John Hall

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. I did fine, and they did great. You can imagine in a kayak where it is arms and upper body, they can go where they want to go very fast; faster than I can. It is incredibly therapeutic. It wasn't not Olympic competition, but it is a perfect example of what you were talking about in terms of the therapeutic value of that program. I am honored to be here with my distinguished colleagues in the House supporting Senate bill S. 3023, the Veterans' Benefits Improvement Act of 2008. And I am especially grateful that it contains all of the provisions from our Veterans' Disability Benefits Claims Modernization Act which I and other members of the subcommittee, including the ranking member, Congressman Lamborn, worked incredibly hard on in the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. The bill really grew from the testimony of VSOs, individual veterans, employees of the VA, various stakeholders on these issues who came for a year to hearings and round tables and brought us their ideas. I would like to thank all of them for their contribution. At the end of July I was told that the backlog of claims had reached 838,000 which is a shameful situation for our country which has so much technological and medical capability and capacity, to not be able to keep up with the combination of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at the same time there is the maturing of our Vietnam veterans. And we still have vets from other conflicts who are coming in for care at the same time. The backlog was predicted to reach a million cases by next year if we didn't do this, and so I am happy we are moving forward and not letting that happen. This Congress has done, in a week in which we had the financial disaster dropped in our lap, and I was afraid that this might all get put on the back burner, I am pleased that the staff worked as hard as they did, both House and Senate staff, full committee and subcommittee staff, and I think it is the right thing to do, not to make our veterans wait for another 6 months because we are going to a new Congress and we have to resubmit the whole thing. Today's VA claims processing system is labor-intensive and paper based. It relies on an archaic rating schedule and outdated medical concepts, practices that have been allowed to continue for too long unchecked and unaddressed. Too many opportunities for change have been missed, too many reports after reports have been shelved to collect dust. This bill will comprehensively repair the VA disability benefits' system so that veterans and their survivors can receive accurate and timely assistance. The VA schedule by which veterans are rated for their disabilities needs to adhere to more modern medical practices and disability concepts, and should consider such factors as quality of life and earnings capacity. VA management issues need to be addressed and inefficiencies corrected to enhance quality and performance. S. 3023 outlines procedures so veterans can expedite their claims when they have included all of the available evidence. It also codifies the VA's ability to render temporary ratings for undisputed, disabling severe injuries or illnesses. Furthermore, the information technology enhancements in the bill require the VA to institute electronic systems and computer softwares that are commonplace in other aspects of our society. And I compliment Ranking Member Lamborn for his consistent advocacy of that portion in particular of this bill. Veterans should benefit from the modern technological age that we live in, and an environmentally friendly, paperless process that can award claims in real-time, allow two offices that specialize in different aspects of the medical claims to be looking at the information at the same time. Applying for VA benefits should be as easy as online banking, and that is what we are aiming to make it. This bill also calls upon the VA to create a survivors' office. Although the VA's motto is ``to care for widows and orphans,'' it has never lived up to that visionary idealism of President Lincoln. That omission is rectified in this bill, especially important while so many military members are giving their lives in service to this country and leaving behind their beloved families. In another measure to support survivors, the bill allows for the survivor to become the claimant when the veteran dies so that the pending claim can be adjudicated. It is a travesty that so many veterans die worried that they will be unable to provide for their families. Widows and dependent children are left aggrieved and abandoned by the country their spouses faithfully served just at the time when they are concerned about so many other adjustments being made in their lives and that their grief is still being processed at the same time. A properly operating benefits system could prevent the ills that might befall a veteran. We must fight against suicide, divorce, bankruptcy, stigma, poverty and homelessness among our Nation's disabled veterans by providing to them the quality of life needs, providing them with parity among their peers, and elimination of stress they encounter in an adversarial and confusing claims processing system. I envision S. 3023 as putting the VA on a 21st century track to lead the way to decisions that are made quickly and correctly. We must treat our Nation's veterans and their families with the dignity and respect that they deserve while restoring their faith in us. We must end the turmoil, alienation and injustice that they feel when they file a claim for their earned VA benefits by acting now. I urge all Members to support this bill. I thank both Ranking Member Buyer and Chairman Filner.