Joe Barton

Mr. BARTON

Mr. BARTON. Thank you for your leadership. I am going to have to excuse myself, but thank you for this Special Order.

Mr. BARTON

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. BARTON. I yield the gentleman an additional 15 seconds.

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, how much time remains?

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, I offer this amendment on behalf of myself, Mr. Cuellar, Mr. Flores, Mr. Conaway, and Mr. McCaul. This amendment is almost identical to H.R. 702, which passed the House floor on a strong bipartisan basis several months ago with 261 votes, I believe, in favor of it. This is necessary because, while we had hoped that H.R. 702 would be brought up in the other body as a stand-alone bill, it doesn't appear that is going to happen this session, so we want to try to put this on another vehicle that the Senate may yet bring up. I will also point out that there are a number of larger bills in play, and there is a possibility we will try to attach it to those also. In any event, this amendment is true to the bill that was brought up on the House floor. It is identical, with two exceptions: One, it does not have the maritime provision to provide some additional funding for our maritime merchant marine fleet because that was not germane--not because we don't support it, but it was not germane. And, two, we had a requirement that we do a study of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That is no longer necessary because that part of the bill has become law. Other than that, all of the amendments that were offered and accepted on both sides are in this amendment that is before us today. We are the third largest oil producer in the world. We have the capability to significantly increase our production, but under current law, Mr. Chairman, that is not possible because it is prohibited by a law that was passed in 1975. The gist of this bill is that it would repeal that ban and allow American crude oil to be put out on the world market, just like our refined oil products are today. I ask everybody who voted for it before to vote for it again, and for those of you who didn't see the light the last time, we are going to give you a second chance tonight to vote for it. I want to see if there is anybody willing to stand up and be in opposition to this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BARTON. I will put the gentleman from California down as being undecided on the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from College Station, Texas (Mr. Flores).

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. I don't see any other speakers on our side. Let me simply say that this amendment is about jobs for America. There is only one commodity that we prohibit, by law, from being exported, and it is crude oil. We don't prohibit cotton; we don't prohibit corn; we don't prohibit ethanol; we don't prohibit automobiles; we don't prohibit video games or movies. We only prohibit crude oil. That is number one. Number two, since the oil prices have precipitously fallen in the last 13 or 14 months, we have lost over 250,000 jobs in the United States. Those aren't just oil patch jobs. Those are truck driver jobs; they are warehouse jobs; they are computer programmer jobs; they are restaurant jobs. You name it; those are real jobs. It is estimated, Mr. Chairman, that we are losing as many as 1,000 jobs a week right now. If we repeal this antiquated law, we can put some of those people back to work. We can put American-made oil in the world marketplace. It makes no sense to let Iran export oil, but we can't let American oil be put on the world market. We don't know who is going to buy the oil, but we do know that the money we will receive from it is going to come back to the United States. It is going to create jobs, and it is going to help our economy. It is going to be good for every American in every State of the 50 States in the Union. Vote for this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BARTON

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Upton for yielding me the time. I want to commend him for his leadership on this initiative and for getting it to the floor. This has been a long process, and the gentleman is to be commended for going through the regular order of the subcommittee, of the full committee, and now to floor consideration. I support H.R. 8, as reported out of committee and as amended in the manager's amendment that the gentleman presented to the Rules Committee. I have requested--and I think it will be made in order--an amendment to that bill to include a provision that we passed as a stand-alone bill several months ago, H.R. 702, which would repeal the current ban on crude oil exports. My amendment, if made in order by the Rules Committee--and I hope that it will be--takes what the floor passed with amendments--and we had a number of Republican and Democrat amendments that were added dealing with terrorism, national security, and things of this sort. I am asking that the Rules Committee make in order H.R. 702, as amended, and put it on the floor tomorrow as an amendment. Mr. Chairman, in the United States, we currently produce a little over 9 million barrels of oil per day. That makes us number 3 in the world in terms of daily crude oil production, but we are not allowed to export any of that crude oil. We can export refined products and we do export up to 3 or 4 million barrels per day of refined products, but we cannot export crude oil. If my amendment is accepted by the Rules Committee, made in order, voted on in a positive way by the House, sent to the Senate, and the Senate passes H.R. 8, and it is signed by the President, we could then begin to export our crude oil. We have the capability to easily produce 15 million barrels a day, and some experts say we could go up to 20. That would be a strategic asset vis-a-vis OPEC, vis-a-vis ISIS, vis-a-vis the Russians, in that we could use our oil in the international oil markets. It would help our economy, would literally create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and would, surprisingly, minimize or lower gasoline prices here in the United States because more U.S. oil in the world market would lower the world price, which would lower gasoline prices at the pump. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your support. I ask that the Rules Committee make my bipartisan amendment in order, which is cosponsored by Mr. Cuellar, Mr. Conaway, Mr. Flores, and Mr. McCaul, and that we add it to your excellent bill on the floor tomorrow.

Mr. BARTON

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Speaker, this week the White House Fellows Association is honoring the 50th anniversary of the creation of the White House Fellows Program, established by President Lyndon Johnson back in 1964. Since its inception, there have been 738 young men and young women who have served the President and the Vice President of the United States and the Cabinet officers in various capacities in all the Federal agencies. Mr. Speaker, I was honored in 1981 to be selected in the first class of President Reagan's White House Fellows Program. I served with the former Governor of South Carolina, James B. Edwards, the Secretary of Energy, in the Department of Energy. Mr. Speaker, this is an excellent program open to all young Americans early in their careers who want to spend some time in Washington and then go back to their former careers with a better understanding of how our Federal Government works. Mr. Speaker, I have introduced H. Con. Res. 82 to recognize the White House fellows and their many contributions to our country. I urge Members to support this resolution if and when it comes to the floor.

Mr. BARTON

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Harper), a member of the committee.

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson).

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hinojosa) at the request of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar), who is my original Democrat sponsor.

Mr. BARTON. At this time, Mr. Chairman, I am very honored to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton). Chairman Upton is the distinguished chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee from the great State of Michigan and my good friend.

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Cincinnati, the Buckeye State of Ohio (Mr. Chabot).

Mr. BARTON. I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from the Golden Gate State of California (Mr. Hunter), a distinguished subcommittee chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. BARTON. Well, at this time, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BARTON. I want to make a deal with the gentleman. We want to be open and transparent. We are the open, transparent Congress. We will accept your amendment if you voice vote it and at least consider voting for the bill. But if you are going to rollcall vote it and vote against the bill, then I will oppose it, and we will defeat you on the rollcall vote. So I am going to make you a deal. I am not saying you have to vote for the bill. I am just saying I want you to think nice thoughts about the bill and consider voting for the bill, and then we will accept it on a voice vote, but we don't want any rollcall votes.

Mr. BARTON. Well, I hope the Chair was listening. I yield to my friend from California, if I have time to yield, to see what his thoughts are.

Mr. BARTON. So the gentleman is going to ask for a rollcall vote?

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, I would rise in mild opposition, which could turn to support.

Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Houston for offering it. Is she willing to do this on a voice vote and consider voting for the bill if we accept it?

Mr. BARTON. I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.

Mr. BARTON. I will if you rise to voice vote on your amendment. I will make it a package deal. I will give you this amendment and the next amendment double enthusiasm if they are both voice votes and you actually really do vote for the bill or at least start thinking about it strongly.

Mr. BARTON. I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.

Mr. BARTON. Oh, they are.