Paul Broun

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I believe that people who commit fraud should be held responsible at the highest degree. I think the greatest form of fraud that we have in America and has been part of the problem that has created this financial crisis is an act passed by Congress called the Community Development Act. This has created a system that people are fraudulently giving mortgages, but it has also created a system where groups, community development organizations such as Acorn are holding financial institutions hostage. They use threats, extortion and bribes to try to get these financial institutions to give loans to people who can't pay, and it has created a system in America that has caused a meltdown in our whole financial system. If we are going to start dealing with fraud in America, we need to start dealing with the greatest source of fraud, and the Community Development Act is one of those. We need to repeal the Community Development Act. We need to stop Acorn and other types of organizations like this from threatening our financial institutions. We need to put America back on a strong financial basis. Only by repealing the Community Development Act will we do so. We have to find solutions. We can't just play around the edges as we are doing now. We will be voting on a bill very shortly to try to bail out financial institutions in America. I am very skeptical of the bill, frankly. But we do know that there are some very inherent problems in bills that were passed by this House as well as the Senate and put into law. We need to repeal the Community Development Act as well as other acts such as that which have created this house of cards financially that is collapsing around our ears.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. It does not allow AK-47s.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I was sitting in my office listening to this debate, and it occurred to me there was an interesting experiment done a number of years ago. The City of Morton Grove, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago, put in a ban on handguns. They outlawed the ownership of guns in Morton Grove; and in response to that, the City of Kennesaw, Georgia, enacted legislation within that community that required the ownership of firearms within that community. Both of these are very similar communities. Morton Grove is just outside of Chicago; Kennesaw is just outside of Atlanta. It was very interesting what happened with this social experiment. The crime rate, the murder rate, the assaults, the rapes, every measure of crime in Morton Grove, Illinois, rose exponentially. In Kennesaw, Georgia, the crime rate plummeted and is still low even today. The Kennesaw ordinance allowed people who didn't want to have firearms in their homes a method of having conscientious objection to doing so. But it's a very interesting experiment. I hear from the other side all of these rants and raves and anger even expressed tonight over the substitute amendment supporting the bill. Well, the fact is the underlying bill does not support the second amendment, it is anti-second amendment; and frankly, according to the Constitution, we have a pre-existing right prior to the Constitution to own firearms and to protect ourselves. And that's what this substitute would help allow to happen in Washington, D.C. Washington is not a State. It's not a city, according to all of the other cities in the country. It's very unique. And this body has the prerogative, has the responsibility under the Constitution to set the laws and to monitor what is going on in Washington, D.C. I hear claims on the other side that the substitute amendment would legalize AK-47s. Well, that's not factual. I hear that it will allow mentally deficient people to have firearms. That's not correct. I hear so many claims on the other side and every single person that I have heard come to this floor making these outrageous, incorrect claims are all on record of being anti-gun, anti-second amendment, and want to outlaw guns, register guns, and want to get guns out of the hands of individuals. We have an individual right to protect ourselves. We have an individual right to own a firearm. And what this amendment will do is it will allow the people of Washington, D.C. the right to protect themselves. It's inane to think that somebody can't have a gun and own that gun and have it loaded. It's inane to think that somebody has to have a gun unloaded or locked or taken apart because if somebody's breaking into your house, if they're robbing, raping, pillaging, you don't have time to put those firearms together, even the loaded firearm. We know from the experiment in Morton Grove, as well as Kennesaw, Georgia, that owning firearms within a community actually decreases crime and makes people safer. So I encourage the Members of this House to vote for the substitute amendment and vote down the underlying bill.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Yes.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. An AK-47 is a fully automatic machine gun. Machine guns are very strictly controlled and have been for decades. This will not allow machine guns. Now, there are many on that side that think if a gun is an autoloader, that it's a machine gun. It is not. A machine gun, you pull the trigger, it fires multiple times with one pull of the trigger. This bill does not allow that. A semi-automatic would allow one shot with one pull of the trigger. There are shotguns that do that, there are pistols that do that, there are rifles that do that.