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, there are millions of Americans across this country who have lost a house, lost a job or lost their investments through no fault of their own, and they don't have a rich corporate bonus. They don't have a golden parachute or a bailout plan. The idea that the well-paid executives who contributed so much to put us in this mess could walk away, while making millions of dollars, getting bailed out by the same taxpayers who are struggling thanks to their negligence, is totally absurd and cannot be allowed. Whatever we do this week, as we help out Wall Street, we should throw a lifeline to Main Street where people are really hurting. We need to help them keep their homes, hold on to their jobs and make ends meet. We must act to ensure that these problems never happen again by including rigorous new government control and oversight into all of the securities and institutions that have been operating outside regulatory authority. If we act in the right way, I have no doubt we can pass a bill that will rescue the economy and at the same time prevent this same mess from happening again. We must pass the right bill.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Thank you, Congressman. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor my distinguished colleague from New York, Congressman Mike McNulty. After nearly 40 years of public service, Congressman McNulty is retiring, and he will be sorely missed. I will resist the suggestion of one of our fellow New York delegation members to sing that he's still the one, but I will say that, at the age of 22, he was elected to serve as supervisor of Green Island, making him at the time the youngest supervisor in New York. Since, he has served as mayor, as assemblyman and, for the last 20 years, as a Member of Congress. While his role may have changed, his dedication to fighting for the interests of New York's capital region have remained constant. Mike is known as a worker. I've observed that in the short time that I've been here. As the chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security, he has worked to make sure that our seniors receive the benefits that they need in economic times where that effort is even more important than ever and when we can see how important it was that he was there to help protect against privatizing that Social Security. I have only been honored to serve one term in this body with Mike, but have already been impressed by the spirit of cooperation and of teamwork that he brings to the New York delegation. In addition to ``gentleman,'' I would add the word ``statesman.'' Some of us get more excited about issues. That doesn't mean that you care more or less about them, but Mike's temperament has impressed me in its evenness and in its equanimity. I think that we could use a good dose of that from time to time here because we on both sides of the aisle and even in our own caucus have strong feelings about the issues, about the critical, important and immediate issues that we face. So I will be sad that at the end of this session and that at the end of this term we'll be saying goodbye to Congressman McNulty, but I'm glad that he is here now, this week especially and as we go forward through the rest of this term, to help us deal with the serious issues we have on our plate and that the country is facing in these difficult times with the thoughtfulness, with the work ethic and with the equanimity and level-headedness that he brings to the Congress. I wish you, Congressman McNulty, the best of luck and good times as you retire from the House to return home to your family and to your district. It has been an honor to serve with you. I yield back.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, the last few days have clearly demonstrated that the troubled state that our economy is in is more serious than we thought. The Bush administration's mismanagement of the American economy has officially caused a housing crisis to snowball and jeopardize the entire economy. Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, established companies that survived the Great Depression, have declared bankruptcy or have been sold off to survive. Both companies employ thousands of people from my district, the 19th District of New York, and no one seems to know what will happen to these workers or to their families. But it's not just Wall Street suffering. Wages have stagnated; expenses continue to rise. American families can no longer afford to buy necessities, much less to invest in the future. Mr. Speaker, when President Bush took office 8 years ago, he inherited a flourishing economy and a record budget surplus. Now, as he leaves office 8 years later with 8 years of misrule and a lack of oversight, those days are clearly gone. I hope we make the right choice for our next President and elect Barack Obama, who will understand how to deal with the complexities of our economic situation.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, I agree that we need energy independence. All Americans agree that we need energy independence. There used to be bipartisanship on this issue. In fact, it was the first President Bush who proposed an executive order banning drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. We've had eight budgets sent here by President George W. Bush, who's his son. Every one of them, including this February when we got the budget for fiscal 2009, included language banning drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. Somebody got a poll this last spring, and the prices went up because they're being manipulated by oil companies and OPEC, and we wind up with a situation where it becomes a campaign issue that was made into a partisan issue by, I believe, the party that had originally supported these things, whose President sent us eight budgets with banning the Outer Continental Shelf language. So I would just say calm down. We are working on a genuine, all-of- the-above, bipartisan--we hope it will be a bipartisan bill. It's up to my colleagues and my friends on the other side of the aisle, but the solutions are there. They're available today. The renewables are in front of us, and they hire more people than fossil fuels.