[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 7122-7123]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        ANSWERS AND ACTION TO THE TRAGEDY IN THE GULF OF MEXICO

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an 
ongoing tragedy, and the American people deserve action to protect our 
gulf, and they deserve answers.

[[Page 7123]]

  The American people deserve to know what happened on April 20, and 
Congress should investigate it thoroughly. The American people deserve 
to know why the administration was slow to respond, why the necessary 
equipment was not immediately on hand in the area, and why the 
President did not fully deploy Cabinet-level Federal officials until he 
spoke at the White House on April 28.
  Lastly, the American people deserve answers for a pathway toward 
energy independence. There would be those in this country who would 
exploit this ongoing disaster to deny the American people more access 
to American oil, but the American people know better. The pathway 
toward energy independence is an environmentally responsible expansion 
of domestic drilling for oil and natural gas. It is more wind and solar 
and nuclear and more conservation.
  Republicans are determined to give the American people the answers 
about what happened on April 20 and about the slow Federal response, 
and Republicans are determined to give the American people answers and 
a pathway toward energy independence that uses all of the above.

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