Peter DeFazio

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. I believe it's April Fools Day here on the floor of the House. To hear the members of the GOP, the Grand Old Oil Party, talking about how they are there for the consumers, they want to do something to help American consumers, the same party that benefits disproportionately from massive campaign contributions from the oil and gas and coal industries, the same party that holds the White House, with two oil men in the White House, the same party that on the Senate side defeated our energy provisions because they would have, God forbid, made the oil and gas companies pay taxes like other members of the corporate community. It would have taken away subsidies. They are crying crocodile tears about the massive profits their buddies are making. They are campaign contributors, they are sponsors, and the President, the oil man, the Vice-President, the oil man supply services company. Now there's a few things we could do. The President is a big free trader. He is trying to push us into more free trade agreements. He says they work great. He wants rules-based trade. Well, we are in the WTO. They have rules. The rules say you cannot restrict the supply of a commodity simply to drive up the price. That is what OPEC is doing. Now five members of OPEC are in the WTO. Will this President, the oil man, the friend of the Saudis and the others, will he file a complaint with the World Trade Organization against OPEC? No. I wrote to him 3 years ago asking him to do that. The answer was no. The Saudis and the OPEC countries want to get together to collude and drive up the price of oil. That is just fine with George Bush. He is all for free trade and rules-based trade, except when the rules might hurt some of his buddies, and then the oil industry just piggybacks on top of that. Now there is another thing they could do. They could help us with the provision we put in the farm bill, which is stalled in the Senate, which would close the Enron loophole. Remember Enron? Ken boy, the President's favorite guy. He just died before he went to jail. Well, the Enron boys convinced the Republican Congress to give them a special loophole, to deregulate energy commodities to allow for massive speculation. And there is widespread agreement in the financial community that about 50 cents of the price that is being paid at the pump today is being paid purely because of speculation brought about by the Enron loophole. You really want to do something about the high price of oil? Help us close the Enron loophole. Get your President to file a complaint against OPEC for colluding to drive up the price of oil. Help strip out the taxpayer subsidies to the oil, coal, and gas industry. You're taking it out of their wallets while you take it out of their pockets at the pump.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in strong support of H.R. 3513, the Copper Salmon Wilderness Act. The Copper Salmon Wilderness Act would permanently protect nearly 13,000 acres in the headwaters of the Elk River on the southern coast of Oregon, and designate more than 11 additional miles of the river as either Wild or Scenic under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. This legislation would protect some of the last remaining stands of Port- Orford-cedar in the Elk River watershed, which has the distinction as one of the most productive salmon and steelhead rivers outside of Alaska. This is rugged, wild territory, and I am hopeful that it may finally become wilderness in the 110th Congress: Renowned among fishermen, the Elk River watershed is one of the last intact watersheds on the southwest Oregon Coast and is widely regarded as Oregon's last, best coastal salmon and steelhead stream. Oregon State University researchers have concluded that the Elk River is one of the healthiest habitats in the lower 48 states for anadromous fish, and the stream is home to chinook salmon, winter steelhead, coho salmon, cutthroat trout, and rainbow trout. One of the things about this legislation about which I am most proud is that diverse stakeholders have been working together for more than a decade to gain broad support for protecting the Copper Salmon area. H.R. 3513 enjoys backing from Curry County Commissioners, local elected officials, the local Chamber of Commerce, hunting and fishing groups, tribes, the timber industry, and all local conservation groups. This is a model for the community-based consensus approach to designating wilderness. Copper Salmon is truly a rare coastal Oregon gem. It is almost entirely intact ancient forest, which supports healthy fish runs and great elk herds, blacktailed deer, bears, and other wildlife. It is adjacent to the existing Grassy Knob Wilderness, and combined, these two areas will be one of the largest intact areas of forest in the Coast Range. This is an area that deserves protection for the enjoyment of future generations. I am a proud advocate of protecting the Copper Salmon area, and urge my colleagues to join me in the passage of H.R. 3513, the Copper Salmon Wilderness Act.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, the presumptive Republican nominee for President, John McCain, wasn't kidding when he said he didn't understand the economy. He has proposed a gas tax holiday. Now let's think about it for a minute. Gas today costs three times as much as it did in 1993, but the Federal gas tax hasn't changed since 1993. So what is the cause of the big run-up? Well, it might be the $40 billion record profit at ExxonMobil and the $400 million exit given to their last CEO. That might be part of it. It might be the OPEC cartel colluding to drive up the price of oil and restrict demand. Or it could be the hedge fund speculators and others on Wall Street driving up the cost unnecessarily so they can make money. But the nominee of the Grand Oil Party, the GOP, he's not going to take on Big Oil. He's not going to take on Wall Street. He's not going to take on OPEC. What he is going to do is cut Federal investment in our crumbling infrastructure, put hundreds of thousands of construction workers out of jobs, and condemn even more Americans to being jammed on congested highways that need improvement and bridges that are collapsing where we don't have the money to rebuild.