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. While the terrorists were able to destroy the World Trade Towers in New York City, and damage the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, they did not take into account the indomitable American spirit. My most lasting image of that day is not planes flying into buildings or towers collapsing. I remember the people--firefighters, police officers, EMTs, ordinary men and women--doing everything in their power to help. I think of all the people who rushed downtown, without regard to their own safety, determined to do what they could do for others. They clearly demonstrated to our enemies that our spirit cannot be broken and that we are determined to confront any threat to our national security. The United States will never give in to terrorism and we will never shirk from our duty to defend our country and the principles for which it stands. I urge all Americans to honor those who lost their lives on September 11, and to commit ourselves to whatever sacrifices it may take to prevent such an attack from taking place again. Also, I'd like to especially recognize a constituent and friend, named Jay Winuk, the founder of MyGoodDeed.org, an organization he created to further honor the victims, families, and survivors of September 11, by encouraging the government to recognize that day as a national day of community service, and to encourage people to perform good deeds to mark the date. Jay's brother, Glenn Winuk, was a volunteer firefighter and attorney working at a Manhattan law firm on 9/11. He lost his life at the World Trade Center after helping to evacuate everyone from his office, and then rushing back into the South Tower, looking for others to save. When he was last seen alive, Glenn was helping people escape the tower and reach safety. Many rescue and recovery workers volunteered their time and efforts in the hours and days following the attack. Jay has found a unique and touching way of honoring all their efforts and ensuring that the heroes of that day are not forgotten. Through the work of citizens like Glenn and Jay Winuk, this country remains as great and as powerful as it is, and we should all recognize and remember them, and all those who lost their lives, or whose lives were forever changed on that day.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. I must comment on the gentlelady's remarks that just preceded me and describe them as fiction. I'm sorry to have to say this because many things have happened in this body on a bipartisan basis, especially on the Veterans' Committee that I serve on, where we are in almost unanimous agreement on all issues. But on the issue of energy, our colleagues across the aisle keep going on dishonest tirades about our national energy crisis in order to distract from their record of oil company capitulation and failure to protect consumers. I guess they're operating under their party philosophy that if you repeat something often enough, you can make people forget that it's not true. I actually have more faith in the American people than that. They know that for most of this decade energy policy has been written in the White House by Big Oil and led to record dependence on imports and skyrocketing prices. They know that Republicans in this Congress have been pursuing a none-of-the-above strategy, blocking every attempt to move forward at real energy solutions. At every step, they have said no. They said no to responsible drilling in Alaska and making oil companies drill on the 68 million acres that are already open. They said no to increasing oil supply through the SPR, releasing oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is the only way to immediately bring down prices. They, our Republican colleagues, said no to reigning in market speculation to keep prices from skyrocketing. They said no to protecting the American driver from price gouging and oil company exploitation. And while they stood in the way, the American economy suffered and family budgets braced for high home heating costs. I think it's time to share the views of most of Americans when I say enough is enough. We need more energy and we need to enter a new era of energy technology instead of staying stuck in this ``drill first, ask questions later'' mindset that will not lower prices. According to our own Energy Information Agency, at the most, it's 1.8 cents lower after 8 to 10 years, or possibly longer. It will not make us more energy secure, and it will not allow America to prosper, which is why I have joined with the rest of the majority to support drilling responsibly for more American oil. And that means, by the way, making sure that the American taxpayer and the Treasury get the money from our oil. Oil under Federal lands and offshore leases belongs to the American public, to our children and our grandchildren, and those royalties were given away by the previous Congress, which for 6 years had control of all branches of government, the White House, both Houses of Congress, and the court system. For 6 years they did nothing but give away our resources, our children's and our grandchildren's resources without asking for