Virginia Foxx

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. I thank the gentleman from Indiana for leading this. I want to say it is a tough act to follow, Michele Bachmann from Minnesota. She did such a wonderful job of synthesizing this. I want to add just a couple of comments to what she has said. The Democrats took over control of the House and the Senate in 2006 by making a lot of promises. They have broken every one of those promises, and this bill is a culmination of the promises that they have broken. As you all have pointed out, it is a 290-page bill. The Rules Committee is meeting now. We got it 45 minutes ago. They are going to come out, there will be no amendments offered for the bill. It is just a sham. It deserves the ``Emperor's New Clothes Award.'' That is what I want to give it. I think we need to point out, why are we allowing lawsuits? That was a question our colleague just asked. Let's just say it straight, folks. The Democrats in this Congress are being controlled by three groups of people: The trial lawyers, the unions, and the radical environmentalists. Again, this bill is a good indication of how they are being controlled by those three groups. The other thing I would say is that from the first of August of this year until the end of December, the Democrats will have kept the House in session for 14 working days. That is all. Talk about a slam against the American people. We are letting the American people suffer with high gas prices while the Congress, led by the Democrats, and it needs to be said 3,000 times every day, the Democrats are in charge. I want to say why we are going to have this vote, because I am quoting from today's Congressional Quarterly, so it isn't just coming from us as Republicans. This is an objective piece of journalism. The Democrats need to provide political cover to moderate members of their caucus who could suffer on election day unless they can show constituents they voted for an expansion of drilling. They don't expect this to become law. There is no expectation. But they are giving cover to a few of their members who can say, oh, I went home and voted for this, this sham of a bill. The American people are becoming more and more cynical. There is a 9 percent approval rating for the Congress. I hope that those who are watching know again the Democrats are in charge. If you want a Congress that is not going to leave you cynical, that is not going to walk away from its job, that is not going to leave you paying $4 a gallon for gas, then you need to pay attention to who is representing you.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, this is a day to remember those who died in the attacks on American soil 7 years ago. Since that day, this Nation's security has been the highest priority on both sides of the aisle. We may not all agree, we may not often agree, but we do love this country, and we want to do everything we can to ensure its security. I stand today because this occasion is a necessary time to think about the ways we get our energy. Energy is a huge part of our national security. Having domestic energy sources will help secure this Nation. It's safe to say that no one in this Chamber thinks that relying on foreign oil is a good long-term strategy for this Nation. It's not good for our economy, and it's not good for our security. I also think both sides generally agree that using alternative sources of energy are essential to our Nation's future. What we seem to disagree on is a matter of logistics. How quickly can we develop reliable cars that use other forms of energy besides oil? How can we make solar and wind power more available to power individual homes? The truth of the matter is, such solutions are not immediately available. In the meantime, Americans still need to drive to work. They still need to buy groceries. They still need to heat their homes. We need to respond to the reality of our situation. While we continue to develop alternative energies, we need to increase our supply of the energy this Nation relies on. We have the resources. We have the technology to get them in an environmentally friendly way. Let's help out the American people who are looking to us for solutions.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. I want to thank my classmate, Congressman Dent from Pennsylvania, for illuminating this issue from his perspective in Pennsylvania. Now I want to turn it over to a new Member of Congress this year who's been, I think, one of the really bright lights in the Congress, who's one of the most articulate people that we have in the Congress, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, which just hosted many of us who were at the Republican National Convention. And I want to say that it was certainly ``Minnesota Nice.'' The folks in Minnesota were fabulous. They treated us very well, very friendly, just like the people in North Carolina. I was extremely pleased to be there, and I want to ask you if you will share some of your perspectives on this issue of energy.