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, last night at about 9:45, a bill was introduced that we're going to vote on this morning. It has been in the hopper for almost 12 hours now. It has been called a sham. It has been called a farce. But let me tell you, it's a bald-faced lie to the American people. This so-called energy bill is not going to produce one drop of oil, not the first one. We don't know all that is in this bill because we were just presented it last night. There are some things that are not in this bill, and I can guarantee you there is no nuclear energy. We're not going to even be able to drill for oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf. There is no way to stop in this bill the endless lawsuits by the radical environmentalists. This is a nonenergy energy bill. It's a lie to the American public. It is a cover to try to look like the Democratic majority is trying to do something. They say they represent the poor, the elderly and the underprivileged. But that is a lie, too, because the underprivileged and the poor are being hammered by increased energy costs. And we cannot afford to continue on this process.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding. We hear this bill called a sham, a charade, a travesty. Let's make it clear to the American people, this bill is a bald-faced lie. It's a bald-faced lie because the Democratic majority that controls this House is going to say they are for drilling, they are for producing oil. They are not. We have heard from Mr. Shadegg. There is nothing in there to stop the lawsuits, the endless lawsuits that are going to keep us from producing oil. We don't know what oil is in this bill, but we know in submission that are aren't in this bill. There's nothing about nuclear. It won't come to a floor controlled by Nancy Pelosi that has anything dealing with nuclear energy. We won't have new refineries. It's a sham, it's a travesty. It is a charade, but is it a lie? It's a lie to the American people that's being put forth by the Democratic majority, by Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, and the American people need to know that. It's not about trying to produce energy. It's about a line to the American people, giving cover to some of their folks so that they can go home and say I voted for a drilling bill. Now we need a drill to bill, but we need a bill to produce oil, and this is not it. So I encourage my Democratic colleagues to oppose this bill.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Thank you, Mr. Latta, for yielding. I appreciate this opportunity to come and speak today on this issue that is so drastically important to the American people. Everybody, rich and poor, black and white, all races, all nationalities, everybody in America is suffering from the high cost of energy. When we voted on the morning of August 1 to go home for a 5-week break, that afternoon I was part of the group of Republicans here on the floor demanding, demanding that we go back in session to find some commonsense solutions to the high cost of gasoline at everybody's gas pump. Everybody in this Nation, even if you don't have a car, if you drive a bicycle or a motorcycle or a scooter, is suffering from the consequences of the high cost of energy. When you go to the grocery store and try to buy bread, milk, eggs, bacon, the cost of those goods in your grocery store are going to continue to go up because of the high cost of energy. We hear from the controlling party, the Democrats, from Speaker Pelosi--now, there are some on the other side that would like to have a vote, that would like to see the energy costs come down. Many of our friends on the Democratic side of the aisle would vote for a comprehensive energy plan that would literally lower the cost of gasoline, would lower the cost of heating oil, would lower the cost of all energy sources here in America. But they can't have that opportunity to vote on a comprehensive plan. We can't have an opportunity to vote on a comprehensive plan. Why is that so? Frankly, if the American Energy Act would come to this floor for a vote, I think it would pass overwhelmingly. But Speaker Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, the majority leader, won't let that act come here, to have an up-and-down vote, to have an open discussion, a frank debate about all the issues within that act. Now, what does the act do? The act taps into our own American energy sources, taps into our own energy sources. Doing so is absolutely critical. We have to stop this dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. We are funding governments who hate America, who want to destroy us, and they are in turn funding al Qaeda, the insurgency in Iraq, the insurgency in Afghanistan. They're funding people who are in our country today who want to attack the very fiber of our Nation. We have to stop that dependency upon foreign oil, whether it's Middle Eastern oil, Venezuelan oil, North African oil, or anywhere else. We have to tap into our own natural resources. America is the only nation in the world, the only nation in the world, that won't develop its own natural resources. I became a political activist coming to Washington. I was practicing medicine in rural South Georgia, coming here to this Nation's capital to lobby as a volunteer about hunters' rights and gun owners' rights and conservation issues. I'm a scientist. I'm a medical doctor. And I believe that all of our policy ought to be based on science. Not on emotionalism, not on what the name of something is, but on science. And I believe very strongly that we have to be good stewards of God's creation. We're charged biblically to do so. We have to be good stewards of our environment. And I'm a conservationist, a very ardent conservationist. We can tap into our own natural resources. We can develop those God-given resources, what we call fossil fuel, air through wind as it moves around our country, through the sun, through solar resources. We can tap into those resources. But we are denied a vote on an act that would do everything. We call it the ``all-of-the- above plan.'' We hear our colleagues on the Democratic side, the controlling party, say, well, let the oil companies drill. They already have leases. They can't drill. Why is that? My