fair royalty payments by the oil companies. We have provided key tax incentives for renewables, like wind and solar and high efficiency. And I beg to differ with the gentlelady that spoke before me. These things are available today. West Point, in my district, is putting in wind energy on their hundreds of acres of campus. They are putting in a 5,000-gallon E85 tank, which is actually a breakthrough, considering the fact that thousands of flex fuel vehicles have been sold in my State of New York, and there is hardly any place you can even buy flex fuel or E85. We are seeing students at high schools like Arlington High School in Dutchess County, New York, come to me and to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and ask for money for solar panels so that their high schools can be powered today by solar power. We have voted to break the chains of our dependence on Middle Eastern oil by using American innovation to create hundreds of thousands of green jobs that cannot be outsourced. When I was in Denver a couple of weeks ago, I learned that one of the biggest new solar photovoltaic installations in Colorado was being built, fortunately, with American jobs doing the installation but, unfortunately, with solar panels that are being built in China. We should not go from buying oil overseas to buying solar panels from overseas or buying wind turbines from overseas or buying geothermal systems from overseas. The country that put man on the Moon should lead the way in this technological innovation and develop this energy at home that's a broad, real energy policy. And it's time to pass that kind of complete really all-of-the-above plan now. It's time for action now.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1527, the Rural Veterans Access to Care Act, and I would first like to take this opportunity to commend Congressman Moran for all of his work on this legislation. I used to live in Manhattan, New York, and I am glad that veterans from Manhattan, Kansas, and Manhattan, New York, will be served better by this Congress and by the VA. We can illustrate the fact that issues relating to veterans can, and should be, and I believe in this Congress and in this committee, are a truly bipartisan effort. I can't recall a single critical remark of this bill as it passed through the committee process, because it is truly a needed piece of legislation. Veterans have consistently been calling on the VA to develop a plan to address the needs of those veterans who live in rural areas at great distances away from the nearest VA hospital. When these brave men and women served our country honorably, they expected the same service in return once they retired. When they signed up, nowhere, at no time, did it say that they would get the health care they need only if they wanted to drive for hours and hours to get it. Moreover, with the recent increases in the cost of gasoline, travel for rural veterans is placing an even greater financial burden on them and their families. Hours of driving and a hefty gas bill is not the kind of treatment our veterans deserve for their selfless sacrifice to our Nation. I am confident that the pilot programs erected in H.R. 1527 will begin to bring relief to our veterans who live at great distances from the nearest VA hospital. It is our duty to reward the veterans of our Nation with this treatment befitting their sacrifice. I believe this bill takes the necessary steps to do just that, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise, today in support of S. 2617, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act. With today's military and veteran community facing increasing deployments, a struggling economy, rising gas prices, and other hardships that together create tough financial situations, this legislation could not have come at a better time. For many of our Nation's veterans and their families, these payments are a necessity in order to make ends meet. They provide for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the survivors of certain disabled veterans. Specifically, this COLA increase will boost wartime disability compensation, additional compensation for benefits, and even things such as clothing allowances. Again, in these increasingly tough times, we cannot allow rising costs to strip our brave veterans of this crucial resource. For those who have done so much by sacrificing mind, body, and family in service of this Nation, this COLA is the least we can do to honor their sacrifices. I commend Senator Akaka for his hard work passing this crucially needed legislation through the Senate, and urge my colleagues to pass this in the House with equal success.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Madam Speaker, sky-high prices for gas and heating oil have taken a big bite out of family budgets. Just as we enter the home stretch of the summer driving season, these same families are bracing for increased prices in home heating oil. Families in my district use heating oil to stave off winter cold, and too many of them are already shivering. We're not even into the heating season yet, and already prices in the Hudson Valley are over $4.60, 70 percent more than last year. We need to throw these families a lifeline and fix the energy crisis threatening them. To help with the costs, I have cosponsored the HEATR Act to give qualifying families a $500 tax credit for their heating costs over $1,500. To fix the markets, the majority has tried repeatedly to provide support for new technologies, increased domestic drilling, and oil releases from the SPR. Each time, the President and his allies have opposed these measures and are holding our energy solutions hostage to their insistence on old, ineffective drilling proposals. They need to get out of D.C. and see how these prices are affecting working families, figure out how to join us, or soon we will all be out in the cold.