Jason Altmire

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. And we use 25 percent oil.

Mr. ALTMIRE. If the gentleman would yield, to put that in perspective, former Speaker Gingrich by that quote is advocating--did he say half the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

Mr. ALTMIRE. To put that in perspective to what we did today, half of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be approximately 350 million barrels. We voted today on 70 million barrels, time released over time. Speaker Gingrich recommended a much more drastic course of action, 350 million barrels, and again, 157 Republicans voted against a much smaller version of that today.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I'm sorry, if the gentleman will yield, because I hadn't seen this quote before we came on today, that quote--because people at home might say, well, when was that from? Was that from 1996? What are we talking about? That quote was from June 12 of this year. Last month is when that quote came from. So that's a real-time quote, talking about half the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a course of action.

Mr. ALTMIRE. And I appreciate the gentleman yielding. And I would put it in the perspective of, let's take a look at how we got where we are today, take a little walk down memory lane. And why have gas prices gone up so dramatically? And the speakers on the other side will bring up their charts with their timelines and try to point fingers and cast blame. The three major reasons that gas prices have increased so dramatically over the past several months is the increased demand for growing economies like China and India. There is nothing we can do about that; that is going to continue to grow, it's going to continue to be a problem. And we're going to have to continue to deal with that, the increased demand in growing economies. However, two of the other main reasons why the price of gas has gone up so much over the past several months, the speculators in the market manipulating the price, driving it up beyond reasonable levels because they're betting that the cost of oil is going to continue to go up. That's something we can do something about, something we are going to do something about. And the other factor, a major reason for the price of oil in the market having risen to all-time record highs--before we stopped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve shipments, which has led to the decrease in recent weeks, but it's still at a near record high for the price of oil--is the U.S. dollar and the low dollar around the world. Oil is traded in the world market with the U.S. dollar. Obviously we use the U.S. dollar, so we're going to pay more for oil as a result of the deflation that has taken place with the dollar at near record lows in relation to other currencies around the world. Anyone who has traveled this summer to other countries can see the impact of the low dollar on your exchange rate. Well, let's take a look at why that happened. Why do we have such a low dollar? Two of the main reasons: Our trade deficit, the imbalance in trade from what we're shipping out overseas to what we're bringing in. We're bringing in a lot more from overseas than we're exporting. The trade imbalance plays a huge role in that. And of course the debt, the national debt. And we've talked many times--I won't give you the long lecture on it. But suffice it to say 8 years ago we were looking at a $5.5 trillion surplus over the next 10 years, could have paid off the entire national debt. Because of the economic policies of this administration and the previous Congresses when they controlled both the White House and Congress on the other side, the decisions that were made have led to a skyrocketing national debt, deficits every year, deficits as far as the eye can see. And now, instead of having paid off the entire national debt, what do we have? We have a debt ceiling that's now over $10 trillion. That's why the dollar is at an all-time low. That's one of the big reasons why oil has skyrocketed in the world market. So the very people who made those decisions, the very people who are responsible for those economic policies and those trade policies that have led to devaluation of the dollar in the world-wide market, the very same people who made those decisions are now coming forward with their ideas on what to do with regard to the energy crisis. And we should take that with a grain of salt, at minimum, because we've seen the impact of their policies, we know what happened. The American people have cast judgment on what they thought about those policies.

Mr. ALTMIRE. And I would remind our colleagues and the gentleman--he probably was sitting here when President Bush stood right behind him at that podium in this House for his State of the Union Address--probably 2005, I think--and talked about our addiction to oil, spent most of his speech talking about our addiction to oil and how we need to do everything we can and have a national priority to get away from our addiction to oil. Well, his energy plan is inconsistent with that rhetoric because his energy plan is all about furthering our addiction to oil, cementing it----

