Robert Latta

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Speaker, last week it was my privilege during our work period back in the district to be at seven of my county courthouses. What I did was I met one-on-one all morning and all afternoon and we got locked into the courthouses in the evenings to talk to these people that we represent. And they are concerned. They are concerned about the spending that has been going on in this Congress. I had one gentleman wait 4 hours, 4 hours, to come up and just sit across from the desk from me for 30 seconds and say we are spending too much money in this country. They are worried about what is happening to their future, to their kids' future and their grandkids' future. You know, it is tough when you pick up the paper and try to explain it to them. They say, where is this money coming from that is being borrowed? Over the weekend we saw the Secretary of State was over in China with cup in hand saying we need you to keep buying our debt. The folks back home are concerned about their future and they want this Congress to do something, and that means we have got to quit spending.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Well, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I would really like to follow up a little bit on what the gentleman from California just said. I come from a State and from a district that has heavy manufacturing, and we're hurting out there, and there is no question about it in my district in the State of Ohio. America is hurting. You know, the stimulus package has been talked about. We're not talking about a package that is going to help America. This has turned not into a jobs bill but into a spending bill. If I could just follow up a little bit, I was on a tele-town hall last night with my constituents. The big question those people had was: What's in this for me? How is it going to help me? I couldn't tell them. I couldn't tell these folks how this package was going to help them. Just today, they asked: What happened to that $700 billion that we just had in that financial bailout? It's gone. As the gentleman from California said: What's going to happen right now? Well, we're going to raise the national debt ceiling that we have here for Federal debt to over $11.1 trillion. It just went up last fall to $10.3 trillion. He is absolutely right. Where is this money going to come from? Well, we're going to go out, and we're going to have to get our tin cans out and ask for it from our foreign creditors out there, who already own $3 trillion of our debt today. The Chinese own $682 billion. We're going to have to say: Can you bail us out? Those people are saying: Wait a minute. We've got our own problems in our own country right now. As the gentleman so rightly pointed out, when that day comes as to when these countries say, ``we're not going to bail you out,'' we're going to have to raise the rate that we're going to get for that interest. As had been pointed out a little bit earlier, what is going to happen is that our credit markets are going to dry up. Today, I had 14 local bankers in town. These folks are worried. They're worried about what happens when it's a tight market right now and they're trying to get out there. They want to get out there and lend and make sure that people can run their businesses and that people can buy houses. Yet the problem we're going to have is that the Federal Government is going to take that money, and there is going to be a huge sucking sound around this country of the dollars coming into the Federal Government as it's using that money to borrow. We can't have that happen because, when that does, we're going to be in the same situation that we were in years ago until we can get those markets back and can let them borrow and start again. So I just want to sum up. I know there is another speaker here. The American people are rightly concerned. The people of the Fifth Congressional District are rightly concerned as to what this bill is going to do, not for them but to them. So I thank the gentleman for sponsoring and for yielding. Thank you very much.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Madam Speaker, last weekend I was home, and folks back home are worried. They're worried about what this Congress is doing. They're worried about their futures, they're worried about their kids, they're worried about their jobs. One of the things when I was talking to a lot of the folks at home over the weekend was, first of all, they said what happened to that $700 billion that you all passed last year for the financial bailout? And they're worried about what's going to be going on right now with this $838 billion that we've seen come out of the Senate. And, of course, that's not the correct figure because after you figure in your interest, you're over $1 trillion. And when you talk about that $1 trillion, you know right now we owe $3 trillion to foreign governments, with as of 2 months ago the Chinese owning $682 billion of our debt. We watch this keep rising and rising, and the people want to know what's the future going to hold for them; where are the jobs going to be. Well, the Republicans have offered a plan, especially one in which Ohio, under our plan, would create 246,000 jobs, compared to the 142,000 jobs offered under the current stimulus package. I think that this Congress should examine what this Congress should be doing, making sure that we spend our dollars wisely.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. I appreciate you yielding back, and I think what you're talking about is, when we're running up these debts, I'd just like to run across just numbers. Let's just go back. If you look at this number on this chart right now, we're looking at over $10 trillion, $10.6 trillion of debt that this country owes, but let's just go back a few years, and it doesn't take us very long to do this. In 1979, the United States debt was at $829 billion; 1989, it was $2.8 trillion; 1999, $5.6 trillion. And here we are 10 years later just doubling this number, when you look from 1999 to where we are today at $10.6 trillion. But the real question that really concerned me is this, not only that massive huge debt but who owns this debt, you know, and you start looking at this chart right here. Right now, $682 billion of our debt today is owned by China. Going across, you're looking at Japan. Japan owns $577 billion; the United Kingdom, $360 billion; the Caribbean Banking Centers, $220 billion; the oil exporters--we send our money over to them. They're using our money to buy our debt. They have $198 billion; Brazil, $129 billion. But it always wasn't this way. You know, in 1979, let's just go back a few years again. 1979, we had foreign debt of $119 billion; 1989, $429 billion; 1999, $1.2 trillion. These numbers are just escalating. And the problem we have today is this. We're having a situation out there is what happens when these other countries start stimulating their own economy and they start saying, you know what, we can't buy that American debt, who's going to be out there to buy that debt? And we have a couple of alternatives; either not issue that debt or have to put a higher interest rate out there to make these other countries want to buy our debt. Americans are saying we're not buying it; these other countries are. So I have a real concern of these problems, that other countries are owning our debt, that they could actually start dictating to the United States. The Chinese are telling us that we have to do something about our economy, you know.

