John Garamendi

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. It's time for America to end its addiction to oil. Our national security is at stake. We spend $1 billion a day sending our money overseas to the oil companies, many of them owned by foreign nations, some of whom are not at all friendly to America. I hear a lot of whining from the Republican side of the aisle about, well, we can't do that. Well, we cannot continue doing what we're doing today. We see the risks--$20 billion worth of economy destroyed along the gulf coast. Big Oil has had its day, $12 billion. You want to save some money on that side, let's retrieve the $12 billion subsidy that we send to the oil industry every day. It's time for us to move to renewables. It's time for us to protect our coasts. On the west coast, we do not want new Federal oil leases, and therefore the West Coast Oil Protection Act must be passed. No more Federal leases off the west coast. Move to renewables. Let's retrieve our $12 billion annual subsidy that we give to Big Oil. Let's not send $1 billion a day of our money to the foreign countries.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Let's see, that fellow Murphy was right. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. And BP didn't plan for what could go wrong. In fact, they ignored it. They put together an application that just ignored the possibility of the worst case. In situations like this, we must force the industry to assume the worst case will happen. We have seen it. No more. Mr. Speaker, thank you so much for the time. I yield back.

Mr. GARAMENDI. About 18 months ago they sat here and they said, ``Drill, baby, drill''? I heard the same thing tonight. They said, End the moratorium on deepwater drilling. Drill. And I am going, You want another oil spill? Thirty-eight in the last 18 years in the gulf plus this big one. That's not the solution. The solution lies in moving to a new energy source, the green technologies, the renewable energy, so that it is the sun that gives us the power in the future so that that young lady doesn't have to face the extraordinary impact that climate change will bring. We have to move away from carbon-based fuels. Would you agree with that?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you so very much for your eloquent comments on what has happened, what we must do. I notice that sitting next to you is a Representative from the other side of the American continent, Representative Moran from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much, Representative Lee. And thank you for all the work you did dealing with that problem in the San Francisco Bay when the ship hit the bridge. We had our own little spill over there. I had pulled this placard up with the pictures of the oil and the birds. And I didn't realize until you started talking about the escalation and the estimate of the amount of oil that spilled--my staff put this together actually about 4 weeks ago--and they said by Father's Day it would be the worst spill ever. At 60,000 barrels, it was actually the worst spill after about the first 3 weeks. So in any case, we have got a real serious problem there. I notice that I have fortunately been joined by three Representatives from a wide, diverse part of America. From the west coast, in the great metropolitan area of Los Angeles, Congresswoman Watson, if you would care to join us.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Tonko, thank you once again for being both eloquent and right on the target of the issue that's out before us. When you talk about the nature of the spill, this map is a recent one from the US Geological Survey and NOAA--actually, NOAA. And if you look at the size of that spill, it looks like it's getting about the same size as Louisiana itself, and of course, the Gulf Coast along here is seriously threatened and the extraordinary wildlife and habitat of the Mississippi Delta is at risk and already seriously hurt by it. You mentioned BP--and maybe, maybe, but I'm not convinced that BP has actually gotten the message that their first task is to clean up. Their $50 million PR campaign, I've seen some of the ads. If they had spent that $50 million on the proper blowout protector and actually had put in the most modern protection at the well head and not cut the corners, as is becoming increasingly obvious, in the drilling techniques and in securing the well itself, they wouldn't have to be spending multiple billions of dollars cleaning up. They absolutely must put that money into a trust fund. BP is not to be trusted to adequately distribute that money to the people that have been harmed. So the President is right. Create the trust fund. Put an independent party in charge of it and let the money go to those that have been seriously harmed by this, as well as the wildlife and the damages there. By the way, we really ought to pass a bill to increase the liability limit. And I know that bill will be moving through here. Joining us from--well, my neighbor in California, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who about 2 years ago, you experienced an oil spill on the shores of your district. Representative Lee, thank you for joining us.