Date: 2006-05-03
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. as I pointed out before. I have only been here 14 months. 15 months now. And a few things have happened that have just absolutely floored me. One of the things that has occurred was the two votes we had last year on energy legislation. energy legislation that the Bush energy department predicted would raise gas prices. And it did. But if you recall. we had an opportunity as Members to have a briefing from the cabinet officers. by the cabinet officers of the President in this chamber just last year. And if you recall. we had the Secretary of Energy stand in front of us. And when asked a question about why were they not doing anything about gas prices. and what were they going to do to bring down the cost of oil. he said. "Well. we really cannot do anything". I mean. that was his point blank answer. Now. when we are talking about prices at the pump. I do not understand why our Republican colleagues are not pumping up the volume on prices. I mean it is just incomprehensible that last year we would have a bill on this floor that not only gave money to the oil companies. to the oil companies gave them money. forgave. taxes. And we have talked about these things before. The United States Government owns the land and the rights underneath where the oil companies are given permission to drill. We give them permission. And in exchange for that permission. they are supposed to pay us taxes. They are supposed to pay the United States Government for those drilling rights. Yet in the legislation last year. we forgave those taxes. We basically gave them the oil that they drilled for for free. and now we are letting them sell it to us and our constituents for ungodly amounts -of money so that they can make ungodly amounts of money. On top of that. it is not even like it was a breeze to pass it. You know. you had Republicans here who were not allowed to vote their own conscience because from what I have noted. they all check their consciences at the door there and leave them out before they come ih this room. so that there arms can be pressed behind their backs. And the board up here. it shows how we are voting. it is like a Christmas tree. It goes from red to green. green to red. Really I am not sure where their moral conviction is. because it certainly is not in this room when they are voting. They held one of those votes openon the Energy Bill that we did. I think this was last summer. for 40 minutes. if you recall. so that they could ensure that they gave that gift to the oil companies. It was unbelievable. And we were already in the middle of a summer of high gas prices. And we have here another chart. And I think we have another one as well that shows the evolution of gas prices. But. we are now paying 100 percent more for gas than when President Bush first took office. 100 percent more. The rubber stamp Republicans. our rubber stamp Republicans right there. you cannot call it any other thing other than what it is. Literally last summer they let themselves be led off a cliff. led by the nose to do whatever it is that the leadership decided they were going to do for the oil industry.