Jason Altmire

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. So, Mr. Speaker, here for the next hour, this is where we would like to lead this: We will continue talking about the domestic production issue; then we will transition into the issue of speculation in the market. But at this point I will yield to my friend from Connecticut for continuing this discussion, and then we are going to start the transition. So for those of you on that side of the aisle who want to wrap up that discussion, please feel free to talk as long as you want about that. But it's our intention to then move into the market speculation issue. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Connecticut.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I see several of my friends from the other side who would like to speak. I will yield first to Mr. Burton.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman, and I know Mr. Westmoreland and Mr. Price want to speak on this issue. I yield to Mr. Westmoreland.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I yield to Mr. Murphy.

Mr. ALTMIRE. We have approximately half an hour remaining in the debate. At this time I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak).

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman. With approximately 6 minutes left, to achieve balance, the Republicans can control the rest of the time. We will certainly answer any questions, but I will say to the gentleman from Georgia: Have at it. The time is yours or it is that of the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I would yield to Dr. Burgess at this point.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman. I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland). I especially thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) for these 2 hours. This, I think, was very productive, very eventful. We had a good debate. Hopefully, this is not the last time that we will do this. I thank the Speaker for the time, for both this hour and for the previous hour. At this point, I would yield back.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Mr. William T. Muns, a native son of Beaver County, Pennsylvania who is an outstanding champion for veterans. From 1965 thru 1968, Bill proudly served his country as a member of the United States Army. This service included a one year tour in Vietnam, serving as a Financial Liaison Specialist with the 709th Maintenance Battalion in the Mekong Delta Area. Upon his return stateside, he completed his enlistment with the 82nd Airborne Division, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. In September 2001, Bill accepted his current position as Beaver County Director of Veterans Affairs. Since taking this position, Bill and his staff have increased the federal benefits for county veterans from $14 million to $42 million. This exceptional service has been recognized by the Pennsylvania State Adjutant General. As a charter life member of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 862, Bill has served as treasurer and was recognized as Vietnam Veteran of the Year for 2002. In addition to this prestigious award, Bill has also received a number of honors from the community, including being named Beaver County Jaycees Man of the Year 2003, the State Veterans Service Officer Award for 2005-2006, and the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 862 Distinguished Service Award for 2001. Bill is also a husband, father, and grandfather. He is married to Virginia Martin Muns and together they have three children--Laura Evangelista, Ted Muns, and Jenn Basinger. Bill and Ginger also have five grandchildren--Rebecca, Gabriella and Adam Evangelista, and Mason and Ethan Muns. Bill and Ginger will be missed and treasured by the Beaver County veterans' community for years to come. I want to commend them for their long and distinguished commitment to helping America's heroes. I wish them a wonderful retirement in their new home of Sarasota County, Florida and thank them for the tremendous service that they have provided to our community.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. Madam Speaker, nobody can dispute that this Congress has a record to be proud of in support of our troops and our Nation's veterans. When we learned of the disgraceful treatment of our servicemen and women at Walter Reed, we took immediate action to provide the funding and oversight necessary to hire more case workers and improve the setting and treatment for our brave wounded warriors. We acted quickly and decisively to provide the largest funding increase in the 78-year history of the VA, and we provided for increased screening and treatment of traumatic brain injury at every VA health care facility in this country. We modernized and increased the benefits for the GI bill, and we provided additional loans and capital for small business owners who serve our Nation through the Guard and Reserve. Madam Speaker, this Congress has a record to be proud of in supporting our troops and assisting our Nation's veterans.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. Mr. Speaker, Congress continues to take action and do everything we can to reduce the price of gas at the pump. Because of legislation this Congress passed last week, as of last week there are over 70,000 more barrels of oil per day every day that are going into the market instead of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And during the last week, the price of oil per barrel went down. We also approved legislation that gives U.S. authorities the ability to prosecute anti-competitive conduct committed by international cartels like OPEC that manipulate the price of oil. We passed legislation that would invest in biofuels rather than corporate welfare for Big Oil. Energy experts estimate that biofuel blends are keeping the price of gas approximately 15 percent lower than it would otherwise be right now. This Congress has taken action to address the skyrocketing price of gas, and we will continue to find real solutions rather than pointing fingers and casting blame.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman from Florida. And on the subject of Iraq, before we move on to some other things, I did want to discuss a little bit the fact that the Iraqi Government this week announced that they support the creation of a formal timeline, a date certain at which the American involvement in Iraq would wind to a close. And I think that that's a monumental moment in what we're facing in Iraq because we have, for years now, going on 6 years, been engaged in this conflict in Iraq. And the military men and women, the brave service men and women who serve us over there throughout this conflict have done their job, they have done everything that has been asked of them. We could not ask any more from the men and women, they have done what they were called to do. And that's something that every American can see in the results on the ground. And now, thankfully, the Iraqi Government themselves have recognized that that is the case by announcing their intention to ask the United States for a formal date certain at which point we would wrap up our involvement. So I find that to be good news. Moving forward, we need to go to the Iraqi Government and say, look, this is your country and we cannot continue to hold your hand and run your affairs for you. It's time for you to step up and administer your own government, administer the affairs of state, and take the reins of power. And I think that by the statements that we heard today, the Iraqi people and the politicians in Baghdad have seen the light on that issue, and I feel like we are moving towards resolution and agreement that it is time to wrap up our involvement in Iraq. And I would yield to my friend from Ohio if he wants to continue on that, Mr. Ryan.