friends, my colleagues, American people, oil companies can't drill because of endless lawsuits by the radical environmentalists. Any bill that's presented has to include some mechanism to stop the endless lawsuits by these radical environmentalists that don't want any drilling. They don't want us to develop any of our natural resources. They don't want us to do anything. I think they want us to live in a cave or in a tree. Come to think of it, they don't want us to live in the trees because they think that destroying the forests would be adverse to their philosophy. So I think they want us to live in a cave. I guess we'd have to go and pick up sticks to make a fire and cook our food. A lot of them don't want us to even go out and harvest some of the bountiful animals that we have in those forests that I enjoy eating as a hunter and as a fisherman. But the leadership of the Democratic Party is listening to those radical environmentalists, and they closed down this Congress on August 1 at 11:23 in the morning when many of us wanted to just come to this floor, as is our right, as is our privilege, to talk about energy. That afternoon I was here as part of that group, as I have already mentioned, demanding the ability to bring the American Energy Act to the floor for an up-and-down vote, to have a debate, an open debate, with amendments, to allow everybody to put their two cents worth in, to talk about their philosophy, to offer their suggestions, to find some commonsense solutions to our energy dependence on foreign sources. It's a national security issue for us to be dependent upon those nations who want to destroy America. It's an economic issue because our dependency upon them makes us subservient to them. The high cost of energy is raising the cost of health care in my business. It's raising the cost of groceries in the grocery store. It's raising the cost of every single good and service in this Nation. I as well as many others came during the August break to this floor to try to do the people's work, to demand a vote on a commonsense solution to this energy crisis we have in America. Right now today America is drilling for ice on Mars; yet we cannot drill for oil in America. It's insane. We have to change that. We have to tap into our oil and gas resources offshore and in ANWR. I have already mentioned that I hunt. I have been on the North Slope of the Brooks Range. I've been out flying over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR. I've seen the caribou herds that we keep hearing about from the Democratic majority that would be harmed. That's hogwash. They didn't want the pipeline. I have flown over the pipeline. I've camped out by the pipeline. I've seen the caribou herds in Alaska blossom and reproduce and get more numerous because of the pipeline. I've seen pictures of grizzly bear walking down the pipeline. It's actually helped the wildlife. We have the technology today where we can tap into those oil resources in ANWR, offshore, all over this Nation, and can do it in an environmentally responsible way, as we must, as I want to see happen, as a lot of my Democratic colleagues would like to see happen. But we cannot get a vote. I have got a picture here. One of the Democratic folks told us the Democrats' energy plan was to ``drive small cars and wait for the wind.'' I don't think most of us want to drive around in small cars waiting for the wind. We don't have to. We can lower the cost of gasoline. We have to tap into our own natural resources to be able to do so. We can stop our dependence on Middle Eastern oil by voting into law the American energy plan. We can make America secure by voting for the American energy plan. Whom is Ms. Pelosi listening to? She's from San Francisco. She thinks those radical environmentalists out there are normal people. But the American people know different. The American people know and want an energy plan that makes sense to lower their cost of gas at the pumps. But we need more than that. It's September. People are starting to buy their home heating oil. Poor people, retirees on fixed incomes are going to have to pay a lot more money for their home heating oil. Many are not going to be able to afford to buy their supplies for the winter. The people that we hear from the Democratic majority that they want to represent the most, the poor people and the elderly of this Nation, are going to be radically affected and harmed because Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Hoyer, the Democratic leadership, will not allow a vote on the American Energy Act. I represent the 10th Congressional District in Georgia, northeast Georgia. One of the cities in my district is Athens, where the University of Georgia is. I'm a proud Bulldog. Go Dawgs. Our head football coach, Mark Richt, has a three-word phrase he uses to energize the football team: ``Finish the drill.'' As a congressman, I have got a three-word phrase to energize America: ``Start the drill.'' We have to start the drill. We have to tap into our own natural resources and develop America's resources. We have to develop alternative sources of energy. That's absolutely critical because we have a dwindling supply of oil and eventually it's going to run out. We have to develop the wind and solar energy that my Democratic friends just keep talking about. T. Boone Pickens says that's half the answer. That's hogwash also. It's only a small part of the answer. It's less than 10 percent. But we have to develop wind and solar. The American Energy Act does that. Just south of my district, just south of Augusta, Georgia, the Georgia Power Company is trying to put in two nuclear reactors, and they have been doing that for decades. But because of the radical environmentalists and governmental regulations and endless lawsuits, they can't build the two nuclear reactors to add to the two that are already there. We have the technology to make nuclear energy safe. Nuclear energy