[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15525-15526]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           A SERIOUS SOLUTION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today the Senate will continue debate 
on the No. 1 domestic issue facing the Nation, but it now seems clear 
that the majority is not interested in a full and open debate, is not 
interested in good ideas from all sides, and is designing floor debate 
that is designed to fail. That is simply unacceptable. I was disturbed 
to read this morning that our friends on the other side are considering 
only a brief and limited consideration of this bill. It is troubling 
that at a time of $4.06-a-gallon gas, the Senate would treat the issue 
as if it is some technical corrections bill. Let me assure my friends 
it is not.
  Let's be absolutely clear, Republicans will not accept a perfunctory 
approach to the problem. We are not content with a check-the-box 
exercise. More important, the American people will not accept a timid 
approach to such a major problem. This is the biggest issue in the 
country by far. The only thing I can recall in recent years that rivals 
it was terrorism right after 9/11. The Republican conference is 
interested in a solution. We are not interested in holding a pair of 
votes so that we can go home with political cover to blame the other 
side for our collective lack of accomplishment.
  Let's be clear, speculation-only legislation is a very little piece 
to a massive problem. Americans are facing that problem every day at 
the pump. The American people are speaking very clearly about what 
needs to be done, and the Senate has the ability to answer their call. 
Americans are going to continue to demand a serious solution that gets 
at both supply and demand. Nothing less can be seen as a solution. 
Nobody can say with a straight face that simply addressing speculation, 
a very narrow part of the problem, is a serious approach.
  The majority seems less concerned with passing a bill which can bring 
down the price of gas and more concerned with just passing some bill. 
But it wasn't too long ago that the majority party, regardless of which 
party was in control, welcomed an open debate on energy legislation.
  Let's look back to last year. Last year, when the Senate considered 
the Energy Independence and Security Act and when gas was $3.06 a 
gallon, 49 amendments were agreed to out of the 331 which were filed. 
Of those amendments, 16 received rollcall votes. In 2005, when the 
price of gas was $2.26 a gallon, a Republican majority allowed 19 
rollcall votes on amendments during debate on the Energy Policy Act of

[[Page 15526]]

2005. A total of 57 amendments were agreed to out of 235 proposed. 
Neither of these bills was rushed through in less than a week. We spent 
15 days on the floor debating last year's Energy bill and 10 days in 
2005 because we wanted to make sure we got it right, that ideas from 
both sides were considered, that the legislation would have the needed 
impact.
  We need to do that again. The current cost of gas is a serious 
problem that requires a very serious approach. The Senate insults the 
American people if it treats this problem with anything less than the 
seriousness such a big problem requires. We need to find more and use 
less. We need to consider good ideas from all sides, and we need to 
take seriously that energy is the No. 1 issue facing our country and 
act on it now. We simply can't go through a failed process, claim 
credit for trying, and then go home. Americans know better, and 
Americans expect more.
  I yield the floor.

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