Mr. LATTA. I appreciate the gentleman for yielding again. Again, you are absolutely correct. We're hitting that situation right now. The rest of the world is looking at the same problems that we're having in this country, but we're issuing this massive debt out there, saying, please, buy our debt. And all we can do is, there's been very few articles in the national papers about this, and one of the few times we've seen some of the articles, they're saying, well, we have to make it attractive enough to keep people wanting to buy it out there. Well, how far is that and when are we going to get to that? My good German grandmother used to tell her grandkids this one saying, that he who goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing. And you know, we're at that point. And the real question is how are the future generations of this country, not just this generation but the next generation, and the one right after that, going to pay for this debt and how are they going to do that?

Mr. LATTA. I appreciate the gentleman for yielding, and I also appreciate the comments that we have already heard from the gentleman from Georgia and also from the gentleman from California. Just to follow up, I was not going to speak to this, but if I may, I just happen to have in front of me the unemployment numbers during the Great Depression and the numbers leading into the Great Depression. I think about the statement from the Secretary of Treasury in 1939 and what he said about what the spending had done. When President Roosevelt was sworn into office in 1933, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we had a 24.9 percent unemployment rate.

Mr. LATTA. I appreciate the gentleman for yielding. That is absolutely correct. I don't think there is any economist out there who will say there was anything until we got into World War II when we saw the Great Depression break. Before Pearl Harbor in 1941, December 7, the unemployment rate was going down. Why? Because we had Americans working in those defense plants, who were making those arms that we were shipping overseas at the time, for example, under Lend- Lease. So we watched those numbers start to drop, and they really dropped, of course, during World War II when Americans were out there in uniform and in the defense plants. As the gentleman had mentioned a little bit earlier, one of the things that concerns me is: Where are we going with this debt? Because we just keep adding to it in this country.

Mr. LATTA. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 1933, when he was sworn in, there was 24.9 percent unemployment. Just to kind of jump forward a little bit to the statement that was made to the House Ways and Means Committee by FDR's Secretary of the Treasury in 1939, that number was at 17.2 percent unemployment in this country. So, when they were talking of their trying the spending and of their trying to see how much they could do by spending more and more and more to get these numbers down, it did not work. Just fast-forwarding a little bit, unfortunately, when we got close to entering World War II in 1941--when the United States was becoming that arsenal of democracy--we had an unemployment rate of 9.9 percent. Then through the main war years of '42, '43, '44, and '45, we saw our unemployment rate go down to 4.7, 1.9, 1.2, and 1.9 percent. Again, let's just think about that. We had 16 million Americans in uniform at that time. We had everybody working--we had everybody in the war plants. All of the women were working--so Rosie the Riveter was everywhere. That unemployment rate dropped, but it was because of World War II, not because of what was going on in the Roosevelt administration in the 1930s.