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman. This is exactly what we need to talk about tonight. You have the chart there. The gentleman has the chart talking about turning a projected 10-year surplus--when President Bush put his hand on the Bible and took the oath of office, the projected surplus over the next 10 years was $5.5 trillion. Now we're in a presidential election year. Mr. Meek referenced it earlier. Let's think back 8 years. Vice President Gore was running against then Governor Bush. What was the debate about? The debate was about what are we going to do with this enormous surplus? That was the whole thing. Remember Vice President Gore had his lockbox idea. Are we going to shore up Social Security? Are we going to pay down the debt? And with that $5.6 trillion surplus, we could have nearly paid off the entire Federal debt by now, 8 years later. We would have it almost completely paid off. Instead, because of the decisions that have been made by this administration and previous Congresses, we have a $10 trillion debt. So instead of having it paid off, it's at its highest level in history, nearly $10 trillion. We could have, as the gentleman suggests, invested in alternative energies and research and development on alternative sources of energy. We didn't do that. We could have done any number of things with a projected $5.5 trillion surplus. Well, instead, because of the economic policies of this administration, we have not had that $5.5 trillion to the good; we've had $3.5 trillion in debt. And I would suggest, and we have talked about this before, if you had said to any economist in America, no matter what their political persuasion, in the beginning of this administration, what would it take over the next 8 years for us to have a $9 trillion swing in the projected surplus to the deficit that we would then encounter? What would it take? What type of economic policies would we have to put forward? Any economist you asked would have said, well, that's impossible. You can't possibly mismanage the economy to such an extent that that would be the result, a $9 trillion swing. Well, unfortunately, this administration and the previous Congresses did the impossible, and we are faced with the situation that we are. Now, pay-as-you-go budget scoring, as Mr. Murphy talked about, is not the only answer, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. And it was President Bush's father, President George H. W. Bush, in 1990 that came to the agreement with Congress to put in place the pay-as- you-go budget scoring that led to the record surpluses of the 1990s following the all-time record deficits to that point of the 1980s. So this Congress has taken a step to put our fiscal house in order. We can't dig ourselves out overnight. But all of this has led to the decrease in the value of the dollar. And the decrease in the value of the dollar, anyone would agree, is one of the major factors involved in the price of gas today, the price of petroleum in the worldwide market. And we're going to talk about that tonight. I yield to my friend from Florida (Mr. Meek).