Ms. FOXX. Again, I promised you eloquence and you received eloquence. I want to share with you some of the bills that the Democrat Congress has been presenting to us to vote on while they have been ignoring the need to vote on the American Energy Act. How about this one: recognizing the American Highway User Alliance on its 75th anniversary. Now, that was a really important bill for us to be voting on. Or how about what we did this week: condemning the use of television programming by Hamas to indoctrinate hatred, violence, and anti- Semitism toward Israel in young Palestinian children. I am one of the biggest supporters of Israel that you will find, but I don't think that our passing this bill had one wit of difference on Hamas. Another really significant bill: supporting the goals and ideals of National Passport Month. When we should have been dealing with American energy, we were passing that bill. We also passed a bill recognizing the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the Muir Woods National Monument by President Teddy Roosevelt. All of us Republicans are very glad to see Teddy Roosevelt honored because he's the original conservationist. He set the tone for Republicans, and we all know that. But I'm sure Teddy Roosevelt would have rather we had been dealing with the American energy situation and not commemorating something he had done because it was the right thing to do. Two hundred and eighty-two laws have passed in the 110th Congress. Thirty-seven percent of them have named buildings or lands. Thirty- seven percent of them passed unanimously. Another fifteen percent extended the law or made technical corrections to an existing law. This Congress has done nothing while the American people have suffered. The Democrats' answer to the needs of the American people for lower gas prices is ``drive small cars and wait for the wind.'' Ladies and gentlemen, that should not be the response of this Congress to the needs of the American people. When gasoline prices are $4 a gallon, we need to do something. And as my colleagues have so eloquently expressed here tonight, we can do something. We have it within our power to create all of the energy that we need in this country at very affordable prices. However, this Congress, led by Democrats, controlled by Democrats, having Democrats in charge, have done nothing to act on the needs of the American people. I think one of the most important things we were able to accomplish in August when many of us were here every day talking to the American people on this floor because, as people have said before, the lights were out, C-SPAN was off, the microphones were off--in fact, many of us have had trouble speaking with microphones again because we were on the floor speaking so many times without microphones. We brought the issue to the American people. We let the American people know who was in charge, who is in charge of this Congress. The American people have said we want something done. The Speaker is saying they're going to bring a bill, but as my colleagues have said, we have been here all week. They had the whole month of August. They had 5 weeks to come up with something, in addition this week. No bill yet to vote on. And I will make one little correction to my colleague from Michigan who said we will be working for 15 days from August 1 until January 1. We are not going to be here on Friday; so it's only going to be 14 days. We're being paid to do that. The Democrats are in charge. It is their responsibility. My constituents find it hard to understand how one person can be totally in control of what bills come for a vote in the House, but that is the case. Speaker Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, is the person who controls whether we vote on bills on the House floor. And you need to let your interests be known to her and to your Democratic Congressman if that's who you have representing you. Mr. Speaker, I thank the leadership for giving us this hour.

Ms. FOXX. I heard that the United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal and that we have three times the coal reserves that Saudi Arabia has in oil reserves. Have you heard the same thing?