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, gas prices in New York are still at the outrageous price of $4.19, well above what working families in the Hudson Valley can bear. They are looking to us in the government for answers, and Congress needs to respond. The fact is that the Democratic majority has advanced a wide variety of proposals to provide relief. We have pushed tax credits for fuel- efficient vehicles and renewables, we've called for Big Oil to drill on its land that it has already leased and gotten permits for, and advocated a release from the SPR. Each time President Bush and his allies have opposed these measures and are holding real energy solutions hostage to their insistence on old, ineffective drilling proposals. The Republican minority treats our energy crisis like a multiple choice question. The problem is that they keep answering ``none of the above.'' On this side of the aisle, we will keep pushing solutions to responsibly enhance American energy supplies and usher in an innovative and independent energy future. I hope that after the break our friends on the other side of the aisle will come back to Congress ready to cooperate instead of standing in the way.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Thank you, Chairman Filner. While we celebrated Independence Day this month, many Americans were unaware that immediately after the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, it ratified the Military Pension Law of 1776 thereby creating the first Federal disability compensation program. There should be no doubt that the United States has a proud tradition of providing benefits and services to our current population of 24 million veterans, more than 2.7 million of whom receive compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs, a department full of committed, well-intended, and skilled people who nonetheless are struggling with our current situation. The VA is in dire need of change, and it is time to modernize the disability claims system. I would like to thank Representatives Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Phil Hare of Illinois, Zack Space of Ohio, and Jerry McNerney of California and subcommittee Ranking Member Doug Lamborn of Colorado for contributing to this bill. They, too, have recognized the problems in a system that had a backlog of more than 838,000 claims in 2007, and that unbelievable backlog is projected to surpass 1 million claims in 2009. This escalating backlog means that far too many veterans and survivors wait for months, years, or decades for their claims to be adjudicated. This is a national disgrace and violates our contract with every person who serves in our Armed Forces. In my own district, I see time and again the tragic human toll of these egregious delays. A World War II Navy veteran from Westchester County, Ken MacDonald, tried since 1947 to receive compensation for injuries he suffered not once, but twice on ships that were sunk out from under him. Only last year, 60 years later, with the help of our office, was his claim approved. He received over $100,000 in back pay and a pension for the rest of his life--but think of the decades he suffered, the opportunities he lost. We have thousands of veterans coming home injured from Iraq and Afghanistan. We have Vietnam veterans whose claims have never been fully resolved. It is a disgrace for our Nation to allow them to suffer and face financial hardship and health care problems when the VA should process and accept their legitimate claims promptly. Families suffer also. In June, a news story broke of Wayne Kirtley, a 54-year-old veteran who was misdiagnosed twice by the VA, resulting in his premature death. When he filed a claim against the VA, it was denied. Eight months later, the veteran died while his appeal was pending. Under current law, the claim dies with the veteran. Kirtley was worried about his wife, Helen, and wanted to ensure that she would be taken care of with VA benefits. But that has not yet happened. H.R. 5892 would allow Helen to continue her husband's claim with the VA and submit additional evidence which she currently cannot do. Recent commissions and task forces, the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission, the Commission on the Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, and the Government Accountability Office have documented problems at the VBA. Over the last 18 months, my subcommittee has held extensive hearings in Washington and in Goshen, New York, to hear the testimony of veterans themselves and of the Veterans Service Organizations. I have incorporated many of their suggestions into H.R. 5892. The bill proposes to overhaul the VA disability benefit system so that veterans and survivors can receive the benefits they have earned easily and quickly. Here is what the bill will change: In today's VA, a veteran's claim is often held up until every medical condition is evaluated, the average wait being over 6 months. Under this bill, a severe, undisputed injury, such as a lost leg or arm, will be compensated immediately. Lesser injuries that take more time to evaluate will be handled separately. Today's VA claims processing system is labor- intensive and paper-based with the loss of paper files being a major cause of delays. This bill brings the VA into the 21st century by requiring the use of modern information technology. The VA also relies on outdated medical concepts and on an archaic rating schedule. This bill updates the definitions of diseases and disorders to