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, the Grand Oil Party is at it again. $500 billion in profits to the oil industry since George Bush, the oil man, and Dick Cheney, the oil man, took office. Remember what they told us? They could deal with the industry. They'd talk the prices down. They could deal with OPEC. They'd talk the prices down. OPEC is violating international law. The President won't file a complaint in the World Trade Organization for their illegal constraint of production which is driving up the price. The President refuses to take any action against his friends in the OPEC consortium or cartel. Now the big oil companies, $40 billion in profits for one, ExxonMobil, last year, their generous campaign contributors, the GOP, Grand Oil Party, is doing very well. But now they're crying crocodile tears here on the floor and saying they really care about consumers, after the Bush-Cheney energy bill, which gave subsidies to ExxonMobil who made $40 billion last year after the Republicans refused last year to strip those subsidies from the oil companies? They complain about the high price to consumers. They're born-again consumer advocates. That's great. I've been a consumer advocate for a long time. I have consistently supported a windfall profits tax. I've also consistently said we've got to go after the OPEC cartel and file the complaints. And we need new technologies, and we need new fuels, and we need conservation. None of those things were in the Bush-Cheney energy bills written behind closed doors by big oil and the GOP, the Grand Oil Party. But now, their presumptive political nominee, Mr. McCain, has come up with a great idea, let's suspend the gas tax. Now, let's see. In 1993, the gas tax was 18.3 cents a gallon, and gas was $1.05 a gallon. Today, in my district, gas is $3.50 a gallon, and guess what? The Federal gas tax is still 18.3 cents a gallon. That money is a tax. It's a tax going to big oil and OPEC and to hedge fund speculators who are driving up the price of oil. That's the tax the American consumers are paying. They won't take on OPEC, and they sure as heck aren't going to take on their friends in big oil. We're willing to do that. And suspending the gas tax, now I would ask the presumptive Republican nominee, Mr. McCain, if we suspend the gas tax, how many highway projects and bridge projects are you going to cancel? How many thousand people are you going to put out of work when you already have a deficit in the trust fund? If you want to give relief to the American consumers, target the real culprits. It is not the gas tax that's been flat for the last 15 years; it's big oil and it's the OPEC companies and the hedge fund speculators on Wall Street. Let's go after them.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, John McCain, has a solution to skyrocketing gas prices. Is he going to take on Big Oil, their price gouging, and their obscene profits? No. Is he going to take on OPEC and their collusion to restrict supply and drive up the price in violation of international trade law? No. Is he going to take on the hedge fund speculators on Wall Street that are driving up the price unnecessarily 50 cents a gallon so then they can make money? No. He is going to be the GOP nominee, the Grand Oil Party nominee. He can't take that money. He has a solution. Suspend the Federal gas tax. In 1993, the Federal gas tax was 18.3 cents and a gallon of gas was a buck. In 2008, a gallon of gas is $3.50. The Federal gas tax is the same 18.3 cents. It's dropped to 5 percent of the cost. If we follow his plan, we will cancel hundreds of needed bridge projects and highway projects across the country, throwing construction workers out of jobs, an already hard-hit sector, or maybe he is just going to borrow the money after he cancels the gas tax, because the only thing going up faster on the Republican administration than the price of gas is the national debt.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, today, for the first time in 4 decades, the House of Representatives stood up against yet another bad trade agreement. Our trade policy is creating a crisis. It's eroding the incomes of the middle class. We're losing our manufacturing base in this country. We're borrowing $2 billion a day from overseas making us vulnerable to countries like China and others who do not have our best interests in mind as they amount huge piles of our dollars because of the trade deficit. Now, all the pointy-headed economists out there, they have a theory. The theory is when your dollar or your currency declines, at some point you kind of get to a point where your idled capacity ramps up, your goods become less expensive, and the world begins to buy your goods and your trade deficit goes away. I confronted an economist over that vision a couple of years ago, and I said, well, that was an interesting theory, you know, 50 years ago. Maybe it even worked. But what I said to him was what happens to the country that doesn't make anything anymore? Doesn't that mean, in fact, as your currency drops, you're still addicted to buying the goods made overseas or you're just not going to have those goods because you don't make them in the U.S. anymore? There is no idle capacity to ramp up. Our companies of wholesale exported their manufacturing capacity to Mexico and China in the chase for ever cheaper, more exploitable labor around the world which has been encouraged by our trade agreements. Every other nation on earth has a trade policy to take care of the people of their own country. The United States has a trade policy to take care of the corporate elite in the United States of America and to heck with the rest of our country or even national security. So why do I come to the floor today to talk about this? Two things: One is because we finally stood up against the free trade agreement and the fast-track gimmick that has jammed those things through time and time and time again. The President negotiated it in secret. You, Congress, you can't mess that up. We will lose respect around the world. You're just gonna take it. You can't amend it. And we'll fix it later. And later never comes. But the second reason I come to the floor is because today, to the great surprise of those pointy-headed economists, our trade deficit got bigger even though we're in a recession and the dollar is dropping like a rock toward the value of a rupee, which it will soon achieve if we don't do something to turn the tide. So our trade deficit grew 5.7 percent to $62.3 billion. We could be headed for a record trade deficit. Now why's that? Because those same goods that we don't make here anymore are more expensive now because we're still buying them with a depreciated dollar. Of course, the nightmare scenario is the day when oil becomes denominated in somebody else's currency and countries refuse to take our currency and refuse to continue to lend us $2 billion a day. And that day of reckoning may not be far off. It's time for a new trade policy in America, one that brings and keeps high-value jobs here at home and gives us a future as a great power and a manufacturing power, not as a has-been.