Date: 2008-07-09
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my good friend. the gentleman from Vermont . for the time. and I yield myself such time as I may consume. During an interview last week. the distinguished majority leader. Mr. HOYER. said that he is opposed to a lameduck session. and that he is committed to adjournment sine die by the previously announced date of September 26. If the majority decides to follow that commitment to adjourn the 110th Congress on September 26. then Congress has only 7 weeks of session left to complete its work for the year. And so as Congress begins its last 7 weeks of work before recessing. what important pieces of legislation are at the top of the majoritys priority list? Well. maybe its passing the 12 appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year. or maybe energy legislation to deal with the record gasoline prices consumers are paying each day. No. Mr. Speaker. theyve decided that those problems can wait for another day. for another Congress. Instead. their legislative priorities are to designate a 600mile historic trail and to require preservation of electronic records. I spent most of last week meeting and speaking with constituents in my district about the issues that matter to them. and. Mr. Speaker. no one mentioned anything closely related to these two bills. These bills may be important in their own right. but there certainly are other issues that are much more pressing issues that we should be debating. that we should be dealing with. When Americans are paying over $4 per gallon for gasoline. we should be working on legislation to lower gasoline. increasing domestic energy exploration. and reducing our reliance on unstable foreign energy. France produces approximately 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. and yet the United States has not built a new nuclear plant in about 30 years. Why does the majority refuse to consider legislation to deal with our energy and other serious problems? According to an article published in the newspaper The Hill on Tuesday. the majority. and I quote. "has scrubbed the floor schedule of the energy legislation that it vowed to tackle after the Fourth of July recess." Why doesnt the majority schedule energy legislation for debate? Maybe its because they dont have a real plan. If you read the rest of The Hill article. you find out what a Democratic aid called the majoritys plan: "Right now. our strategy on gas prices is to drive small cars and wait for the wind." Thats most unfortunate. -That "nonplan" ignores the urgent call of Americans for Congress to pass serious energy legislation. I know the majority will claim that they expect to take up energy legislation soon and the committees of jurisdiction are considering possible legislation. but they already pulled legislation they expected to consider after the July 4 recess. and we still have to consider 12 appropriations bills. housing legislation. the Medicare payment fix for physicians. an alternative minimum tax fix. and numerous conference reports. That doesnt leave much time for energy legislation. Maybe if the majority had different priorities. we would be considering energy legislation today instead of legislation designating a 600mile historic trail and legislation requiring promulgation of regulations to preserve electronic records. I wish to take this occasion to congratulate the majority on breaking their own record of most closed rules. The proposed rule we are considering now marks the 59th closed rule of this Congress. the most of any Congress in the history of the Nation. It didnt have to be that way. Before the new majority took over control of the House they laid out their promises for a more civil. more open. and more transparent House in a document entitled "The New Direction for America." The document- provides clear guidelines for how legislation should move through the House. One of the promises made in the document is that "bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open. full and fair debate. consisting of a full amendment process that grants the minority the right to offer its alternative. including a substitute." yet here we are with a closed process that doesnt allow Members from either party the ability to offer amendments. The majority continues to break their promise on allowing an open. full. and fair debate and their promise to consider energy legislation after the July 4 recess. So much for their promises.