is the only thing that makes environmental sense and economic sense to develop electric energy in this Nation. We have to develop nuclear energy. We have to develop hydrogen. We have to develop new batteries. We have to conserve. And I am a conservationist. Conservation has to be a part of the answer. We have to do it all. Well, guess what, American public? The Republican's American energy act does all of that. We must have a vote. So, Republicans, on the afternoon that we were forced to go home on this 5-week break, Republicans have been coming here every single day since that day, since August 1, to try to get our Democratic colleagues to come back here and do America's work, the American peoples' work, to vote on a comprehensive energy act bill that would do all of the above: Would tap into America's bountiful natural resources, that would develop nuclear energy, would develop alternative sources of energy, would develop conservation issues, would stimulate the innovativeness of the American public to develop new sources of energy. There may be a source of energy we have never dreamed of. We have to do all of those things. The American energy act will do just that. We can't have the Democratic energy plan of driving small cars and waiting for the wind. We have got to lower the cost of gas at the pump. We have got to lower the cost of home heating oil. Republicans are here fighting for the poor people. We are here fighting for the elderly on limited incomes. The Democratic leadership are just doing what my son calls ``dissing'' them. The leader on the Democratic side, Speaker Pelosi is dissing poor people, dissing the elderly, those who are hurt most by us not having the vote. So I come here tonight with my colleagues, and I applaud Mr. Latta and Mr. Burton and Mr. Barton and Judge Carter for coming here tonight to bring forth to the American people the idea that Republicans are here for the American people. We are here trying to find those solutions. We have been here through the whole August break, inviting our Democratic colleagues to come back and do the peoples' work, the poor peoples' work, the elderly's work, everybody's work, to lower the cost of energy. And so I just call upon my Democratic colleagues, particularly those many over here on the Democratic side who would like to have a vote, please ask your leadership to bring the American energy act to the floor for a vote with an open rule so that we can have all the amendments that you want to put in, all the amendments that our folks want to put in, have an open debate, but let's do the American peoples' job in the peoples' House. Let's do the peoples' work to find some solutions to this energy crisis that is an economic crisis and a national security crisis for America. So I call upon my Democratic colleagues to get your leadership to allow us to have a vote on the American energy act. I thank Mr. Latta for the opportunity to come here and discuss this, and I applaud your efforts, I applaud my other colleagues' efforts, and I thank you for this opportunity. Maybe the American people will listen. When I was here in the dimly lit House with no microphones, no cameras--different from tonight--and we had the tourists sitting here on the floor of the House, I asked them to go home and not just enjoy being in this historic moment sitting on the floor of the House of Representatives but to go home to contact their Member of Congress and demand a vote on the American energy act. Former U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen one time said, when he feels the heat, he sees the light. What he was saying is when his constituents in his State start contacting him through calls and letters, that he would start feeling the heat. We need the American public all over this country to start putting heat on their U.S. Senators and their Members of the U.S. House by calling, writing, e-mailing, visiting district offices, visiting Washington offices, and demanding a vote on a comprehensive energy package that would lower their costs of energy, whether it's gasoline, home heating oil, electricity. That is what the American energy plan is all about, is to lower our energy costs. So I applaud your efforts tonight, sir, my friend, and dear colleague, and I ask the American public to get busy to apply the heat to your Member of Congress. Write them, call them, e-mail them, and demand a vote on the American energy act so we can have an up-or-down vote, open debate to lower your cost of energy, lower your cost of gasoline, lower your cost of groceries, lower your cost of health care, lower your cost of every good and service that you have to buy to make America secure. Energy secure. I thank you, sir, for your leadership. I applaud you, and I thank you for this opportunity to come back today.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, last week I was here and other Republicans were here. The week before I was here. Republicans have been coming to this floor every single day since we voted to adjourn back in July. We've been here working for the American people to try to find commonsense solutions to our energy crisis. We hear from the other side that they want to support the poor and the elderly. That's hogwash. The poor and the elderly are suffering more from energy prices than anything else. People can't afford to go to the doctor or drive to take their kids to school. School buses can't take kids to school. We've been coming here every single day working to try to do something for the American public, but the Democrats went on vacation. They haven't continued to work like the Republicans have. We've got to find solutions to our energy crisis that makes sense economically, makes sense environmentally, and that's exactly what the American Energy Act will do. So I call upon my Democratic colleagues, let's have an up or down vote on American energy so that we can make sense for the poor, the working class, everybody in America.