[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 7282-7283]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  NO MORE SUBSIDIES FOR OIL COMPANIES

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, the price of gasoline has reached another 
record high, nearly $4 a gallon. And yet when the Democrats, along with 
Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic majority, have asked the President to 
stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,

[[Page 7283]]

which is 97 percent full and which experts say could lower the price of 
gasoline by 5 to 24 cents a gallon, the President says he doesn't 
believe the cost benefit analysis of immediate action for consumers 
persuaded him.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that the President consider how 
Americans are suffering with the price of gasoline at the pump, how 
that's limiting their other choices in expenditures, and how it will 
reduce their opportunity for summer vacations.
  Yesterday, Mr. Speaker, I signed on to a bill for a windfall profits 
tax on oil companies. Oil companies presently have subsidies given to 
them in the past, which this Congress tried to repeal but we didn't 
have bipartisan support to repeal those subsidies. So these companies 
making more money than ever have subsidies rather than windfall profit 
taxes.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to look out for the motoring public.

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