Mr. ALTMIRE. And we would be 7 years down the road of that initiative right now. You think about the Apollo moon landing and the Manhattan Project, when Americans came together, worked towards a common goal, put our best and brightest and all of our resources on the task, and we got the job done. So we would be 7 years into that right now. We would have made such tremendous progress. And it wouldn't have just been us, it would be the entire world. The people at Honda and Toyota are putting out hydrogen fuel cell cars and hybrid battery-operated cars. The hybrid car in the 2010 model for Toyota is going to get 90 miles for the gallon. And there are going to be kinks and they're going to be too expensive at first, but we're getting there, we're making progress. Imagine 7 years ago, if we had had a national and worldwide commitment led by the United States of America, how different things would be today instead of paying $4 a gallon for gas.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I will tell you what else is irresponsible. The gentleman from Ohio has a chart behind him that has quotes from T. Boone Pickens about the oil industry and advocates of this ANWR and offshore drilling, ``Drill Here, Drill Now,'' and we have talked about that, and he says, ``They mislead the public.'' That's Mr. Pickens' quote. That's what's irresponsible. It's irresponsible to put forward a policy that is specifically designed to score political points; to, in a very cheap way, take advantage of the American people's exasperation with the fact that gas prices have skyrocketed out of control in recent months. So instead of trying to solve the problem, instead of joining us in voting today to release 70 million barrels of oil into the market immediately, instead of joining us to force the oil companies to use the nearly 90 million acres that are already permitted and leased and ready to go and force them to drill on it right now or we're going to give that lease to somebody who will, instead of joining us in these efforts, they oppose it, and we have been unable to pass them out of the House because of their opposition, when we have almost unanimously on our side supported it. That's what is going on here, and that is why Mr. Pickens talks about the public being misled on this because when your slogan here is ``Drill Here, Drill Now'' and the only policy that you're advocating for doesn't create the first drop of oil for at least 10 years, there's a disconnect there and you are misleading the public.

Mr. ALTMIRE. The gentleman is correct. We had an energy crisis 35 years ago where people had to wait in line for their gas, and depending on whether you had an even or odd number ending your license plate, you had to alternate days to even have the right to buy gas. And when that crisis subsided, this country, unfortunately, took a sigh of relief and said, well, I'm glad that's over. Let's keep doing it the way we're doing it, let's keep doing what we're doing. And we are not going to let that happen again. We are not going to leave this for people like your niece, who was just born that you're talking about. We are going to address the problem now. We're going to take the steps, in a very long-term away, to be thoughtful, and take an approach that's not going to continue our addiction to oil, that's not going to continue our dependence on oil. We're going to move forward in a way that's going to move us away from oil and look at every possible source. Mr. Pickens, who you have the chart behind you, the gentleman from Ohio, he has his ideas on how to do that. And I don't know if it's going to be windmills--which is what Mr. Pickens advocates. I don't know if it's going to be hydrogen fuel cell or hybrid cars or solar or nuclear or clean burning coal or something we haven't thought of, but let's put everyone we have, all of our resources, the best and brightest, on the job. Let's get it done. And the mission should be to get us off of oil. That's where we want to go. That's something we didn't do 35 years ago and, unfortunately, we're the worse off for it. It's something we didn't do 7 years ago when we had a national crisis where we could have made that step in the right direction, we didn't do it. But we are here now, and we are not going to let the same mistakes be made this time that were made in the past.