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I appreciate the gentleman going through that list of things. I used to farm. I'm a medical doctor, as you know, and a lot of things that we deal with in health care are petroleum-based also. But as a farmer, I used not only diesel fuel in my tractor, but I also used oil-based or petroleum-based products to keep weeds out of my crops, to keep bugs out of my crops, and those sorts of things. Having a shortage of oil is going to drastically affect agriculture, which means it's going to drastically affect food prices to every single consumer in America today. That's another reason why I think it's absolutely critical that we get American oil and stop being dependent upon this Middle East oil and foreign oil. So I appreciate the gentleman yielding. But I wanted to add that as just another issue that's extremely critical for us to think about as we look because it's going to hurt the American consumer when they go to the grocery store that they can't buy their groceries at a reasonable price. So it not only hurts people at the pump but it hurts people in the grocery store. It hurts people at their job and in every single other way.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I ask any Member here, what's the Democratic leadership afraid of? Do y'all know? I think they're afraid it will pass. I think that's the problem. I think they're afraid that this will pass and they won't have the environmental wackos and radical environmentalists that they can pander to anymore.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. These are all great things and they're included in the American energy plan, and that's the reason we need to vote on these. And I think it's absolutely critical--all of us voted to stay here to vote on this bill, and I think it's critical for us to do so. But a lot of naysayers say, well, even if we voted on this bill, it would take a long time to lower the cost of gas. But I just submit what happened when the President rescinded the Presidential moratorium on offshore drilling. Oil prices immediately fell. Gas prices are coming down. If we would vote on this bill and pass it, I guarantee you almost overnight we'd see much, much lower prices of gas at the pump, and oil prices would come down. We had this bill about speculation. Well, this is the way to deal with speculation. Let's pass this bill. It will stop the whole problem that we hear from the Democratic side about speculators running up the cost of oil. That's hogwash, too. We need to pass this bill, and I call on the Democratic leadership to bring it to the floor.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. You make a great point, Congressman Heller. I keep hearing from the other side, from the radical environmentalists, as well as the Democratic leadership that won't let us vote on this bill, that it will take 10 years if we pass a bill--if we're to pass this bill, it will take 10 years to start producing oil. That's hogwash. We don't have enough refinery capacity in America. We need to build new refineries, and they say it will take 10 years to get them permitted. And that's hogwash. If Habitat for Humanity can build a house in one week that will withstand a hurricane, as we've seen it happen, if America just has the gumption to do so, we could build a refinery in a year. We could start pumping oil very quickly. But Nancy Pelosi's leadership won't allow us to vote, and it's just absolutely unconscionable to me that we can't vote to supply more oil and stop this dependence upon foreign oil. It is absolutely critical for our national security.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Would the gentleman yield?

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I thank my colleague for yielding. America right now is drilling for ice on Mars. Yet we cannot drill for oil in America. This is insane. If we have the technology to explore beneath the surface of Mars, then we must have the technology to explore for oil here at home in an efficient, environmentally friendly fashion. Our home-grown energy businesses employ that technology off the coast of Louisiana today. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita toppled many of the oil rigs offshore, but there was no environmental catastrophe. Not one drop of oil was spilled. Not one drop washed up on the shorelines. I respect Louisiana Democrats Charlie Melancon and Mary Landrieu, who support their State's exploration and development in the face of stiff opposition within the Democratic Party's ranks. Why can't we learn from Louisiana's success? There are some who like to say we're facing an energy crisis, and then they'll use those two words to manipulate votes this December. For there truly to be an energy crisis, there would have to be a shortage of fuel. Fortunately, there isn't one today, but there is a shortage of courage in this body, a shortage of creativity and a shortage of will to do what needs to be done to ensure that there will never be another 1970-style fuel shortage. The best way to cope with a crisis, real or not, is to avoid it in the first place. The Georgia Bulldogs are in my district, so you know I love a good football analogy. We all grew up with Charles Schultz and his Peanuts comic strip, so we are familiar with the image of Lucy's yanking the football away from Charlie Brown just as he's running to kick a field goal. What image better represents the Democratic leadership's approach to energy policy--this so-called new direction for our Nation? this new direction energy policy? the Democratic leadership's energy policy? A sound, obvious proposal comes to the table, such as expanding domestic resource exploration. The Democrats quickly yank it away from under the American consumer. Why? Because it's tradition for most of them to appease radical environmental groups and to oppose domestic exploration and production even