[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14423]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
  WE NEED TO FIX THE ENERGY PROBLEMS OF THIS COUNTRY IN THIS HOUSE NOW

  (Mr. HAYES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about gas prices and 
energy, specifically, the lack of action here in Congress on this 
issue. Our constituents want us to do something, and the reality is 
that we have the ability to do something but we're not.
  Mr. Speaker, according to media reports, the House leadership is 
doing everything possible to stop a vote on opening more of the oil and 
gas reserves available in this Nation. It sounds like the entire 
appropriations process might be stopped rather than having a vote on 
using our resources so we aren't so dependent on OPEC. I really don't 
understand why. Maybe it's being captive to the extreme environmental 
lobby, or maybe it's a completely different philosophy that says we 
should not do everything possible to bring gas prices down.
  What I do know, Mr. Speaker, is that we are not going above and 
beyond to fix this problem. This House is going above and beyond to 
stop a viable solution. That's wrong. I implore the Democrat leadership 
to let real energy solutions come up for a vote and get gas prices 
down.

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