Mr. ALTMIRE. And there may be some, Mr. Ryan, who are watching us today among our colleagues who would say, well, what are the facts? You're giving your set of facts and figures. How do I know that what you're saying is true? I would encourage any of our colleagues who are watching this to go to the Department of Energy's Web site, pull up EIA, the Energy Information Administration, which is where all these figures that we talk about come from. That's President Bush's own Department of Energy that is telling us what numbers we're using today. And when you hear us talk about the 68 million acres, we are talking about in the Continental United States, areas that are leased, ready to go. The oil companies have in an auction bought those leases. Clearly they think there's oil there. They are paying rent on those leases right now for the right to keep that land. They would not do that if they didn't think there is oil there. But our friends on the other side will still come one by one and parade up and say, well, there's no oil there. Those are dry holes and there's nothing there. They're wrong, but let's just let that go and say, okay, let's talk about the 20 million acres in Alaska that we also talk about where there's a similar, though not identical, circumstance where the Congress has approved the ability of the oil companies to lease and start drilling there. We're not standing in the way. We have opened it up. The oil companies can drill there. It's the Department of the Interior that has dragged their feet in getting these leases out. We want them to have the lease sales and the auctions to get the process going. It's closer to Prudhoe Bay than ANWR; so the pipeline construction wouldn't take as long, and it's estimated that we could pull oil out of this area in 3 to 4 years instead of the 10 years it would take to pull it out of ANWR, which is a little bit further away. So what's the point of all this? The point of all this is our friends on the other side will say the same thing: There's no oil there. That's not the fruitful area. It's ANWR where the oil is, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Well, you might buy that argument except for fact what is the name of this territory that we're talking about in Alaska? The name of the 20 million acres that we are talking about is the National Petroleum Reserve. Now, it would seem to me that if the name of the area is the ``National Petroleum Reserve,'' there's probably some oil there. I think that's a pretty safe guess. So you would have a pretty hard time saying that's the reason why we're not pulling oil out of the ground, because it's not there, in the National Petroleum Reserve. So we brought to the floor last week a bill that said the Department of Interior is directed to hold the lease auctions, to get the process going. The big oil companies are encouraged and, in fact, more than encouraged. They will either use the land for drilling or they will lose the right and we will give it to somebody who will. And we brought that bill to the floor. And as the gentleman knows, what happened? All those same people who stand over on the other side and lecture us about the need to increase domestic supply, ``Drill Here, Drill Now,'' they voted against it. Not all but most. The vast majority voted against it. Now, that seems pretty inconsistent to me. So what's the motivation? Well, I'm not going to speculate on individual Members' motivation. But if your mantra, if your cause celebre is ``Drill Here, drill now, increase domestic production, let's get more oil on the market,'' and when the Congress brings to the floor a bill that does exactly that and sooner than the course of action that you advocate, I think you need to go home and explain to your constituents why you voted against that bill.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman. That is something that we have worked on in this Congress and something that we have a great record of achievement is higher education. When you look at families struggling with the economy and look at the problems that we have with increased health care costs, certainly gas prices like we're talking about, the cost of higher education is right there with the struggles that most middle class families or many middle class families in this country are facing. And this Congress took, in the very early days, a step, a very big step, to help families. We cut in half the interest rates on student loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. And as the gentleman indicates, that by itself is going to save the average student borrower in this country $4,400 over the lifetime of the loan. But we didn't stop just there. We increased Pell grants to their highest level in history, and we capped at 15 percent of income the amount of discretionary income that the borrower after they graduate will be required to pay, which will help them minimize their debt, prevent them from getting overextended with their debt obligations when they're not making a lot of money right from the start, and avoid some of the problems that we have seen in the credit market now where people's homes have been foreclosed because they got overextended. Those are real accomplishments on real issues that matter to the American people and matter to American families, and that's something that we have to stand on when we talk about what this Congress has done proactively. We're talking about gas prices, and something we didn't even mention, which is a major reform, hadn't been done in 30 years, we increased the average miles-per-gallon standards, the fuel efficiency standards, from 24 miles per gallon on average to 35 miles per gallon. The first time it had been raised for American-made cars or cars sold in America in 30-plus years. So that's another real accomplishment of this Congress. And we could go on. The gentleman talks about the minimum wage and others. So we are taking steps to help American families and people struggling in this downturn economy.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. I greatly appreciate the gentleman from Florida yielding his time, and I just want to say to start, I think that the gentleman is, unfortunately, kidding himself when he says that he is not an entertaining speaker. He says we're not here for entertaining purposes. You're selling yourself short, I would say to the gentleman, Mr. Speaker, because he is somebody who can be a very entertaining speaker. So don't sell yourself short on that. We do have some fun here, but we do get to the facts. The facts are that the price of gas has gone down a little bit over the recent week, week and a half, and we are going to talk about why that has happened. But it's hit an all-time high over the last several weeks. We as a Congress have taken action. We have brought legislation to the floor to address this issue and specifically dealing with drilling, we have brought legislation to the floor to encourage the big oil companies to drill on the 86 million acres of land, 91 million acres of land, that is already ready to go, approved by Congress. Sixty-eight million of those acres are already leased, permitted, ready to go, owned by the oil companies. There is no reason why they can't start the process of surveying, doing the geological work, getting down to the business of drilling here and drilling now. Like the slogan says, there is no reason why they can't do that. The other 20 million acres plus are in an area of Alaska outside of ANWR. We're going to talk about ANWR, and this area is called the National Petroleum Reserve. That's the area we are talking about. It's already been approved by Congress to drill in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. There is more oil in the National Petroleum Reserve, in the reserves, than is in ANWR. That is a fact. It has been documented, and we are going to talk about that. Now, the folks on the other side, who we listened to for the hour before us, we heard about how there is no oil in those 68 million acres, and those are dry wells. I think it's a pretty hard case to make that there is no oil in an area of Alaska that's called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That's the area that we are talking about. So why aren't the oil companies drilling there? In some cases the oil companies own the leases, but in some cases the Department of the Interior has dragged their feet in getting those leases out and having the auctions and the lease sales to get the process started. We brought legislation to the floor to say to the oil companies, you use it or you lose it. You have 68 million acres on which there is 4.8 million barrels of oil per day every day in our own land and in our own territory that we can bring out, 4.8 million barrels that would almost double domestic production. Those lands are already leased, and if you as a big oil company don't start producing on that land, or at least do some due diligence, we understand it takes time, takes 10 years before the first drop of oil comes. At least start the process, do the surveying, do the geological work. If you can't prove that you are doing that, we are going to give it to somebody who will, because we are for domestic production. My good friend from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) was on right before us. I take him at his word when he talks about how Republicans are for conservation, and Republicans understand the issues around this very complicated problem with our energy crisis and the environmental situation that the gentleman referred to. I take him at his word when he says Republicans are for that. I would hope that he takes me at my word and takes us at our word when I say that Democrats support domestic drilling. Democrats have brought legislation to the floor to encourage domestic drilling. The only way we can drill here, drill now, is if we allow the oil companies, encourage the oil companies, to drill on land that's already permitted, leased and ready to go. I yield to the gentleman from Connecticut.