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. For a Republican minority, and particularly the gentleman from California, who whine day in and day out about their inability to offer amendments to even the most minor of bills, I've never seen a group so eager to give up their right, in fact, the right of every Member of this House to offer an amendment to this trade agreement in a rush to rubber-stamp yet another failed so-called free trade agreement. As one Republican pointed out, yeah, its been the policy since 1974. Guess what? 1974 we were the manufacturing colossus of the world. We ran trade surpluses. We had a robust middle class in America. It was bad policy then. But after 24 years of that bad trade policy, our manufacturing's cut in half. The middle class is losing ground. They're unemployed. We're borrowing $2 billion a day from the rest of the world, including Communist China, to buy things that we used to make here in America, and they think we should do more of the same. I've heard this and played this game before. I've never voted for one. But every President since I've been here, Republican and Democrat, says, hey, we negotiated this deal in secret. You can't fail us now. Yeah, it's got big problems, but we'll fix them later. Guess what? Later never comes. Because this Congress, until today, has never had a spine to stand up to the special interests that are pushing failed trade policies, policies that fail the American people to benefit a few on Wall Street. This is about Main Street. The House is growing a spine today. This is a great day and the beginning of a new trade policy for the American people.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 936) honoring the 200th anniversary of the Gallatin Report on Roads and Canals, celebrating the national unity the Gallatin Report engendered, and recognizing the vast contributions that national planning efforts have provided to the United States, as amended.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 936.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the time. It's already been referenced earlier by the Speaker, and by Mr. Blumenauer, that one thing we could do for the ailing American economy to put people back to work, quite quickly this year, this construction year, would be investment in our infrastructure. These would be American jobs with American products. They can't be exported. The benefits are here at home. It will make our country more competitive in the international marketplace. They help businesses with just-in-time delivery. You're now seeing trucks detoured by 100, 200 miles because of failing and weight-limited bridges. There's a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done. It would also make us more energy efficient by helping to obviate some of the congestion that we're currently suffering from, the detours that I already mentioned. If we set a goal, for instance, of looking at our largest cities, having 10 percent of people take transit to work, we could save 40 percent from the oil that we currently import from the Middle East. That would be tremendous for national security, our balance of trade, and great for the American people and good for the environment. Now, some might say that's too ambitious. Well, I just came back, or I took the committee on a trip to Europe. In London, more than 85 percent of the people ride transit to work. And in Barcelona, they're investing more money in one addition to their subway system, which is at capacity right now, than we're investing in all transit in the entire continent of the United States of America. We are not pushing the margins here in terms of our investment. We can do better and we can learn from the past and, at the same time, look to a more transportation efficient future by observing this commemoration of Gallatin and beginning to construct our own version of a Gallatin report as we move to the reauthorization of the surface transportation and transit legislation in 2009.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution reaffirming our national commitment to our national transportation infrastructure. Two hundred years ago, a farsighted President, Thomas Jefferson, commissioned Secretary Gallatin to provide a report and a vision for transportation in America, to knit together the then-young Nation and to better facilitate the movement of its people, its goods, its commerce and people, and to better compete in the international economy. For 200 years, or nearly 200 years, that vision has been maintained and has been the prevailing view here in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, we now have an occupant of the White House and a Secretary of Transportation who do not share that vision. A recent report detailing the extraordinary state of disrepair into which our transportation infrastructure has fallen from a commission created by this Congress in the SAFETEA-LU legislation pointed to the need for a massive increase in investment at all levels, Federal, State and local, because in order just to maintain the existing infrastructure, we would have to spend more than we are spending today. We are not even treading water. We are not even maintaining a deteriorating infrastructure; we are deteriorating towards Third World status. While our competitors around the world are leaping ahead with major investments in transit and roads, bridges and highways, and with major investments in ports and waterways, we are falling behind. In response to that, unfortunately, the Secretary of Transportation joined with a minority in dissenting from the report and essentially proposed that we phase out any Federal role or investment in our national transportation infrastructure. I can think of nothing more wrong-headed, shortsighted, or more destructive for the future of our country than to pull back from these extraordinary needs. So that's why I think it is so important that we look back, we look back over 200 years of history, we look back to the Gallatin Report, we look back to the successes that have followed upon that vision that we have been building upon for 200 years, and we set a course for the next 200 years so that we can again boast of having the state-of-the-art, most efficient, most energy-efficient transportation network in the world, which is far from the condition in which we find ourselves today. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi).

