[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15376]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          WHERE IS THE HOUSE?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, here we are, Thursday afternoon, 
3:58 p.m. All across the Nation, the day shift is ending, or about to 
end. Folks getting ready for the afternoon shift. Other folks that work 
the night shift are either just waking up or just going to sleep to get 
prepared for another day, another day of work.
  Where is the House? The House has gone home, Thursday afternoon, and 
the House has gone home, not to return until next Tuesday. What didn't 
we do this week, like we didn't do last week, and the week before, and 
the week before, we didn't address the number one issue on the minds of 
Americans and hurting the American pocketbook, and that's the issue of 
gas prices, didn't address it, nothing.

                              {time}  1600

  Now, the majority will tell you that they brought to the floor a 
drill bill. What they brought to the floor today, Mr. Speaker, 
cynically, was what they called a drill bill. In fact, it was really 
just a ``no energy'' energy bill.
  Why do I say that? Well, the bill had eight sections. Six sections 
are either current law or are clerical. Current law: No new energy. One 
of the sections mandated project labor agreements that would increase 
the construction costs of Alaskan pipelines by as much as 30 percent. 
Increasing costs: No new energy. The final section would increase the 
bureaucracy and the red tape for any new energy production. It didn't 
open any exploration onshore. It didn't open any exploration offshore. 
Increasing costs: No new energy.
  Now, what is the solution? Well, the solution is what the American 
people know, and that is that it's a broad array of items. It's 
conservation. Americans are doing an incredible job of trying to 
conserve. We're using less energy than we did last year. Conservation 
is the key, and we can all do more. It's finding alternative fuel, that 
fuel that will allow the 21st century to be an American energy 21st 
century. That will take a little while.
  So, in the near term, in the short term, what's the solution? Mr. 
Speaker, you know what it is. It's what your constituents tell you 
about. It's increasing supply. It is increasing the supply of energy, 
American energy for Americans. How do you do that? America has 
incredible resources.
  Onshore resources: We ought to be doing more exploration. We're only 
using 6 percent of the eligible land to be leased to find American 
energy for Americans onshore.
  Offshore: Deep-sea exploration. The vast majority of Americans 
support environmentally sensitive and sound deep-sea exploration. We 
ought to be doing that. Only 3 percent of the available territory is 
being utilized currently.
  Utilizing clean coal technology: We now have technology available 
that allows us to use coal of which America is, remarkably, the world's 
greatest repository of coal in the world, and we ought to be using that 
for clean coal technology.
  Oil shale, which exists in our western area: There are more than 2 
trillion barrels of oil that could be extracted from oil shale in 
environmentally sensitive and sound ways.
  Mr. Speaker, as you know, we're doing none of that. Now, it's not 
because there isn't legislation for it. In fact, we have bills right 
here at the desk: H.R. 3089, the No More Excuses Energy Act; H.R. 2279, 
the Expand American Refining Capacity Act; H.R. 5656, to Repeal the Ban 
on Acquiring Alternative Fuels; H.R. 2208, the Coal Liquid Fuel Act. 
All sorts of bills exist. They exist, but we aren't allowed a vote.
  As you know, the majority party, the Democrat leadership, beholden to 
leftist individuals, will not allow a vote on the floor of the House. 
All we're asking is for a vote. We're not asking for a guaranteed 
outcome, just a vote. Give us a vote, Mr. Speaker. Why not? What are 
you afraid of? Why not have a vote? Why not respond to the demand of 
the American people and increase American energy for Americans? Bring 
down gas prices. We demand a vote. We hope that next week we'll see it.

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