Mr. ALTMIRE. The gentleman talks about the lack of action in the previous Congresses. For 6 years, prior to this current session of Congress, the Republicans controlled the Congress, they controlled the White House, and they controlled the agenda, most importantly, of what legislation was brought to the floor, and what issues were talked about, and what the legislative priorities were of the Congress, and what did they do on their pet issue that they talk about right now? Their top issue, every time they have one of these hours, they come down here and they talk about drill here, drill now. There is nothing more important we can do than drilling and opening up ANWR and opening up the Outer Continental Shelf. So when they controlled the Congress and the White House for 6 years and controlled the agenda and could have done anything that they wanted, what were they able to do on drilling? How important did they think that it was? Well, you may have noticed, I say to the gentleman, that they didn't open up ANWR, and they didn't open up the Outer Continental Shelf. For the most part, they didn't even talk that much about it because they didn't see it as a political wedge issue that they can use in an election year when everything is going against them, except for, they feel, this issue. When they had the opportunity to deal with this, they didn't act. So it falls on deaf ears to this Member of Congress to have them continually come down here and criticize this Congress for a lack of action. When they controlled the agenda, they didn't deal with it. And more importantly, when we control the agenda, we're constantly bringing legislation to the floor encouraging the oil companies to use the land that's already permitted and ready to go. Withholding shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has led to the decrease in gas prices that we've seen over the last week to 10 days, that was an action of this Congress that led to that decrease. And many Members on the other side opposed that. Well, we're bringing legislation to the floor dealing with a variety of issues, dealing with gas prices and energy independence, and they continually vote against it. Yet they have the audacity to come before us for a full hour right before and lecture us on our lack of activity on this issue.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I appreciate the gentleman from Connecticut. And the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) talked about the difference between the freedom that we all enjoy to say things on the floor and the responsibility that we have to quote facts, to use real numbers. And the people on the other side who come down here on occasion I would say are very good at the PR aspect of the job, at getting the message out and in trying to undermine the message that we put out. We think about this drilling issue, we think about the Outer Continental Shelf, and we think about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, and we say, well, the numbers that they're using on the other side may not be as accurate as they could be. They might be overstating the situation a little bit, both with regard to the time necessary to get that oil, but more importantly, the amount of oil that's there at all. And the pushback that we get from the other side is often, oh, those are Democratic talking points, and they don't know what they're talking about, and we're not going to listen to them because they're Democrats and they're just reading talking points. So I wanted to read a quote from someone, and then I'm going to put the source of the quote up. This is from a hearing that was held yesterday here on Capitol Hill, because we're working every day to try to figure out what we can do on a daily basis to bring the price of gasoline down in the short term and the long term. And a hearing was held, and one of the witnesses said this: ``They mislead the public''--talking about the big oil companies and the proponents of opening up ANWR and new areas of the Outer Continental Shelf is who this gentleman is referring to. ``They mislead the public. And the public thinks, well, if we've got 86 billion barrels of oil sitting out there, why don't we just go drill it and produce it and lower the price of gasoline? We can lower it to $2 a gallon. That's the way it's been characterized, which I think is totally misleading. Experts are way off when they say there's 86 billion barrels of oil off the coast. That number is way overstated. They also talk about ANWR having 16 billion. I think the number there is a lot closer to 2 billion. That's all you can get out of there. I don't see any fuel that's going to replace gasoline and diesel except natural gas.'' Well, is that a Democratic talking point? That's basically what we've been saying for the last several months, but no, that was not a Democrat that said that, that was none other than an oilman, and certainly not someone historically who has been very complimentary of Democratic policies, Mr. T. Boone Pickens, somebody who understands the oil industry in this country. That's what he said. And I would ask my colleagues if they've seen the commercials that he's running on TV. And the slogan that he uses is, ``We can't drill our way out of this problem.'' And this is the quote that I read. So we have validation from sources that understand the oil industry and understand that this is more than just a political hot button issue that we can use to score cheap political points. This is the biggest problem facing the country. And we have to come together as Republicans and Democrats and do everything we possibly can to work on short-term solutions and long-term solutions to solve this energy crisis. And it's going to take all hands on deck. And the quicker that we move away from the cheap political points and trying to play one- upmanship on the rhetoric, the better chance we're going to have of solving this problem. So I would yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek).