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, there's so much that needs to be said tonight and 1 hour's just not enough time to do it. I think I want to recommend that people read, again, if you haven't read, the book, 1984, because what you've seen exhibited here tonight is a living example of that book, where people distort the facts, they distort the past, and certainly distort the facts. I do have to say a couple of things. We're here tonight to talk about energy and the failed energy policies of the Democratically controlled Congress. The Democrats are in control of the Congress, and they have been since January 2007. And I think it's very, very important that we continue to remind the American people of that. For one thing, my colleagues talked about the 605,000 jobs lost in the last 8 months. Well, I'm here to say that's because the Democrats are in charge of Congress. They want to blame it on the President. The President can't make anything happen about those jobs that are lost. Congress can. And the American people have to hold the Democrats in charge of the Congress accountable. I do want to get on to energy, but I have to make, again, a couple of comments about what was said here tonight. We had a ``Truth Squad'' that used to meet on a regular basis here to correct the misstatements made by our colleagues almost every night, not every night. But I want to bring this Truth Squad back in the form of just me tonight by talking about some of the things, again, that they have said. I really was a little surprised that they focused so much on the war. I think it's really emblematic, again, of their running away from the issue that's most important to the American people, and that is the high price of gasoline and the high price of fuel oil. And they made lots of promises tonight, just like the Democrats did in 2006 when they were running for election and asked the American people to give them the majority. Well, the American people did give them the majority, and every promise they made has been broken. They promised to bring down the price of gasoline. They promised to make this the most open Congress ever, the most bipartisan Congress. Every one of those promises was broken. What we need to be focusing on, and what Republicans have been focusing on for the 20 months that the Democrats have been in control of the Congress, has been the high price of energy and how that price has been going steadily up. And again, I was a little bit amazed tonight that the focus of the group just before me was on the war and on the economy and blaming all of that on somebody else. They talked about how jobs had increased under the Clinton administration. Let me remind the American people that President Clinton had a Democratic Congress for the first 2 years of his administration, and those 2 years were not good for this economy. In fact, they were pretty rotten, 1992 and 1993. The Republicans took control of the House in 1994, in the fall of 1994, and came into office in 1995. Certainly we had a good economy under President Clinton, but it was because the Republicans were in charge of the Congress. The Democrats conveniently leave that little fact out. They give all the credit to President Clinton. It wasn't President Clinton's policies that gave us a great economy. It was the Republican Congress. They talk about the problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the failed administration. I think we will see more and more coming out that the problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are because of the liberal policies of the Democrats forcing banks, mortgage companies, loan companies to make loans to people who should never have gotten loans. I'm sure there's some greed out there, and I'm sure that there are some characters that we wouldn't like being in the business. But most of it was because of the liberal policies that they put into effect years ago. I do want to say that I appreciate what we have done for our veterans in this session of Congress, but the folks who spoke before us said they thanked the men and women who served us, and I do, too. We're going to be celebrating 9/11 tomorrow, 2001. We'll not celebrate but commemorate what happened that day. And I want to say I'm so grateful to the men and women who are currently serving in our military because they are all volunteers. These folks say they think they've been serving in the wrong places, they've been put in the wrong places. Well, I thank the good Lord many times every day that we have men and women who are willing to serve this country no matter where it is they have to serve because they believe in this country and they will go wherever it is necessary for them to serve. Now again, I want to talk more about energy now because that is what I think has created so many of the problems that we're facing. My colleagues and I were here all during the month of August while the Democrats went on vacation. They took a 5-week vacation. And in fact, they're still on vacation because this week, we're doing practically nothing here in the Congress. We have passed bills like commemorating the Kingdom of Bhutan's participation in the 2008 Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, really important things to be doing while we should be voting on the American Energy Act, the bill that would create all-of-the-above alternatives for us. And I want to recognize now my colleague from Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra) who has served his State and this country so well as a member of the Intelligence Committee, Ranking Member of the Intelligence Committee and formally chairman of the Intelligence Committee, to allow him to offer some comments on the energy issue and to bring his perspective to this.

Ms. FOXX. Would the gentleman yield?

Ms. FOXX. I agree with you. Do you remember some of the promises that were made by the then minority?

Ms. FOXX. I thank my colleague from Utah. He never disappoints. We got not only a very concise discussion of the problem but some wonderful history lessons in the process. I want to now recognize another distinguished and very eloquent person in our Congress, a member of the Republican leadership and chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, Thaddeus McCotter from Michigan. He's our second person from Michigan tonight, but Thaddeus is the kind of person who, when he speaks, everybody listens because we have to listen very closely to make sure we don't miss all of that wit and innuendo that he'll share with us. I now yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Ms. FOXX. Well, I thank my colleague, Congresswoman Bachmann from Minnesota. And I want to say she has boiled it down to a very simple fact. And I say that people in this Congress are either pro American energy or anti American energy. And I think we know the difference in the two groups of folks. The people who don't want us to produce energy in this country are anti American energy. They don't want us to be independent of these foreign countries. It is a difficult thing for me to understand, it's a difficult thing for my constituents to understand. And as our colleague, Mr. Dent from Pennsylvania, said, we want all those alternatives, but they only produce a small part of what we're going to need. Perhaps eventually we will have the technology to produce more of it. But we have to increase our supply of gas and oil and other fossil fuels to get us through this situation that we're in now until we get to those alternatives. And certainly we want them, but they're a small part right now of what we can produce. Other people who have joined us tonight include my great colleague who is on the Constitution Caucus with me and is often here speaking on the Constitution, a former teacher from the State of Utah. Now, former teachers like Congressman Bishop and I often have tendencies to speak for 50 minutes at a time, but since there are other folks here tonight, I'm hoping he is not going to speak for 50 minutes. But he is going to be very eloquent in what he shares with us. I yield to my colleague, Mr. Bishop from Utah.

