[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18010]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        CONGRESS IS IN THE DARK

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, we're back. After a 5-week break, Congress has 
returned to do the people's business.
  The number one concern among Americans is the high cost of energy, 
especially gasoline. Americans want Congress to come up with an energy 
plan to make our Nation independent from energy control of foreign 
powers. We send millions of dollars a day overseas to countries that 
don't like us and hold us hostage until we pay the ransom for that 
crude oil.
  But Congress is not going to deal with energy legislation today. In 
fact, our first priority, our very first order of business after this 
long recess is to name a new Federal building in Virginia. And the 
second thing we're going to do is name a new Federal building in New 
York.
  So no votes today on offshore drilling, no votes on drilling in ANWR, 
developing clean coal technology, building nuclear power plants, or 
anything else regarding energy.
  For 5 weeks the lights were off in the House of Congress, and while 
we were gone they stayed off. We might as well leave them off now 
because Congress is still in the dark about energy independence.
  And that's just the way it is.

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