Mr. LATTA. Absolutely.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I appreciate your efforts today on putting together this Special Order. Tomorrow, we are going to have tens of thousands of Americans here. They are coming here to support the rights of those who can't speak for themselves, the right of the unborn. I know in my hometown of Bowling Green, at Bowling Green State University, I know that at least 40 college students will be coming down tomorrow to be out there on that Mall. It's great that we had so many people here yesterday, but we also have young people coming out to talk about and support those who can't speak for themselves. As already has been mentioned by other of the Members today, talking about their views on the Freedom of Choice Act and what that will do in this country, it will be a travesty. The world judges us by what we do, and they will judge us harshly when they see what we do if this bill would ever become law. I have always been pro-life. When I was in the Ohio Legislature, I had the privilege of chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Criminal Justice Committee. Probably one of the toughest days that we ever had was when we had the partial birth abortion ban bill up. And when you sit on a committee that hears about all the gruesome crimes that are committed against the living, and I'd always have some of my constituents say to me, after they sat through some of our hearings after a long day, they would say, ``Latta, how do you sit through that stuff day after day after day?'' I'd say, ``It's my job.'' But then when we had the partial birth abortion bill come before our committee, it was kind of also very unique to sit there in that committee room and look out across that audience and looking down across the committee to the folks sitting in their chairs. There was a lot of squirming going on that day because of the testimony of the doctor that testified that day to explain exactly what partial birth abortion was. It was one of those days that I had the initiative at times as the Chair that I can actually tell that we are not going to have anyone under the age of 18 in the hearing room because of what it might do to affect some of the kids that might be there. But when we heard the testimony that day, I can look down on both sides, left and right, and see from my members on that committee that they had heard enough. And they wanted to vote. It was a bill that we were able to bring to the floor quickly. We got that bill passed in Ohio to ban that horrible, horrible procedure, as discussed a little bit earlier. We do things in this country that, when you see what we try to do to save the living, it's time that we do what we can to save those who cannot speak for themselves. According to the National Right to Life, since 1973, there have been 49,551,703 abortions performed in this country. In the State of Ohio, from the Department of Health, we have records showing that 32,936 abortions were performed in Ohio alone in 1 year. And I will close on this, because we have to think about this. We have all these troubles and travesties that are coming before our country today. We have to ask ourselves, of those 49,551,703 lives, who among those could have found the cure for cancer? Who among those could be out there that found that energy cure that we have to have for this country? And, who in that number could have been the next President of the United States? So I am very, very glad to be here to support those who cannot speak for themselves and stand before you and say that it's time for this country to remember those who cannot speak and defend themselves. I yield back. Thank you.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Repubublican Leadership standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following information for publication in the Congressional Record regarding earmarks I received as part of H.R. 2638, The Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009. The following are the Department of Defense and Military Construction projects I have requested that have received funding approval: Project Name: N-STEP Enabled Manufacturing Cell for Future Combat Systems. Bill Number: H.R. 2638. Account: RDTE, A. Requesting Entity: Joint Systems Manufacturing Center/General Dynamics; 1161 Buckeye Road, Lima, Ohio 45804. Project Description and Amount: Joint Systems Manufacturing Center- Lima (JSMC) has developed, designed, installed and implemented an N- STEP Enabled Reconfigurable Manufacturing Cell and has completed performance demonstration phases using automatic processes. To make the core equipment production ready for FCS, specific weld process development using the Friction Appurtenance Welder, FAW, must be completed. This funding request will provide for the necessary technical resources required to develop the weld machine parameters/ specifications for support of vehicle production activities. $2,400,000. Project Name: Electronic Motion Actuation Systems. Bill Number: H.R. 2638. Account: RDTE, N. Requesting Entity: Moog: FloTork Facility, 1701 North Main Street, P.O. Box 68, Orrville, Ohio 44667. Project Description and Amount: The purpose of the project is to develop shipboard-qualified prototype electric actuators and demonstrate their satisfactory performance in shipboard applications. Successful completion of the technology will reduce shipboard personnel and reduce repair and maintenance costs. The Department of the Navy has repeatedly stated its desire for an