bring them in line with current medical knowledge, and it takes a comprehensive approach to disability ratings, including factors such as the loss of quality of life and of future earnings capacity. It is hard to believe, but today, when a veteran dies while his or her claim is being considered, the surviving wife or child has to start all over again at square one even if that claim has been stuck in the backlog for years. This bill allows the spouse or child to step into the shoes of the veteran while the claim continues, saving them months or years of frustration and of waiting. This bill recognizes the rights and needs of family members by establishing a new unit called the Survivors Office. The VA has always proclaimed as part of its mission caring for the widows and for the orphans of veterans, but it has never had an office specifically focused on them. Finally, another title of the bill deals with the United States Court of Appeals for veterans' claims. My hope is that we can eliminate the hamster wheel effect that bounces veterans back and forth between different levels of the appeals process, reducing today's unacceptable backlog of cases. A nimble, quick, responsive VA claims system could go a long way to helping our Nation live up to its commitment to care for wounded veterans and their families. It could help prevent suicides, bankruptcies, poverty, family disruptions, and homelessness among our Nation's disabled veterans. We can and must change the way Washington handles the claims of our injured veterans. We must give them easier access to the benefits they have earned and end forever the adversarial, inefficient and frustrating claims process they are now forced to endure. I believe H.R. 5892 puts the VA on a new course for the 21st century, giving them the resources and new approaches to make better, faster decisions, to achieve more accurate ratings and to treat all veterans and their families fairly and with respect. I urge all of your support.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Madam Speaker, I just would like to say to my friend across the aisle that I, as a member of the Democratic majority, consider the repeated, deliberate use of the phrase ``Democrat majority'' to be a pejorative use. That is not certainly what we call ourselves. And we could call you the Republic minority, but we don't. So, in the interest of bipartisanship and comity, I would suggest ``Democratic majority'' is the normal term to use. I congratulate you on accepting and adopting most of the parts of your plan from our plan. The renewable energy and conservation components, which, by the way, the Vice President sneered at in 2002, I think it was, when he said that conservation may be a personal virtue, but it is no way to build a national energy policy. We have been working, in this Congress, in the last year and a half to pass the first increase in fuel mileage standards in 32 years, to provide record, billions of dollars to alternative fuels research and development, record billions of dollars for carbon sequestration so that we can use coal that we have in this country without releasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We have been trying, and I might say that perhaps your friend or the colleague in the Republican Party in the other body, Senator Domenici, could use a little talking to, perhaps from you, to get him to drop his resistance to the renewable energy standard and to the extension of the renewable tax credits which we have been fighting for on this side and have been stymied in the Senate by a small number of Republicans who are holding that up. But allow me to go to what I was going to say, which is that in New York this morning, gas prices are over $4.25 and in some cases $4.50 and have been this high for weeks. These sky high prices are squeezing families in my district right now. Today we are trying to give them relief using SPR oil to increase supply and bring down prices. A release of oil from the SPR is a proven method of calming markets and lowering prices. The last three Presidents have used it successfully. And I urge all my colleagues to support it to do the same thing today. Announcement By the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, I assure you that this Member is serious and sincere, and I strongly support the DRILL bill. Gas in my district in the Hudson Valley is over $4.30, and families are paying and really being hurt by this. They need serious solutions that deliver real results, and that's why I support the Drill Responsibly in Leased Lands Act to take action right now to extract more American oil in the right places. Oil company advocates have been preying on the anxiety of Americans to push the failed ANWR drilling plan that would only lower prices by a nickel in 20 years, 20 years in the future. Our drivers need more help than that, and they need it faster. The DRILL Act answers the call, telling oil companies to drill for oil that can give more relief than ANWR ever could. The ``use it or lose it'' measure requires oil companies to drill on land they have already leased or make way for someone who will. If they did that, they could double production and cut imports by one-third. It also makes it easier to lease the 20 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, already approved for drilling, and calls on the President to build pipelines to bring that 10.6 billion barrels of oil to market. The bill will pave the way to get at the most oil in the shortest time with the greatest responsibility. I hope all of my colleagues will support it.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Just briefly, I trust that you would offer a motion to recommit to do just that.