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman. I was going to comment on the fact that there is a slogan that you see rolling around these halls, and it is ``drill here, drill now.'' You hear it everywhere we go, drill hear, drill now. Well, how could we accomplish that goal? Because the Democrats want to drill here and they want to drill now. The way we drill here and the way we drill now is by using the 6 million acres that are already leased and permitted and available for drilling. We need to be doing that now. They are ready to go. Now, there is exploration that needs to take place, I understand that. But the territory that has not been leased and permitted is 10 years away before the first drop of oil comes out, and it is 20 years, 20 years, before it is fully on line at peak capacity. That is not drilling now. So I would suggest to those who want to pursue that policy, maybe they ought to change their slogan. Just to be more accurate, it should be ``drill here, drill in 10 years or 20 years,'' because that is what they are talking about. What we are talking about is using the land, the territory, the parts of the Outer Continental Shelf, 75 percent of which is leased and permitted, allowed to drill, and they are not drilling. The oil companies who have the land leased and ready to go on the Outer Continental Shelf are using a quarter of it, 25 percent. So you will hear people say, well, there is no oil there. Well, that is factually incorrect. Eighty percent of the known oil in the Outer Continental Shelf is located in areas where the oil companies are already allowed to drill. It is already leased. It is already permitted. It is already ready to go. Go to it. Drill here, drill now. That is what we are talking about. Have at it. We want you to do that, big oil. Do it. Now, if you want to talk about drilling here in 10 years and drilling here in 20 years, that is a different ball game, and we can have that discussion after they have used the land and territory already available.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. Mr. Speaker, last weekend marked the 64th anniversary of the signing of the original GI bill by President Franklin Roosevelt, which honored the service and sacrifice of our World War II veterans and launched millions of families on a course to prosperity. Last week, this House supported a new GI bill for the 21st century that will provide the same hopes and dreams to our troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. This bill is long overdue because the current GI bill fails to cover the full cost of a public education. The new GI bill restores the promise of a full 4-year college scholarship for veterans, and at a time when many of our troops are in the midst of multiple redeployments, we must keep our commitment to provide them the very best educational opportunities when their service is completed. This bill is a promise to our veterans today and tomorrow that their service to this country will continue to be honored.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, there are over 90 million members of America's credit unions, including more than 168,000 in the district I represent. Each of them will benefit from passage of this bill, which I strongly support. It is a bipartisan piece of legislation that is an excellent first step towards improving the regulatory framework for our Nation's credit unions and banks. Credit unions serve a broad and diverse membership, including many low and moderate-income individuals who would otherwise be unable to access the services provided by financial institutions. This bill will allow Federal credit unions to better serve consumers and provide them with greater access to financial products and services. I ask my colleagues to support this commonsense and long-overdue legislation.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. Mr. Speaker, as prices at the pump continue to hit record highs, the time has come to put partisanship behind us and come together to work and solve the problems to help American people who are struggling to make ends meet. We enacted legislation to inject into the market an additional 70,000 barrels of oil per day by suspending shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve beginning two weeks from today. We raised auto fuel efficiency standards for the first time in 30 years. And we are nearing completion of a bill to regulate the speculators who manipulate the price of oil in the worldwide market. This Congress has been proactive in doing everything we can to address the problem. Rather than pointing fingers, casting blame and trying to score cheap political points, I hope the minority in this Congress will join us in our effort to take swift and decisive action to address the rising price of gas.

Mr. ALTMIRE

Mr. ALTMIRE. Can I talk about the $2 billion figure?