all-electric ship. The target ship for this concept is the DDX which is due to hit the water in 2010. Environmental hazards associated with hydraulic systems will also be eliminated by moving to an electric actuator. $800,000. Project Name: Barracks, Camp Perry Training Site, Port Clinton, Ohio. Bill Number: H.R. 2638. Account: Department of Defense, Army National Guard. Military Facility Address: Ohio National Guard, Camp Perry Training Site, 1000 Lawrence Road, Port Clinton, Ohio 43452. Project Description and Amount: Provide $2 million in P-341, unspecified minor military construction, funds pursuant to Title 10 U.S. Code 2805, to construct a new 80-bed baracks at the Ohio National Guard's Camp Perry Training Site, Port Clinton, OH. The request will increase the readiness of our servicemen and women in the Ohio National Guard and help them better prepare for the challenges they face both at home and abroad. $2,000,000.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Madam Speaker, I had the pleasure of meeting with home delivery volunteers in the Fifth Congressional District on Monday to discuss H.R. 6675, a bill I introduced in July. H.R. 6675 would increase the standard deduction for home meal delivery volunteers from the current rate of 14 cents per mile to 58.5 cents per mile. Home meal delivery programs across the country are losing volunteers as the cost of gasoline continues to rise. This legislation will help retain and recruit additional volunteers to carry out this important work. For those who receive home delivered meals, these volunteers serve an important role in delivering meals that provide needed nourishment, in addition to boosting the morale and spirit of those individuals. As we continue to debate the comprehensive energy reform policy in Congress, we must be aware of the important contributions volunteers have on our great country. Volunteer firefighters, civic group leaders, and others who give so much of their time and resources are what make our community and our country a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. Well, thank you very much for yielding. I appreciate that from my friend from northeastern Ohio. As mentioned, I am the newest or, I can say, the least senior or the most junior--I'm not sure which is the best term for me--but I am truly humbled to be here with you this evening and to be part of this great delegation because the Ohio delegation has always been one of those great delegations, I believe, in this United States House of Representatives, and it has always been really like a family, an extended family, for all of the Members who are within it. I know it has to be a tough decision for you all to make to leave this body. I know my dad served here for 30 years, and I know, when he left here, it was a tough decision, but it's a decision you have to make at some point in time. When you look at the experience that has already been mentioned with Congressman Regula, with Congressman Hobson and with Congresswoman Pryce, who have 18, 9 and 8 terms that they've served here, that's 70 years of experience; that's 70 years of knowledge; that's 70 years of experience not only on this floor but also on those committees. That's going to be hard to make up because, as people come and as people go, there are so many folks who look to those Members who have served here for a good number of years for that experience, for what they need to know when they come onto these committees or when they come onto the floor. One of the things that has already been said is that they have all served this House well with great distinction, and I think that one of the things, again, that has been mentioned is that they've all been great public servants. As to one of the things my dad taught me, because he had had 36 years of public experience, he said that you always want to remember that you want to be a public servant and never a politician. I think that each of these three individuals whom we honor here tonight have been great public servants. What is the difference between a public servant and a politician? It is very, very simple, and it was explained to me. Public servants see how much they can give of themselves to the people they represent while politicians see how much they can take from the people they represent for their own benefit. Again, I think the people we have here before us this evening all epitomize that one great fact, that they've all been great public servants. They've worked hard. They've served their districts. They've gone home. You know, they make sure that their people back home are being taken care of, but at the same time, they recognize the duty they have to this great Nation that we all serve. As I mentioned, it's truly a tough thing to see these folks go. I know that I first met Congressman Regula many, many years ago because his office is right around the corner from where my dad's was up on the third floor there of the Rayburn. You know, Dad's office was there at 2309, and I always thought he had quite an impressive office. I know when I was in to see Congressman Regula when I was running, I looked out there, and I knew it would be a long time coming before I'd get a view like that. I'm truly blessed and privileged to be here with them tonight. This House has been made a much better place by you three serving here. You've blessed your constituents, and you have a Nation that's very grateful for all of the hard work that you've done. I just want to say thank you very much for your service.