Mr. HALL of New York. But I would just point out, going back a little bit, this map that I was holding up for Chairman Rahall, the more interesting thing about this map, and I hope it shows up on the cameras, is that the purple sections here are all Federal land that may be leased and has not been offered to lease. Now, I suggest that the Department of Interior ought to take that--that's most of these areas. The red is the part that is actually producing. The yellow or orange is the part that has been leased but is not yet producing. But the purple, most of this lower 48 or western half of the lower 48 on this map, land available currently for leasing that has not been leased; so I would just urge that it be leased. No Democrats that I know are opposed to leasing, counter to whatever may have been implied out there. I just want to mention that the one thing we can do that will have an immediate impact, and we're talking 5, 10, 15 years, maybe 20 years out before ANWR or OCS has an impact, depending on whom you listen to, but the one tool we have, that the President has, which was used by the first President Bush in 1991 and again by President Clinton in 2000, is the SPR, releasing oil from the SPR to increase supply. In 1991 it resulted in a price drop of $8 per barrel, and in the year 2000, it brought down the price of oil by nearly 20 percent in a week. So I'm not saying it's the answer. I'm saying that it's a temporary thing and it's a tool that was given to the President by the Congress to deal with crises, which I believe were in one now, as our people are telling us. All of us at home are hearing the same thing, I think, be it from parents driving their kids to school, commuters going to work, school systems that are barely able to afford to keep their school buses running, whatever it is, we need to provide immediate interim and long- term solutions. And one immediate thing that I think we should consider is releasing some amount of oil from the SPR.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Well I think that is a subject for some discussion. And perhaps somewhere between 30 and 50 million barrels would be a good starting point. But the most interesting thing about it is that it's one of the few investments the American taxpayers made that has more than doubled in value. In other words, it was bought at less than $50. Most of the oil there was bought at less than $50 a barrel and then would be sold for whatever it's going for, $130 or $140, the current value. So there's a big mark-up. And there is an opportunity not only to provide supply, to loosen up the supply-and-demand equation, but also to use the proceeds from that for some important things such as compensating those who are hurt the most. In the northeast with home heating oil this coming winter, there are many people very afraid about paying $6 for home heating oil, truckers who are paying exorbitant amounts for diesel, or people on low incomes who can't deal with this, or for that matter investing in some alternatives to provide some competition for oil, which, by the way, I think we should get to. Because what we're really faced with here is we're talking about drilling and drilling and where we're going to drill and what kind of oil and how much sulfur, and is the diesel going here or is the diesel going there? But we're still talking about being at the mercy of oil. And I think ultimately this conversation has to come around to breaking the monopoly, the energy monopoly, that oil has in this country.

Mr. HALL of New York. If the gentleman would yield back. I would just comment that it's likely should the countries that don't like us and would theoretically cut us off in a crisis would look elsewhere to sell their oil, and the oil would probably go on the world market to other countries, to China, to Asia and so on and would provide slack in the system overall worldwide which would enable us to buy similar quantities of oil from other sources. This is all speculation on our part. But I would just say that it's not by any means certain that a cut- off of oil from a certain country to us would mean that we would not be able to get the same amount of oil elsewhere. Let me also say, because there was a comment made before, just continuing on a couple of quick points, there was a comment made before, many comments about how the American people are hurting, and one comment about how the oil companies are being squeezed. I just wanted to show the profits of the oil companies since 2001 climbing from $30 billion profit to $123.3 billion profit in 2007. And this is just from 2007 to 2008. Here is an increase for another record year of oil company profits in the first quarter of 2008, $36.9 billion. So the curve continues to go up even as the gentleman from Pennsylvania said I believe it was, or the gentleman from Connecticut, we've had in the last 6 years I think a 361 percent increase in the number of leases granted and 668 million acres, which is either in some part of the permitting process or has not yet been drilled on, but is available for drilling in the lower 48 and adjacent offshore leases. No matter what we do, the oil companies continue to make record profit among record profit. So against that backdrop, I think it's really important to consider such things as the geothermal system. I was personally in the trench next to a house that was being built, fastening these loops of hose, of plastic piping, that is going to carry a glycol water mixture 6 feet underground and enable a 3,500 square foot house in Cold Spring, New York, to be heated and cooled for the cost of one 75-watt light bulb. There are four buyers so far that have come to this development and have been offered a house. I think the base price of the house is $350,000. In that part of New York, it's expensive. And that is what they're offering these homes at. Or they can pay the extra $15,000 up front for geothermal heating and cooling. And all four of the buyers have come in with today's price of energy and said, we will take the geothermal. And the estimates of the company doing the work is that it will pay off in 3 years. If it's a full-time resident, it will pay off in 3 years. If it's a part-time weekend or summer home, it may take 7 years. But these are the kinds of things that are here today. And it's not rocket science. It's plumbing. And it's common sense. And we need to do this because we're at the moment an oil-based economy, especially for aircraft. There is no getting around liquid fuels. You cannot fly a hybrid plane any time soon. But there are many other places that we can find other fuels and other sources of power, not only for transportation but for heating and cooling our homes and our businesses and free up the oil for the purposes that we really need it for. I yield back to the gentleman.