Ms. FOXX. I think she said, ``I have a commonsense plan.''

Ms. FOXX. They're not for nuclear.

Ms. FOXX. And I think that what we need to do is take some of the promises that were spewed out here tonight by these folks who had the hour before us and put them next to all of those promises that were made by Speaker Pelosi and majority leader Hoyer in 2006 and say, well, if they delivered on these promises in 2006, then maybe we could believe they will deliver on these promises in the next election.

Ms. FOXX. I think that, even though we haven't seen the bill, I feel certain that I will be able to give that bill the Emperor's New Clothes Award because it will pretend to do something but it will do nothing. So I can just about bet that it's going to do nothing and will deserve the Emperor's New Clothes Award. I have the Emperor's New Clothes Award here. You can see it on the podium here, and so I'm going to give it the Emperor's New Clothes Award. I know that's what it's going to deserve.

Ms. FOXX. Thank you. I appreciate my colleague from Michigan explaining the Michigan situation. I want to make just one comment, and I'm going to ask some of my other colleagues to speak. When the Democrats took over the Congress in 2007, January 2007, we had had 54 straight months of job growth under a Republican-led Congress and a Republican administration. What they refuse to admit is, as soon as they took over the Congress, the price of gasoline started going up, and as the price of gasoline started going up, so did the unemployment rate. There is no denying these facts. They caused this problem. We've been pointing this out week after week. We're finally, we think, getting through that the Democrats are in charge of the Congress, and it is their policies that have created these problems. I want to recognize now my colleague from Pennsylvania I think who has some comments to make about this situation, and we've been suddenly joined by several people. And so I do hope that we'll have a great dialogue here, but with my classmate, my colleague from Pennsylvania, I yield to you.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, when I first came to the Congress, I was appalled at the comments that were being made on the other side. Having come from a legislative position, I was not used to people getting up and telling out-and-out boldfaced untruths. It has been a real learning experience for me, but that has continued particularly in the last 2 years with our colleagues on the other side. They stand up here and try to blame what has happened in this country in the last 2 years on the President of the United States when the Democrats are in charge of the Congress. One of the best things we accomplished during the month of August, when Republicans stood on this floor for 5 weeks while Democrats were on vacation, was call attention to the fact that the Democrats are in charge. The failed economic policies of the past 2 years belong strictly to the Democrats because they have allowed gas prices to double and they have done absolutely nothing. Now they're bringing up a bill they say that's going to do something about gas prices. Well, I think that bill will probably deserve the ``Emperor's New Clothes'' award and somebody is going to have to say that.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I thank my colleague from Utah for his great comments. You know, I like Congressman Peter Welch. We are on opposite ends of the aisle philosophically, but he is a nice guy. But I will tell you, I would like to be able to support this issue of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. However, what the American people want are lower gas prices, so they will have a chance to go and visit wild and scenic rivers. Right now, the Democrats have let the gas prices get so high, nobody can go on vacation, nobody can visit these rivers, nobody can do the kinds of things they want to do. But the good news is during the month of August, when Republicans stayed here working while the Democrats went on vacation, we alerted the American people to the fact that we are here trying to bring down prices and that the Democrats are in charge of this Congress. It is not the President of the United States who can take action. He has already taken action. He lifted the moratorium on Outer Continental Shelf drilling. Let me tell you, my colleague just before my colleague from Ohio was giving quotes, but let me give you a quote. Here is the best one, and the one that we are going to come back to over and over and over again. Speaker Pelosi, when she was asking for the majority in this House: ``Democrats have a plan to lower gas prices. Join Democrats, who are working to lower gas prices now.'' What happened? Gas prices have doubled under the Democrats. They can do their best to blame this on the Republicans. But they are in charge, and we are going to continue to inform the American people that Democrats are in charge of the Congress, that they have the ability to do something. Republicans believe in alternatives. Certainly we want solar, wind, hydro, all the alternatives. We believe in conservation. Republicans are the original conservationists. But we cannot get to those places immediately, and we can bring down the price of gasoline by providing additional supply. Democrats think they can ignore and maybe even repeal the basic law of economics, supply and demand. We have to have more supply. They are preventing that. They do not want us to bring down the price of gasoline. Why, is difficult to understand. But I say it is a simple choice for the American people this fall: Are you going to believe the people who are pro-American energy, or are you going to believe the people who are anti-American energy? The Democrats want us to remain dependent on foreign oil. They are not interested in creating additional American energy. And you can see that. Let's talk some more about quotes. Here is another one: ``This leadership team will create the most honest, most open, most ethical Congress in history.'' Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi. What have we had? Closed rules. The appropriations committees aren't even meeting, because they are scared to death that we will bring up bills that they will have to vote on that they know will pass because their Members are feeling the heat in their districts. Their constituents are hurting too. This is not a Republican issue. It is not a Democratic issue. It is an American issue. We begged our Democratic colleagues to come and join us, vote with us, speak to the American people about this. She knows they will vote for additional American energy. There is no bill on the floor this week. Why? Because her caucus is so divided. The pro- American energy Democrats want to vote on increasing supply. They are not being allowed to do that. Let me speak about the farm bill just a little bit. Ethanol is creating a major problem for us in this country. We are not allowing ethanol to come in here from other countries. We could get it in here cheaper than we are producing it in this country. They will not allow that. That was part of that farm bill that the President vetoed.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. I would like to thank Chairman Brady, Ranking Member Ehlers for bringing this bill to the floor and for their kind comments. What they have said is what we are attempting to do, which is to bring an important innovative and needed resolution to the House for consideration. I would also like to thank Alec Hoppes of the Committee on House Administration for working with my staff to bring this bill forward. A separate thank you to Mr. Ehlers for offering his amendment which makes the bill an even better bill by including additional services to be made available to House employees. While many private companies, corporations, and State governments like Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, South Dakota, and Nebraska give the option of accessing employee pay stubs electronically, e-stubs, the U.S. House of Representatives does not. Safer than receiving pay stubs by snail mail, electronically accessing pay stubs saves money and an immeasurable amount of paper. H. Res. 1207 would simply direct the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives to take the steps necessary to provide House Members, their staff, committee staff, legislative counsel, Sergeant at Arms employees, and all other employees whose pay is disbursed by the Chief Administrative Officer of the House the option of accessing their pay stub electronically. Moving forward with technological advances means going paperless with pay stubs as so many employers have already done. I urge my colleagues in supporting this nonpartisan sensible resolution and join with me in choosing to access our pay stubs electronically, and I ask my colleagues to vote for the bill.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Thank you, Congressman Ehlers. I just want to add my comments to the ones that you've made. I think that while I'm very much in support of this bill and we want to do whatever we can to help our employees bridge the gap between their military pay and the pay that they would receive here, I think one of the best things we can do for all the citizens of this country is to bring down the high price of gasoline, and that would serve everybody very well. We can do that. We know we can do that. All we have to do is announce that we are going to expand the supply of American-made energy, and we will immediately bring down the price. That will help all of our citizens, which is what every Member of this Congress should be doing. We will get to the alternatives. We can be completely energy independent in this country, but we can't do it overnight. In order to get to energy independence with alternatives, which Republicans support, we must supply more gas and oil in the short term, and I support those efforts. I ask the Speaker, again, to bring forth the American Energy Act so that we can have an up-or-down vote on it and let the American people know are you a pro-American energy person or an anti-American energy person. That's the issue that we're facing.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. I thank my colleague from Tennessee for yielding. I agree that this is a problematic program, and I agree also with my colleague from Florida, Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite, that what I am hearing at home is from truckers in my district, as well as average citizens, who are complaining about the high price of gasoline. And of course the truckers are complaining about the high price of diesel. And they want to know why is this Congress not doing something about the high price of gasoline. As we have said often on this floor, Republicans are ready to vote on an all-of-the-above strategy to bring down the price of gasoline. And we know Americans are going to be facing very high prices for fuel oil pretty soon. So we want to do something about the high price of gasoline by bringing up the American Energy Act and having an up-or- down vote on what to do about bringing down the price of gasoline by providing more supply. As I have said many times on this floor, the Republicans are pro- American energy. We want to see more American energy supplied to the American consumers. We want more oil, we want alternatives, but we can't get energy independent without drilling for more oil and having a segue into the alternatives. We believe that Democrats are anti- American energy, and anti-American energy is going to keep the price of gasoline very high. It's also going to make the price of fuel oil this winter very high, which is going to hurt all of our citizens. So we want to help our truckers, we want to help our seniors, we want to help other agencies who are struggling with this as well as our average citizens. Bring down the price of gasoline and bring down the price of fuel oil by bringing the American Energy Act for a vote and allow us to have an up-or-down vote. Do we drill in ANWR? Do we drill in the Outer Continental Shelf? Or do we allow the Democrats to continue to play games with this Congress?