Mr. LATTA

Mr. LATTA. You're absolutely right, because we need self-sufficiency on energy in this country; we keep the money in our own pockets. And you know, when it comes down to it, my district, I had the Corning International Manufacturers. You know, we have the ninth largest number of manufacturing jobs in the Fifth Congressional District in Ohio. That's a lot of jobs that are all dependent on one thing: energy. You know, when I go into my plants, I try to go in plants every week when I'm home. If we're here Monday through Thursday, I'm usually someplace on Friday. And the one thing that they'll do every time, they'll say, you know, what's driving us in cost here is the problem with energy. And a lot of times it's the oil. Well, it's the oil base that they have to have in their product that they make. It could be the energy that they have to consume to make that product. It could be higher electric costs. It could be, you know, you go right down the line of what it is. And the problem that we have been having in this country is we haven't been taking care of ourselves. We have to have what we've been advocating on our side of the aisle is an all-of-the-above energy policy. And that policy, of course, is what we're talking about is having more nuclear, to have more clean coal technology, to go out and have oil, have natural gas, as you pointed out, and to have that solar, that wind, that hydrogen, that ethanol, the biodiesel. But as our good friend from Georgia just mentioned a little bit ago when talking about coal, we have 24 percent of the world's known coal supplies in this country, and we're absolutely stymied at this time in not being allowed to get to that coal, because we could take that coal. I have an individual in my district that's invented a clean coal technology, and that's what we have to do. We have to utilize what we have here in this country so we don't transfer that wealth overseas. You're absolutely right when you talk about that 420 trillion cubic feet of gas, 86 billion barrels offshore right now. You know, what has just been passed last week under the Democrat plan, we're not going to get to that oil. You want to know the reasons why? Well, first of all, a lot of that oil is within that 50 miles offshore, not 50 miles to 100. And the second thing is there's nothing in that bill talking about lawsuits and preventing those lawsuits from slowing these leases from being developed. Because if we can do that, we can start developing. But it's about time that Americans take care of Americans because we're in a situation here, and you're absolutely right what you're talking about on the financial side, we're in a crisis stage here. We've watched all these dollars go overseas. I talked a little bit earlier about what happened with that $2.6 trillion of our national debt now being owned by foreign countries, $1 trillion being owned when it came to Fannie and Freddie Mac by foreign creditors, that they're actually dictating to us now. They're at the table. They're bargaining, or maybe they're not even bargaining. They might be dictating. And we're in a situation that we have got to get something done in this country, and I'm sure that you are very well aware of it.

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to control this hour. A lot has happened, not only this week, but in the last several weeks here in this great country of ours. We have been talking a lot today about what's been happening on the financial markets, but we always have to worry about what's happening on the energy markets. As you know, we have all seen those commercials on television from T. Boone Pickens talking about that $700 billion transfer of wealth out of this country in 1 year's time. When we are talking right now about what is happening in the financial markets, we are talking about maybe a bailout of $700 billion. Not only are those two numbers both very, very high, but they are also the same. We can't watch those American dollars flowing out of the country that should be staying right here. As we stand here today, we have about a $9.6 trillion national debt, of which $2.6 trillion of that is owned by foreign governments. One of the things that I have been saying for a good long period of time is what happens when they start dictating to the United States. I think one of the most interesting stories that did not get a lot of play, but was on the front page of the Washington Times during the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout, is that when the bailout was being worked out, the foreign banks out there, and creditors, had about $1 trillion of Fannie and Freddie. They are secured, but we have a lot of American banks out there that didn't have that preferential treatment, and they are on pennies on the dollar. But, again, as one of the things that was stated in that article, which I again found very, very interesting, it could be one of the first times since maybe the Revolutionary War when a foreign power is actually telling the United States what it is going to be doing. I think these are very, very tough times, but they are also times for action that we have to be doing in this country. At this time, I would like to recognize the gentlelady from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) who has been a great advocate. I would like to yield to her at this time.