Mr. HALL of New York. I just know they have made the biggest profits in the history of any corporation in the history of the world, and that the CEO got a pension of $400 million. There are certain things that to the American people look excessive. I can't tell you whether they are. All I can say is what it looks like, and I can say that my sympathy for the oil companies is not at a very high level. Hence, my likelihood to pursue use it or lose it. If you are sitting on 68 million acres, some of which may be in the process of being developed, but my understanding is that all or most of it has passed the permitting stage and is ready for the drill bit to go in the ground, and the drill bit is not going in the ground because they are waiting for the drill rigs, they don't have enough offshore exploration ships. They have enough money to buy the company that makes the drill rigs. Most of these oil companies have more money than most countries have. When you are floating that kind of money, I think there may be another incentive at work which is where is the oil worth more? Is the oil worth more left in the ground or pumped and sold into dollars because the dollar is going down. You can't invest it in real estate right now because that is going down. If you put it in the stock market, you are taking your chances. A financial analyst inside one of these oil companies may look at the choices and say, let's leave it in the ground. Let's acquire more and more leases and pump it in 5 years when it is worth more. I want to be sure that is not the incentive that is driving this.

Mr. HALL of New York. Well, that is a very good question, and a philosophical one, I might add. I would say your colleague, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden) who sits on the Energy Independence and Global Warming Select Subcommittee, asked the five CEOs of the biggest companies when they came in, and I am paraphrasing Mr. Walden, he said, I am a small businessman, I am a capitalist, I believe in making a profit, but at what point when you have made bigger profits than you have ever imagined, breaking your own record for 3 years in a row, is there some point where you would think about lowering your price to your customers? Is there ever a point where you feel that way?

Mr. HALL of New York. No. What this chart shows is all profit. I don't know what percentage that is, how much deeper the iceberg goes below the starting point, but these columns stand for profit. And I think when national interests conflict with corporate interests, that is when government needs to step in. The question is, are we at that point?

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, American families and businesses are indeed reeling from record gas prices, the results of 7 years of missed opportunities and a 19th century energy policy this White House has allowed oil companies to write. President Bush's policy is only working for one group, the oil companies themselves. Rather than looking for new solutions, Washington Republicans say that Big Oil needs access to more land and more water so they can drill for more oil. What my friends across the aisle refuse to acknowledge is that 68 million acres of oil reserves on 10,000 separate leases are already acquired by the oil companies for development and are ready for the drill bit to go into the ground. Permitting has been finished, and the oil companies are holding off. Why are they holding off drilling on these 68 million acres of reserves? If they are really interested in drilling more at home, let's have them do that first before we give them access to the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge or our Atlantic and Pacific coasts. All they need to do is drill is on these 68 million acres they have already acquired. If they don't, I believe they should use it or lose it.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, in my district, my constituents are complaining and wondering why one day a gas tanker pulls up to a service station and fills a tank underground at the price of that day, and 2 days later the world price of crude oil goes up and the guy at the local gas station goes up on a ladder and changes the numbers, raising the numbers from $4.17 to $4.29, or whatever it is currently in the 19th Congressional District. We are well above $4 for regular. Why is it that gas that is already in the ground goes up on the world price of crude, but when the world price of crude comes down, the price at the pump detaches from it and keeps going up or staying up? They ask me this question, and I ask people down here who supposedly know what they are talking about, and they tell me: Oh, it's a commodity. It fluctuates on the commodity market. Well, I call it the rockets-and-feathers syndrome. The price of gas goes up like a rocket, and it comes down like a feather. And it never seems to deviate from that. While American families are scrimping, oil company profits are soaring. The Big Five's profits jumped a whooping $37 billion this quarter. After the Bush administration's drill first and ask questions later policy has padded oil profits on the backs of working families, it is time for us here to look out for American drivers. The Federal Energy Price Gouging Prevention Act, which I strongly support, will give the government the authority to investigate and punish anyone who takes advantage of consumers by running up energy costs with a steep fine and jail time. After Hurricane Katrina, the FTC found 23 percent of refineries, 9 percent of wholesalers, and 23 percent of retailers had price spikes that could not be explained by increased costs or market trends. We need to be aggressively vigilant to ensure that none of that behavior is going on and consumers are protected. President Bush threatened to veto this bill the last time Congress tried to take this action. I hope that this time he and his allies will for once choose to stand with the American driver and against Big Oil.

Mr. HALL of New York

Mr. HALL of New York. Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 435, I was in a classified briefing on H-405. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''