Mr. ALTMIRE. I appreciate it. We are going to continue to tell the story of gas prices, what we've just heard. And to keep on the message and to pick up where it was left off with the previous speakers, we're talking about the 68 million acres, here's the key point--a couple of key points: One is, there's 4.8 million barrels of oil per day every day that would be available underneath those 68 million acres. That's the number, 4.8 million barrels per day every day. And we'll talk later about that in comparison to ANWR and other issues, but just to keep on the message. These are not 68 million acres that the Federal Government just said we're going to give you the deserts in Arizona and we're going to give you a bunch of areas that are not productive. These are 68 million acres that are currently leased to oil and gas companies. Now, presumably the oil and gas companies would only choose to purchase a lease if there was some possibility that there was oil and gas underneath there. And as I've said, the estimated oil and gas--or oil, at least--that's under there is 4.8 million barrels per day. But that's the key point; these aren't just 68 million randomly chosen acres, these are 68 million acres that the oil and gas companies themselves chose to enter into a lease agreement so that they can drill for oil and gas. That's the key point. And they're not doing it. As we talked about a few nights ago, there are a variety of reasons why they're not doing it. One of the reasons is that they're stockpiling these leases to put on their balance sheet, declare them as assets and raise up their profits and help their stock price. That's part of it. Part of it is that the geological work and the surveying and the construction takes a lot of time. And that's being done on some of these acres, 68 million acres. So we're going to get there, in some cases, but we're not there yet, which gets to what we're going to talk about later. There really is a difference of opinion among the two groups that we are hearing tonight, but there is no difference of opinion that we have to do something about gas prices. Now, we're talking about long-term solutions. I would hope there's not going to be a difference of opinion on some of the short-term solutions. We're talking about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, 70 billion barrels per day beginning 2 weeks from today. The manipulation that takes place in the market, the commodities market by these commodities traders, we're going to deal with that issue. There are short-term solutions. But what is in this dispute tonight and what we're debating in a friendly way is the difference of opinion that we have about what we're going to be as a country 10 years from now and 20 years from now. Are we going to remain dependent on oil? And yes, we're talking in this case about domestic oil. About 65 percent of the oil we get in this country is from overseas. We import it from countries that do not have good will towards Americans in many cases. So what happens if we drill in ANWR and the 20 percent that remains of the oil that's known in the Outer Continental Shelf where we're not allowed to drill? Eighty percent is already in areas where we are allowed to drill, so what happens if we allow and get to peak capacity 20 years from now? We might be down to 55 percent, we might be down to 52 percent. We're still going to have a majority of our oil that we import from other countries. We're going to feed the beast for the next 20 years and we're going to be in the same place then as we are now. So is that where we want to be? We have a decision to make as a Nation on how to spend the next 10 to 20 years. How do we want to use all the resources of this Nation and all the brain power of this Nation? Do we want to focus it on continuing our dependence on oil, or do we want to focus it on alternative sources of energy? We're going to talk about that, but I know the gentleman wants to continue along this track, so I will yield back to him.

Mr. ALTMIRE. Because I don't want you to lose the train of thought on that one. The $2 billion figure includes the surveying and the geological work to actually find the oil in the first place, which it's not just drilling, the $2 billion is from start to peak production. The point of the 68 million acres is we already know there's oil there. We already know where it is. They purchased the lease specifically because there is oil known to be in those lands, and they're making a conscious decision not to drill there. So the $2 billion actually supports our argument. It doesn't hurt our argument, it supports it, that there is work that needs to be done in any new lands that we make available that we've already done in the current 68 million acres that are available. That's what that $2 billion does.

Mr. ALTMIRE. It is instructive to look at the acreage of ANWR that we are talking about. We are talking about 200,000 acres of land in ANWR that they want to make available for drilling. So we would go from 68 million acres that are currently available for drilling to 68.2 acres. That is the significance of ANWR--68 million to 68.2 acres. And the gentleman makes a good point about the political argument. Many Members of Congress are not like this, but I think it is fair to say there are a number of people that would draw the conclusion that they want to return home, and they want to give good news to their constituents about what they are doing on gas prices, and if there were a quick fix, if there were a way that we could return home to our constituents and say, we found the magic bullet, we are going to lower gas prices by 40 percent or 50 percent. I think it is pretty safe to say we could round up a majority in Congress if there were an immediate fix to this problem that we would do it. There is not an immediate fix. So what we have here is a discussion, a friendly debate, on what the future is, and again whether to stick with oil, or whether to go to alternative energy.