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. Mr. Speaker, Americans everywhere are fed up with paying high gas prices. For 8 days, Americans have been asking President Bush to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a move that has brought down prices at the pump in the past. But the President continues to say no. In 1990, when the President's father withdrew oil from the reserve, the impact on prices was immediate, and they dropped 33 percent in 2 days. In 2000, President Clinton did the same, and prices fell before oil even hit the market. And in 2005, when this President Bush made the move, the price of oil dropped again. Now the White House claims it won't lower prices but history proves that action to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve provides immediate relief to American consumers. Mr. Speaker, when it comes to the pain our families are experiencing at the pump and in the economy today, there is simply no time to wait. Action is needed now, and we call on President Bush to stand up for consumers and utilize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. Madam Speaker, today's vote will be a significant victory for seniors, their doctors, and home medical suppliers. I am especially pleased that two important Medicare provisions that I spearheaded are included in this bill, and after this override will be enacted into law. This bill delays for 18 months the ill-conceived Medicare durable equipment competitive bidding proposal that, if implemented, will do serious harm to small medical equipment suppliers in western Pennsylvania and around the country. This bill also incorporates my legislation to provide prescription drug coverage to millions of low-income seniors by permanently eliminating the late enrollment penalty under Medicare part D. Through his veto, President Bush demonstrates that he does not share our values on these important issues. But this bill is good for western Pennsylvania and good for the Nation, and I ask my colleagues to join me in overriding this veto today.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman. With approximately 15 minutes remaining, my friends on the other side, to achieve balance, have about 10 of that remaining 15 minutes. I would yield at this point to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. ALTMIRE. Okay, 12 minutes to the remaining 15. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I appreciate the gentleman from Texas. On the point that the gentleman just made, I would yield to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Murphy) and then to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak).

Mr. ALTMIRE. I would ask the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price), is it your intention to continue the discussion that we are in right now, or are you waiting on a different subject?

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman from Texas. It is my understanding that this format has not been attempted since the 1990s, under Speaker Gingrich. So this is a recent historical event that we're engaged in here, and I really to do appreciate the gentleman and the ability to work with him, and I appreciate the gentleman from Georgia and others for talking about energy prices and gas prices. That is what we're going to do over the course of the next 2 hours. Again, just to lay the ground rules, because it is a Special Order, all time in the first hour will flow through the gentleman from Texas. All time in the second hour will flow through our side, but we want this to be an engaging discussion where we yield back and forth and ask questions and inquire of each other. We're going to keep this above board. This is not a game of gotcha. This is to have a legitimate, honest discussion about energy prices, about the drilling issue, about the speculation issue, and about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. On our side, we're going to be joined by Members who have engaged on this issue, such as Chairman Rahall of the Natural Resources Committee. Chairman Rahall is going to talk about the 68 million acres of land that are available, an issue that we know about, and that will come up. Bart Stupak of Michigan, Congressman Stupak, is going to talk about the speculation issue along with Congressman Murphy from Connecticut. We're going to have Congressman Hall from New York, who is going to talk about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Others are welcome, who may be watching this as we speak, to join us throughout the evening. Those are generally the issues that we're going to talk about, so I really do appreciate the gentleman from Texas for yielding the time. We're going to keep this on a balanced level over the next 2 hours, generally an hour on our side and an hour on the Republican side. I look forward to the discussion. So, at this time, I will yield back to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman from Texas. We're about to enter the transition, and I would just like to enter into a colloquy with the gentleman to clarify what subject matter those who are here--I see some new faces. Mr. Burton from Indiana has come. We have Mr. Murphy from Connecticut, who is going to speak next for us. Are we going to continue talking about the drilling issue and continue along this vein?

Mr. ALTMIRE. I just want to make sure the Members that are here get to talk about what they're here to talk about.

Mr. ALTMIRE. It's our intention to continue this discussion. If we're able to transition, we certainly want to get into the speculation issue with Mr. Stupak and Mr. Murphy. And then Mr. Hall, I know, wants to talk about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Mr. ALTMIRE. For the next hour, that's generally what we have in mind.