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. I want to thank my colleague from Ohio who has been leading this Special Order tonight for giving me this opportunity. I hope to have a chart tomorrow that is going to show this better, but I am going to describe very briefly something that I think we need to be talking about. I am encouraged by the Speaker saying that we are going to have a vote on an energy plan. I am concerned that it is not going to be the vote on the American Energy Act. We need a straight up or down vote I think on increasing American-made energy. I have said over and over again on the floor, I am pro-American made energy and I think that is what we need to be doing. I was very proud to be here during August when the seats were filled with citizens who were here visiting. There was no mike, there was no C-SPAN, there were no lights on, but we had a great time talking to the American people and I think it showed our Republic at work. People took action, contacted their Members and said we need to do something about it. But recently we have heard about how the unemployment rate has gone up, and our colleague from Texas, Judge Carter, talked about jobs going overseas. I think we also have seen that as the gas prices have gone up, we have also seen unemployment go up. Again, while I don't have a chart, I am going to make do with the chart that I have here. When the Democrats took over in 2007, we had an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, one of the lowest in the history of this county. We had 54 straight months of job increases. What happened? By 11-07, the unemployment rate had gone up, which was about right here, as gas prices started going up. When gas prices got to here, the unemployment rate had gone up to 5 percent. Gas prices in May were up to $3.84 and the unemployment rate went above 5 percent. The unemployment rate is now at 6 percent, and that is where gas prices went, there. I agree with Judge Carter. We need to look at why jobs are going overseas, and in large part it is because of the gas prices. The American people simply don't understand why the Democrats are so anti- American energy. If we will drill in ANWR, if we will drill off the coast, we can bring down the price of gasoline in this country. We can bring down the price of home heating oil, which is going to be hurting everybody in this country in the very next few days, because it is hurting them. I yield back to my colleague who began this so he can close the evening.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Well, thank you, Mr. Gingrey. Thank you, Congressman Gingrey, for your leadership on this hour tonight as well as for your help earlier this year in August for what we were doing in calling to the attention of the American people those who are creating this problem with the high gas prices. I want to add some comments to my colleague from Florida's comments about drilling in ANWR. I had the great opportunity to go to Alaska in 2005. I'd been there once before just purely as a tourist, but I went as a Member of Congress in 2005. I also saw Prudhoe Bay. I also saw Valdez. I also flew over ANWR. I want to add my comments and support to the things that he has said. When the ANWR was set aside, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge--I think it was in the early 70s--it was specific in the bill that some of that land would be set aside for oil drilling because people knew then that there was oil there and that it should be drilled for, but since that time, the Democrats have time and time and time again stopped us from drilling there. A bill passed in 1995--it passed both Houses--to allow drilling in ANWR, and President Clinton vetoed it. Since then, many, many times we have brought up votes, and the Democrats have consistently voted against drilling there. He is absolutely right. The ANWR area is nothing but a frozen desert. Where we would be drilling is a frozen desert. It looks gray like that picture he showed. We saw it from the air. It looks exactly like that. It is akin to the deserts of Saudi Arabia, but it happens to be a frozen desert. You know, the Lord gave us all of the resources, I believe, in this world that we need, but they just don't always look like they're the resources that we need, and sometimes they're tied up in unusual places, but the way I've described it to my colleagues and to my constituents is the way that I have heard it described as to the area that we would drill in ANWR, the 2000 acres: A postage stamp is to a football field as those 2000 acres are to the State of Alaska. It's a minuscule part of the State of Alaska, and it would do no harm. Also, there is one thing that my colleague Mr. Keller didn't mention. He did show a wonderful map of how close the pipeline is now to that area. We're told that, in 18 months, we could have oil flowing from ANWR into the Alaska pipeline. In fact, it's going to be necessary to keep oil flowing into that pipeline or the pipeline is going to have to be shut down. So the Democrats continue to say it's going to take 10 years. It will only take 10 years if they and their trial lawyer friends and their radical environmentalist friends continue to bring lawsuits. What takes so long for us to create the energy that we need in this country are the lawsuits that keep getting filed. We could do this. We could be getting gas from the Outer Continental Shelf, I understand, in 3 years if we don't have to continually fight lawsuits to get this energy. During the period of time when we were debating this in August--when the cameras were turned off, when the lights were turned off, when the mikes were turned off--I said that we have a choice to make here in the Congress. We are either going to be pro-American energy or anti- American energy. The Republicans in this Congress are pro-American energy. There is no reason why this country cannot be completely energy independent. Now, today, we've emphasized drilling. By the way, let me make one other comment about the drilling in Alaska that nobody has made. I saw this again when I was there. You know, when you see the pictures of ANWR again, you see caribou grazing in a meadow with daisies blooming. That's, again, not the area that we would be drilling in. There are no caribou. There are living things there, I'm sure, in that frozen wasteland but not anything that you can see. The other things that you see are these oil rigs like you see in Texas, these things that go up and down, and they're not very attractive armaments or implements, but when we saw the oil wells in Alaska, for the life of me, you couldn't have known that those were oil wells. They are simple boxes, maybe a little bit taller than I am, and they have valves on them. They look sort of like oxygen tanks with some valves on them, but they're not unattractive at all. They're in little boxes that sort of look like cabanas. We saw a whole row of about, I'd say, 100 or 150 of them. You would have no idea. They might be refrigerators for all one knows, but they're not unattractive at all. Again, the radical environmentalists want us to think that we're going to be assaulted visually and that the environment is going to be assaulted by our drilling in ANWR. They want us to do nothing. I think the comment by the gentleman from the Sierra Club is very typical of what they feel. They don't want us to have cheap gas because they don't want us to use the good resources that the Lord gave us.

