
our men and women in uniform. I want to especially recognize them today 
because they spend time away from their families and their jobs.
  I know this because I have a neighbor in my hometown of Prescott, 
Arkansas, Kevin Smith, who is serving tonight in Bosnia through the 
National Guard while his wife remains home, pregnant, and continues to 
hold down a job. Our families make huge sacrifices so our men and women 
in the National Guard can serve our country and yes, serve Bosnia in 
this time of need and they do so with honor and dignity and I want to 
thank each and every one of them.
  This is especially important to me because I have two National Guard 
units from my district, one from Magnolia and another from Sheridan, 
that are presently serving in Bosnia. My legislative assistant for 
military affairs has been there to visit with the troops. I wish I 
could have gone, but it was at a time when we had votes going on here 
in our Nation's capital. So I want to thank all of them. I want to 
thank them for this important service to our country and to Bosnia 
during this time of need.
  Today we celebrate Juneteenth, something else that is important to me 
that I would like to visit with my colleagues about this evening. On 
this date in 1865, Major General Gordon Granger lead his troops into 
Galveston, Texas and officially proclaimed freedom for slaves for the 
State of Texas, concluding a 2\1/2\ year journey through the Deep 
South. Today I join African Americans and citizens of all races across 
Arkansas, across America, and across the world in celebrating 
Juneteenth in honor of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by 
President Abraham Lincoln and Major General Granger's historic journey. 
African Americans have played an important role throughout America's 
history and we should all be grateful for their many, many 
contributions to our society.
  Mr. Speaker, as we gather today with family, friends and neighbors in 
marking the tradition of Juneteenth, I extend my warmest wishes for a 
special celebration, one that we will remember, and I ask all citizens 
to renew our commitment to a nation that stands for civil justice and 
opportunity for all people.
  Finally, this evening I would like to visit for a few minutes on the 
issue of energy. Mr. Speaker, as temperatures across the country heat 
up and this summer's travel season begins, our Nation finds itself in 
the midst of an energy crisis like one that has not been seen in 2 
decades. While my constituents in south Arkansas have not had to face 
the electricity shortages that California has seen, like all Americans, 
they have been strapped by the dramatic rise in oil and gas prices.
  The hardworking families of south Arkansas already struggle to make 
ends meet. Many of my constituents come from poor and rural areas where 
they depend on their cars or trucks to get to and from their jobs, 
oftentimes traveling many miles, or where they have large tractors and 
equipment to tend to their family farms. When already faced with the 
cost of feeding their families, paying their electricity bills, and 
paying for expensive prescription drugs to stay healthy and get well, 
they simply cannot afford these high gasoline costs.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe we must act to bring these prices down, and we 
must do it now. Since this most recent increase in gasoline prices 
began, I, along with many of my colleagues in Congress, have written 
letters to energy Secretary Spencer Abraham as well as President Bush 
asking them to come to the aid of gasoline consumers by aggressively 
lobbying OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, to 
increase the production of oil or, as President Bush suggested last 
year, ``open up their spigots'' to help alleviate this problem, this 
crisis.
  Just last March, OPEC decided arbitrarily to cut oil production by 4 
percent in the countries that our men and women in uniform went to 
serve in Desert Storm. That is one million barrels a day.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for OPEC to do right by the American 
consumers. It is time for OPEC to do right by the consumers of south 
Arkansas. Increase production, increase production now.
  In addition to pressuring OPEC to increase production, we must also 
work with U.S. oil producers to increase their dangerously low levels 
of oil inventories. Our nation lacks the refinery capacity to keep up 
with current demand for oil and gas. We should work to streamline 
regulatory requirements to facilitate investment in new refineries and 
other improvements to our energy infrastructure, and I urge the 
Administration to work with our current domestic refineries to increase 
their inventories of refined gasoline.
  But we cannot stop there. We need a balanced, proactive national 
energy policy--one that serves as an energy plan for the future that 
not only increases energy production, but also decreases energy demand. 
We must work to decrease our dependence on foreign oil through 
conservation, renewable energy, and energy efficiency programs.
  In the short term, we should look at ways to guard our consumers 
against potential price gouging by the big oil companies. For our home 
heating oil consumers, we should also look at incentives to encourage 
consumers to make energy efficient improvements to their homes, and we 
must make sure that we fully fund the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance 
Program (LIHEAP). The money we invest in this program will be put right 
back into the economy through lower heating and fuel bills.
  In May, President Bush announced his Administration's plan to address 
our nation's current energy crisis, a plan for that calls for major 
increases in oil and gas production in the United States. I agree with 
the Administration that we need to increase production, but I believe 
their proposal is a plan for the past that seems to cater to the big 
oil companies.
  I am disappointed that their plan does not do more to support 
programs to increase research and development in new energy 
technologies that increase conservation and alternative and renewable 
fuel sources to reduce our oil dependence. This may not be an immediate 
answer, but it is certainly important for the long-term as fossil fuel 
sources diminish. Surely, if we can create the technology to send a man 
to the moon, we can develop a crop that our farmers can grow that can 
provide an efficient and affordable alternative source for fuel.
  Our current energy situation is a complicated problem with no easy 
answers, but it is of critical importance to the people of south 
Arkansas and across America. The sooner we take action, the sooner we 
can see results at the pump. I urge my colleagues to support a 
balanced, proactive, and bipartisan solution to this crisis so that we 
can bring relief to our hard working families.

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