[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2586-2587]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            SUPPORT THE FEDERAL PRICE GOUGING PREVENTION ACT

  (Mr. CICILLINE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, as Rhode Islanders and men and women 
across America are hard at work trying to put our country back on the 
right track, the threat of rising gas prices raises a specter of 
another difficult driving season ahead.
  While our government subsidizes Big Oil to the tune of $3 billion 
each year, they continue to run up record profits as hardworking 
families pay higher and higher prices for gas. In my home State of 
Rhode Island where families are struggling with an 11 percent 
unemployment rate and the average price of a gallon of regular gas is 
now $3.79, rising fuel costs put far too many hardworking families at 
risk.
  The Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act, which my colleague Mr. 
Bishop has introduced, would help guarantee that should we face an 
energy emergency, middle class families are not at the mercy of Wall 
Street

[[Page 2587]]

speculators every time they fill up their car. While we have to work 
together permanently to end our addiction to foreign sources of oil, in 
the short term we must act on legislation like the Federal Price 
Gouging Prevention Act that will help prevent Wall Street speculators 
from taking unfair advantage of consumers at the pump during energy 
emergencies.

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