in the face of rising costs and of increasing dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. Some of the ideas springing forth from the New Direction Congress are policies from an old era best left forgotten. I'm speaking about this absurd notion of nationalizing, read ``socializing'' our Nation's oil and gas businesses. The most recent mention of it has been quickly forgotten by the press, but I want to point out how this allegedly fresh idea has evolved without even going into the original idea's ultimate failure in the former Soviet Bloc. Nearly 80 percent of world oil reserves are controlled by nationally owned oil companies, not by American or by other private companies. Today, as a nation, we scoff at nationalized oil and gas production in Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, but somehow socialization is acceptable to some Members of the ``New Direction'' House and Senate. To me, it's a new direction headed down an old path to a dead end. I reject socializing oil companies because it is un-American and because I trust our market economy. As we learned when Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita caused no oil spills, offshore oil rigs are safe, and offshore oil rigs attract new marine life as we're still learning from the new artificial reefs there. One Democratic aide summarized the liberal energy plan as ``drive small cars and wait for the wind.'' We developed this picture of the Democratic Party's policy for energy in America. It's absurd. Well, Madam Speaker, not everybody owns a small car, and it's not windy every day. America wants energy solutions now, and we should vote to serve their interests, not the interests of the radical environmentalists. We've introduced a bill called the American Energy Plan. It encompasses all of the above, every single possible energy source that we can figure today, and we'll even stimulate the production of new sources that we may not even know about. We need to have a vote on that bill. The Georgia Bulldogs' head football coach, Mark Richt, has a saying he uses to energize the Georgia Bulldogs football team: Finish the drill. As a Congressman, I've got three words to energize America: Start the drill. We do that by voting for the American Energy Plan. We do that by voting to expand offshore drilling, ANWR drilling. We do that by voting to produce new nuclear energy and to permit new refineries. If Habitat for Humanity can build a house in 1 week that will withstand a hurricane, we can build a refinery to produce more gasoline for America in 1 year. We have to have a vote. The American public is absolutely dependent upon it. I want people to understand the reason that the gas prices are high at the pumps when you go pump your oil today. It is because we're not able to vote on the American Energy Plan or on some comprehensive means of establishing new oil supplies in America. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I yield back.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I thank my friend for yielding. And I appreciate the comments that my colleague, Congressman Franks, made. I served on a board of directors for a crisis pregnancy center in the inner city of Atlanta. We were geared towards trying to save babies of African American moms in the inner city of Atlanta. I'm a medical doctor. And the whole crux of this discussion comes to the decision of when life begins. I introduced the Sanctity of Human Life Act of 2007 that defines scientifically that life begins at fertilization. And it's described when the cell of the spermatozoa enters the cell wall of the ova site and forms a one-celled human being called a zygote. And my bill gives the right of personhood to that one- celled human being, whether they're black or white or any people group. And I know, as a medical doctor, that that's when life begins. And we have to save life. If a Nation will not protect the most innocent of human beings, what will it protect? And we are killing 4,000 babies every day, black and white. There are more black babies being killed than there are white babies proportionally, and that's the reason why I was on that board of directors for many years. And thankfully, we have it open and we're serving the inner city of Atlanta right now with that crisis pregnancy center. But we've got to stop the killing of these children, black and white, of all colors, because God cannot continue to bless America while we're killing 4,000 babies every day and while we're funding an organization like Planned Parenthood. We have to stop the funding of that organization. And I just encourage all my colleagues of this House to understand that life begins at fertilization, and we've got to stop the killing as a Nation.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, right now America is drilling for ice on Mars; yet we cannot drill for oil in America. It's insane. Coach Mark Richt of Georgia Bulldog football fame has three words, a phrase he uses to energize his football team: Finish the drill. I have three words as a Congressman from Georgia and Representative of this body to energize America: Start the drill. Now.