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, we're hearing the howls from the Republican side. Their fat-cat supporters might be forced to pay a fair share of taxes in the future, millionaires and billionaires who today are paying taxes at a rate less than that of your average schoolteacher or an Army captain. They say that that's the secret for a strong economy. Those hedge fund managers on Wall Street are doing such a great job, the people who brought us the financial meltdown for the United States of America that's hurting average people while these people are still cruising in their yachts and building their seventh and eighth homes in exotic places around the world. They need those tax cuts. That's the nostrum for a failing economy: tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts for rich people. No, how about tax fairness and how about dealing with a sea of red ink in this country. You can't do it without asking the wealthiest among us to pay their fair share. And restoring some programs that are important to the middle class. Yeah, that's right. The rich people don't need roads that are up to standard because they're in the back seat of a chauffeur-driven limousine. They don't care if they sit in traffic for a long time. They're in their private jet. They're in their walled community. What do they need for public safety? Their kids go to private schools. What do they care about public education? And, hey, they don't have to worry about the cost of health care. That's the Republican world. We're going to change that with this Democratic budget.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I would yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 772.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 772, a resolution to congratulate the American Highway Users Alliance on the occasion of its 75th anniversary. Founded in 1932 as the National Highway Users Conference, in 1970 the group merged with the Automotive Safety Foundation and were renamed the Highway Users Federation for Safety and Mobility, and in 1995 they took on the current name of American Highway Users Alliance (``the Highway Users''). The Highway Users has always been an outspoken proponent for adequate funding for our Nation's highway infrastructure and a consistent voice for motorists and those who depend on our highways for commercial purposes. For the past 75 years, Highway Users have expressed the interests of motorists and businesses on all major national highway and traffic safety legislation, including strong support for the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which authorized the Interstate Highway System, established the Highway Trust Fund. Since then, it's been an unwavering force for protecting the integrity of the Federal Highway Trust Fund and State Highway Trust Funds. As we received a report last week on the state of the Nation's infrastructure from a commission that was created by the passage of the SAFETEA-LU bill, we find that we are dramatically in deficit in investing in the Nation's infrastructure. And the current administration is dramatically in denial about the deficit in investing in infrastructure, so there will be a lot of work to be done by the American Highway Users Alliance and other advocates for an improved transportation network in the United States of America. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, this legislation will fill a gap in the national inspection regime and in public safety, one that was brought to our attention by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Capuano). Obviously, a failing infrastructure is very much on the minds of the public, given the collapse in Minnesota this last year, but, unfortunately, the Minnesota instance is not unique and it points to the need for constant vigilance and inspection of the critical infrastructure to avoid tragic accidents. And in this case, the gentleman from Massachusetts has pointed out that we do not have a regular regime of tunnel inspection, nor do we have standards which are set nationally for tunnel safety and inspection, nor do we have certified tunnel inspectors. All of that would be rectified by this legislation, so I'm very supportive of the legislation. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 409) to amend title 23, United States Code, to inspect highway tunnels, as amended.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Capuano).

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 409.

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 866) honoring the brave men and women of the United States Coast Guard whose tireless work, dedication, and commitment to protecting the United States have led to the Coast Guard seizing over 350,000 pounds of cocaine at sea during 2007, far surpassing all of our previous records.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 866.