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, I rise today to engage in a colloquy with my colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle, who will be along shortly, but before I launch into the issue of national security and of our dependence on oil, I would like to just address what my colleague from California was talking about, give an example of why disclosure is important, and would like to recognize the fact that it was the Republican Party mantra for nearly 20 years that the solution to campaign finance reform was disclosure. Now, apparently, they want to stand up and say they don't want disclosure after having, for 20 years, said they want disclosure. Go figure. The fact of the matter is, in California, in an election held just 2 weeks ago, disclosure under the State law has played a critical role in stopping Pacific Gas & Electric from ripping off the ratepayers of California and has played a critical role in stopping Mercury Insurance Company from doing the same to their customers. The California law required disclosure. PG&E spent over $40 million in, what I think, was blatant, false advertising, and at the bottom of each one of those ads, they had to read, ``Paid for by Pacific Gas & Electric.'' Similarly, with Mercury Insurance Company, the public took one look at those ads, which they saw repeatedly, and said, Oh, that's who's behind it. Well, I'm a ``no'' vote. Disclosure works, my Republican colleagues. It's what you wanted for more than 20 years, and now that you're about to get it, you don't want it. Well, I think not. National Security and Dependence on Oil Let me go to the subject at hand that we are to talk about this evening, which is really the issue of national security. For more than 40 years now, America has talked about energy independence, about literally breaking our addiction to oil. America is addicted to oil. We consume more than 25 percent of all the world's oil supply. Yet we have a very small portion of the reserves. We are literally sending overseas $1 billion a day, with much of it going to countries that are actively supporting people who don't agree with us and people who are actually--well, perhaps--supporting terrorist organizations. Certainly, our national security is dependent upon going after the terrorists, and no one is going to do it more aggressively than the Obama administration, which has increased the antiterrorist activities of this Nation far more than during the Bush period--but back to oil. If we doubt for a moment that our Nation's security is at risk with the current way in which we produce oil, you only need to take a look at the Gulf of Mexico. In the last 20 years, there have been more than 38 blowouts, none of them as large as what we now see with the Deepwater Horizon situation. Nonetheless, it is, in fact, a common occurrence, which has averaged more than one and a half per year over the last 20 years. So is it safe? Well, not so much. We just heard that saying from our Republican colleagues that the moratorium imposed by the President is somehow wrong. Hello? When two Air Force jets crashed within a month several years ago, the United States Air Force did what it calls a ``stand- down.'' They grounded the entire fleet until they found out what was wrong. They corrected the problem and went on their way. That is exactly what President Obama has done. He did a stand-down of additional drilling in the Gulf of Mexico because, hey, there is a problem. This is an extraordinary blowout, one that is now exceeding everybody's estimate. The result: Oil on the beaches, dead birds and, according to The Wall Street Journal today, hmm, ``Oil Spill Delivers Recovery Setback.'' This is specifically looking at the real estate industry along the gulf coast. They cite five or six projects here that may be jeopardized because of the oil spill. This is a national security issue in the sense of how we get our oil, in the sense of our addiction to oil. It is time for us to recognize that. Because we have, in the past, consumed all of the easy oil, we are now going to the most difficult, the most dangerous, and the most risky places in the world, certainly to the deep waters. The Deepwater Horizon blowout is, perhaps, as much as 60,000 barrels a day. This is a very serious problem, and it deserves our attention. Last night, the President spoke to the problem and committed his administration and this Nation to everything necessary to clean up and to plug the well. My colleagues on the Republican side mentioned that, just 37 days ago, they started the relief. That's not true. They actually started the relief program on the very day of the blowout. It took a while to get it going, and it is going to take even longer to get it done. So where are we going to go with this? I've been joined by a couple of my colleagues today, and I would like to ask my colleague from California, Congresswoman Judy Chu, to give us her thoughts on this situation.