Ms. FOXX. Sure.

Ms. FOXX. Well, I thank my colleague from Georgia for mentioning that because I wanted to also mention that Republicans have consistently said we're for all of the above. We're not just for drilling in ANWR, just for drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf. We want all of the alternatives. We want to be energy independent. We certainly believe in advancing solar, wind, hydro, and whatever other sources there are out there. Most of us believe that, in a short period of time, we'll be completely independent of many fossil fuels. We have coal that we could be using, clean-burning coal. We're the Saudi Arabia of coal. The interesting thing about the fact that the Democrats don't want us to drill is that they say they want alternatives, but they don't fund alternatives. Our bill that would allow for drilling would take the money that the Federal Government would get from those leases, and it would use that money to develop alternatives. While they've authorized programs for alternatives, they haven't funded them. So they're being very disingenuous when they say they want alternatives, because they are not allowing us to have alternatives because they're not funding them. It's a program that, I think, deserves the emperor's new clothes' award.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, It's been 5 long weeks since the Democrat majority adjourned for a summer recess without passing legislation to bring down the cost of gas. But House Republicans have been on the floor of the House discussing solutions to our Nation's energy crisis anyway. We've been engaging average Americans on this vital issue and we won't stop the debate until Congress takes up real, comprehensive energy legislation. Republicans have offered a plan--the American Energy Act--to increase the production of American-made energy in an environmentally safe way. Is it too much to ask for a simple up or down vote on this bill? Isn't this supposed to be the people's Congress? Today I call on the Speaker to bring this bill up for a vote so we can bring the price down at the pump.