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, we're talking about preserving America, but we need to preserve the economic viability of America, and as long as we're paying $4.10 a gallon, we're not going to be an economically viable Nation. It's going higher and higher. In the last bill's debate, we talked about monkey bites, shark bites, and there was an accusation of the energy production companies are biting people. But what's biting people in their pocketbooks and their wallets is this high cost of gasoline, high cost of energy. Until we start dealing with this issue, we're going to continue to have problems in this country. We're going to continue to have economic problems, and it's absolutely critical that we deal with what's on America's mind, and that is energy costs. As we head into the fall and winter, not too far off, people are going to have a hard time heating their homes. Poor people and retirees are going to have a hard time buying the heating oil. The problem is the shortage of energy supplies here in America, and until we start making energy supplies more available to the American public, we're going to continue to have higher and higher costs. We can't just talk about conservation. We can't just talk about solar and wind. We've got to talk about those things certainly, but that's only a minute part of the answer. We've got to develop nuclear energy. Just below my district, Plant Vogel in Georgia is having a hard time getting permitting for two nuclear reactors. They're being blocked by the radical environmentalists and through the inane permitting process that's going on today. We need to get those reactors online. We need to get oil, coal, gas, propane, all more available so that people can have an economic future that makes sense. So, as we talk about preserving things, let's preserve our families. Let's preserve our pocketbooks. Let's have money to spend to create a stronger economy. Not focus on these other things, as important as some feel that they may be. But the most important thing to America today is energy and the high cost of energy. We need to do something about that. We shouldn't go home until we solve the energy problem of America, and we're not doing the American public justice when we continue talking about all these other things except energy. We need to focus on energy. Let's drill for oil. Let's drill now.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Speaker, today the Supreme Court made a strong move in support of individual gun rights in their decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. Since 1975, the residents of Washington, D.C., have had their second amendment rights to bear arms stolen from them by the D.C. government. The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution declares that: ``A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'' Our Founding Fathers knew that without the second amendment, an oppressive government would eventually try to tear away our rights. They could not trust the government to always protect our rights, and so they wrote the second amendment. As James Madison later wrote: ``Who are the best keepers of the people's liberties? The people themselves. The sacred trust can be nowhere so safe as in the hands most interested in preserving it.'' The second amendment protects the fundamental, individual right of law-abiding citizens to own firearms for any lawful purpose. Further, any law infringing on this freedom, including a ban on self-defense and handgun ownership, is blatantly unconstitutional. Every study has shown that gun control is not effective in curbing crime. Rather, these types of restrictions only leave law-abiding citizens more susceptible to criminal attack. Other than law enforcement, only criminals have had handguns in the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court took a strong step forward today to protect the individual gun rights of Americans, and I applaud them for doing so. As Justice Scalia stated, ``The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.'' Though the Supreme Court's decision does champion the individual right to bear arms, it also allows restrictions based on type, manner of carrying, purpose, sensitive location, and commercial sale of handguns. Most alarmingly, the Court irrationally envisioned that their holding may completely detach the second amendment right from its purpose. Regarding the purpose of the right, United States General George Washington Stated, ``A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.'' Recognizing an evolving standard that limits the right to weapons to only those ``in common use at the time'' and accepting prohibitions of ``dangerous and unusual'' weapons, the Court gives short shrift to the fact that modern laws, of the very sort it strikes down today, have prevented the common use of ``sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government,'' as George Washington envisioned. The ruling outrageously claims that, ``the fact that modern developments have limited the degree of fit between the purpose and the protected right cannot change our interpretation of the right.'' The truth is that our second amendment right must fit the purpose, and this Court has separated the two. This Court wrongly leaves loopholes for prohibition of weapons that would be necessary for today's militia duty. Militia, at the time of our findings, included every male 18 years of age or older. I am an avid hunter and outdoorsman and proud owner of numerous firearms. The National Rifle Association, Safari Club International, and Gun Owners of America are just some of the numerous sporting associations that I am a life Member of. A full-body-mounted African lion and Kodiak grizzly bear are just a few of my prized trophies that visitors see when they come to my D.C. office. I strongly support the Constitution's second amendment right to bear arms and will defend the rights of law-abiding citizens to purchase, use, carry, and keep firearms. I vigorously oppose all attempts to restrict the second amendment. I believe that any law, whether at the local, State, or Federal level, which restricts or infringes upon law-abiding citizens' ability to own a firearm is unconstitutional and should be repealed. The plain language of the Second Amendment clearly indicates that it was written to protect an individual's right to keep and bear arms. I believe, as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, and other founding fathers believed, that the individual right to bear arms is a representation of freedom and independence and I will always defend that right from abusive regulations and licensing.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Will the gentleman yield?