Mr. GARAMENDI. You know, that's really, really interesting. And if I recall the vote, when that was on the floor, the Republicans voted against that. They didn't vote for one of the most important conservation programs we have that not only would save all that energy, but help each homeowner's utility bill. Go figure. You mentioned this. We've got to go back here because I've got to answer this question. Please help me with this. Who gets the most subsidies; solar, algae, wave, wind, or oil?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Chu, thank you very much for your statement and also mentioning the end of new oil leases off the West Coast. We call it the West Coast Ocean Protection Act. And it would prohibit new leases off the West Coast of the United States. This is a $32 billion a year industry along the West Coast--California, Oregon, and Washington--that is dependent upon the pristine nature of that coast. In addition to that, the West Coast has a much different environment than the Gulf of Mexico. It's downright dangerous out there. High waves, high wind, and earthquakes, and a lot of other things that we'd say, Oh, that's not a good place to be drilling. It's not enough to talk about the West Coast. I see my colleague from New York here, and I know that he, too, along with the residents of New York, are terribly interested in what is happening and in our natural energy policies and our move away from oil. Congressman Tonko, if you would, please join us.

Mr. GARAMENDI. I wasn't here at that time. I got a special election last November. You are telling me that it was just less than a year ago?

Mr. GARAMENDI. The answer is oil. If you take a look, 2002 to 2008, where did the subsidies go? Well, the oil industry got over $70 billion of taxpayer money in direct tax subsidies, $72 billion. The green renewable energy got $12.2 billion over that same period of time, 2002 to 2008. And in addition to that, the ethanol industry got $16.8 billion. So we really, if we took this money, this subsidy, $70 billion over a 6-year period and shifted it over to this side, particularly up here to the renewable energy--this is solar, wind, advanced biofuels like algae and the rest--where would we be? Where would that young lady's future be? Renewable energy of all kinds. You shift the subsidies around. Is that possible? Can we do that? What do you think?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Duh. Why didn't the Republicans vote for that? It makes eminent sense.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Moran, how correct you are: never let this happen again. It is not just drill, baby, drill. What we have seen is spill, baby, spill. There have been 38 blowouts in the gulf between 1992 until 2009. You used the words irresponsible actions, corners being cut, and decisions being made that led to this blowout. You mentioned the $500,000 that could have been spent and should have been spent on an acoustical switch. I was talking to one of our colleagues here who was a former Federal prosecutor, and the colleague said to me, if there is evidence that two of the BP executives worked together to circumvent a law or regulation, it may very well be criminal conspiracy. To that end, the Obama Justice Department has initiated a criminal probe of BP's actions with regard to this spill. We know that this is not the first time BP has been involved in a serious accident that has cost lives: 11 at this drilling rig; at their refinery in Texas, another large number of employees were both injured and killed. It is time for this industry to get its act together. I know that the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) has been involved in this for very long. If you would pick this up and carry us for a little while.

Mr. GARAMENDI. I am going to let people ponder that for a few minutes while I turn to the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr) who has been a champion of protecting the ocean for many, many years.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Congressman Farr, thank you very much. I am going to go back and answer the question about where did the Federal subsidies go in just a moment, but I see our colleague, Representative Jackie Speier, arrived with the next generation that is going to have to live with our decisions that we are making right now with regard to climate change and the extraordinary consumption of carbon-based fuels.

Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might interrupt you for a second, well, maybe more than a second. We prepared a little diagram here, and let's consider this a quiz for the American public. Which of these energy sources gets the most Federal subsidies? Would it be solar, maybe the algae, the new technologies of algae-producing fuel? How about wave action? Or maybe it is wind? Or maybe it is the oil industry? Which ones?

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. I was going to speak on a subject, and I will, but after listening to the previous speaker, I think a few comments are in order. I think it was that great socialist, Richard Nixon, that happened to sign the Environmental Protection Act and the Clean Air Act. So maybe that's what you're talking about. But to make the argument that somehow the environmental movement is responsible for the demise of American industries is just fallacious. It's a stretch of the imagination. In fact, there are many, many things involved, including free trade acts and international competition that's coming our way. And if my colleague on the Republican side was so interested in this, he would have voted on the bill last week that would have brought back foreign earnings and closed the tax loopholes on those American corporations that have gone offshore--instead, bringing those back. I think, if I recall correctly, we didn't get one Republican vote on closing those loopholes that have allowed American corporations to offshore jobs. But I really wanted to take up another issue, and I will do so now. I rise today to express my support for the right that all nations have to secure their borders in self-defense. Our close ally, Israel, shares a border with Gaza, a region controlled by the terrorist organization Hamas. Since 2001, thousands of rockets have been launched from Gaza into Israel, killing more than a dozen Israelis and wounding hundreds and terrifying that nation. We also know that Hamas receives material support from Iran, an international pariah that oppresses its own citizens while funding terrorist organizations throughout the region. For all these reasons, Israel has chosen to restrict imports to the Gaza Strip, insisting that all deliveries must be inspected to make sure that weapons are not smuggled into the territory. Today, I call on Hamas leadership to reject their past support for terrorism, renounce violence, and embrace the two-state solution so that Israelis and Palestinians can live their lives freely, in peace, and security. I also call on all powers in the Middle East to value human life and to do everything to avoid bloodshed. The loss of life in the flotilla incident was tragic, and I look forward to the findings of the recently formed Independent Public Commission, which will examine such issues as the naval blockade of Gaza, actions taken by the commandos during the flotilla incident, and the identities and conduct of the organizers and participants in the flotilla. In the meantime, we must focus on avoiding escalation, preventing more violence, and continuing the peace process. The greatest tragedy would be to allow the flotilla incident to end the region's prospects for peace.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, we just heard a very interesting 1-minute presentation that didn't make much sense. We have a world of hurt. People are unemployed. People are going to lose their jobs in local governments and State governments, and teachers are going to be laid off across this Nation. And to simply say we need fiscal discipline doesn't solve this problem. The Democrats put out, without one Republican vote, an American Recovery Act a little more than a year ago, and it really worked. People did get jobs. Things were done. Infrastructure was built. We need to continue that, and we need to keep people working. Yes, we need fiscal discipline, and I would be welcoming any idea from the Republicans on how they are going to do that other than simply say there ought to be. Yes, there ought to be, but we need right now to put people to work. There is a program that's available that will be coming up that will stimulate small businesses. It puts forward major programs for the Small Business Administration to support loans. We also need to support the local governments. Yes, it's going to cost us some money in the short term, but we have a choice: We are either going to put people to work or we are going to have welfare. I want people to work. I want them to be taxpayers.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Congressman Farr, thank you for your leadership on this. This is not a new issue for you. I remember your days in the California legislature, where you carried such legislation. You do represent one of the most pristine and one of the most precious parts of the California coast, the Monterey Bay. Therefore, it's appropriate for you to carry and it's appropriate for this Congress to act on this resolution, recognizing World Ocean Day and, beyond that, recognizing the critical importance of oceans to all of us. It is the birthplace of life. It is the place where we find our climate, our oxygen, a lot of our food, and our commerce. It's also the place that we have over the years trashed. Trash is flowing into the ocean, sewage is flowing into the ocean, pollution of all kinds, and now the ultimate pollution of a blowout of an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. It's time for us to not only pay attention to the ocean, which this resolution does; it's also time for us to protect the oceans. We know that climate change, the increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is leading to the acidification of oceans. And that will kill much of the life of the ocean if it were to continue to increase. What are we doing about it? Well, we are recognizing it today. We will take this as step one. Yes, the administration needs to be forthcoming with information. But we also need to rein in the oil industry and make sure that any drilling in the oceans is done in a maximum safe way. For the west coast, I have authored the West Coast Ocean Protection Act that would prohibit new leases off the west coast of California, Oregon, and Washington. That is the maximum protection. More needs to be done. This is a starting point. This is a recognition of our responsibility as Members of Congress to take action not only with a resolution recognizing this day, but with solid laws that require the protection and provide the protection necessary for the ocean.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. I am sure the admiral is able to read the amendment and would understand it doesn't go into effect until the command structure, including the President of the United States, says it is okay and the review has been completed.

Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank my colleague from New Jersey for yielding. I was elected in a special election last November. One of my opponents was an extraordinary young man, an African American. Raised in Fairfield, California, he went to West Point. Very successful, he served in Iraq two tours and came out a captain. He took his team there twice. On both those tours, all of them were in very dangerous circumstances. He came home. He came back to America and could no longer tolerate the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. He came out of the closet. An extraordinary loss. Fortunately, I had another idea about who might be the next Congressman. But this man could have been a general leading the entire Army, an extraordinary person. We lost that talent because of this policy, and it is time for this policy to end. If only the President had the power that Truman did when he said, enough already, we are going to integrate the Army. We need to complete that integration. The Murphy amendment is absolutely essential. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I'm astounded. I'm astounded with what I just heard. This is a problem that was actually created nearly a decade ago by the Republicans as they were playing financial games. And to stand here on the floor and say this has to be fixed now, yes, indeed it does, but indeed it is the Republican Party that has prevented us from fixing it. That's going on right now as the negotiations take place on the American Jobs Act and corporate tax loophole closing-- closing the tax loopholes on corporations that are in fact shipping jobs offshore. I would ask the Republicans in this House to stand with us and do a permanent fix. It can be done. But it's not going to be easy. We need to raise the tax revenue. A good place to raise it is from those corporations that are shifting jobs offshore.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. The gentleman from Ohio just touched on something that is really a serious issue, and I want to just drive home, because you said something that I want to take back to California. As I said earlier, we have some of the biggest wind farms in the Nation. Texas has done some that are a little bit bigger, but I was out touring there with a couple of the companies that are building those things. I said, ``Well, this is interesting. Where is it made?'' It turns out that the tower, steel tower, was made in Korea. Yet just across the river 20 miles away is a Korean company's steel mill that could have been made in California, but instead they shipped it in from Korea. The big blades and the gears in the wind turbines all have been made overseas. And I told the company, ``Enough. You will have no more support from me for one more wind turbine in this area until you start buying America.'' They said, They don't make it in America. Mr. Driehaus, you and I need to get together and I need to know where those gears are, because I'm going to go back to California and tell them, I know where you can get a gear. That may be one one-hundredth of this machine, but by God you are going to make it in America and you are going to build it in America because, one more thing, our tax dollars are subsidizing that industry. And if our tax dollars are going to be used to subsidize any industry, they are going to be made in America. And we are going to help out Ohio by making that happen. I've had enough of these jobs being shipped offshore by corporations that get a tax break, get a subsidy from the American taxpayers so that they can send our jobs overseas. Enough. And this week we are going to see the kind of division that you talked about, Mr. Tonko, because the Republicans are going to be held accountable. Are they going to stand with the corporations that have been shifting jobs overseas and continuing that tax loophole? Or are they going to stand with the American public and bring the jobs back to America and close those loopholes?

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, for my colleagues' information, before this week is over, we will be voting on jobs for America and cutting corporate tax loopholes that are sending jobs offshore. In the final days of the Bush administration, they asked for $700 billion to bail out the financial industry; 81 percent of that money went to the large Wall Street banks who managed, in the next year, to reduce their loans to small businesses, while just a small percentage of it went to local community banks who actually increased their loans to small businesses. There's something to be learned here. The act that we'll be voting on, H.R. 4213, closes those tax loopholes, taxes the Wall Street barons that have ripped off our money, and brings jobs to America through several different programs; 250,000 summer jobs, R&D tax credits, other programs to encourage small businesses. We should, with the support of the Republicans, pass H.R. 4213, the American jobs and tax loophole closing programs.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, before this week is over, we will vote to create jobs in America. We will do this by discouraging the outsourcing of American jobs and supporting our nation's workforce and small businesses. For too long, large corporations have exploited tax loopholes by slipping between foreign and U.S. tax codes. This system permits big businesses to evade their responsibilities and shifts the tax burden onto everyone else. It also encourages big businesses to move jobs from the U.S. to other countries. This begs the question: Why would we perpetuate a system that encourages the outsourcing of American jobs? This Democratic-led Congress is saying no more. Big businesses have to pay their fair share just like the rest of us. This Congress is lifting the tax burden off the middle class still struggling from the Bush recession. We are leading a recovery of shared prosperity. We are bringing jobs to America through targeted tax cuts and smart investments: this includes tax credits for research and development, support for 250,000 summer jobs, and tax incentives for small businesses in low-income communities and in the hard-hit construction sector. We should, hopefully with the support of the Republicans, pass H.R. 4213, close harmful corporate tax loopholes, and create jobs right here, in America, right now.