Mr. LATTA. I thank the gentlelady from North Carolina for her eloquence and steadfastness and willingness to roll up her sleeves to work for a solution on these problems that we have. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to recognize my good friend, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).

Mr. LATTA. I thank the gentleman for his eloquence also tonight and for all of his hard work on trying to get this energy issue resolved, because it really is the number 1 issue that's really facing so many Americans out there. And I know that when I go home a lot, and I go home every weekend and I put a lot of miles on the car, I know as well as you all do. When you're at the gas station you have a lot of people come up to you and ask you the same question, what are we going to do about this energy question. And as we talk about it for a little bit, we talk about what we're doing down here and what we're trying to get accomplished, it's kind of interesting every so often because then some people ask you, well, how do you stand it, with all this? And I say, you know, it's not that bad. If you know what the problem is and we know what the solution is, we just have to get there. So I'm two-thirds of the way there, and I think that's the best way to go. And as the gentleman was talking about, as where we are today and it's a real crisis, and I'd like to invite my good friend, the gentlelady from Minnesota, to the podium also to talk about not only energy but also some of the financial things going on in the country at this time. But as has been pointed out, I know by the gentlelady from North Carolina, the big story today was that crude prices went up over $30 a barrel in a 1-day jump. And suddenly, finally a record jump of $16.37, and what that's spurred on by is by this financial problem that we have in this country. It's just not on the energy side, where we had all of these folks out there trying to find where's a safe haven to be right now. So they're looking at commodities for that currency hedge. And so you watch gold, silver, copper all posting strong gains today. But at the same time we saw oil that had been slowly but steadily going down, and trying to help the American people out there not have to spend so much at the pump. And I know the gentlelady has been very, very concerned on this same issue. And at this time I'd just like to turn over to you for a little bit to chat a little bit about where we are on the financial side, and we can talk about the energy issue at the same time.

Mr. LATTA. You're absolutely right, because when you're talking about that $700 billion, that translates into about 70 percent of all the oil that we use every day is imported in this country. And you're absolutely right, because when that price of oil keeps escalating up, then the question becomes what happened to the regular American person out there? Well, the problem is this. That means a person or a family won't be able to buy a new car because they've got to worry about what oil prices are. I have the largest washing machine plant in the world in my district. So that means of those 5 million washing machines, the problem then becomes, well, maybe people won't be able to buy washing machines.

Mr. LATTA. Absolutely.

Mr. LATTA. Well, when you're talking about who's going to be footing this bill, the other things that scares me is this. The reports out right now is that China will become the number one manufacturing country in the world next year. The United States, after more than 100 years, is getting knocked off that hill as being number one. So as we are in a situation where the taxpayers are being asked pretty much again to step up, foot these bills, who is going to pay it? Because the problem is the jobs. When I'm out at these factories in my district, one of the things that I ask the folks that are running the companies is, ``Out of curiosity, how far do your people drive in?'' It's not uncommon in my district that the people are driving 50 miles one way to work. Well, then you talk to the people out on the floor, and they're saying, ``You know what? If I have to drive 500 miles a week, with gas prices as they are, is it really worth it to me to actually have this job, or should I try to find a job some place closer to home?'' Then the manager of the companies then say, ``If I lose these trained employees, where am I going to get the people to run this plant? I'm going to have to move it either across the country or out of the country.'' It's almost like the dog is chasing its tail here. And we've got a real situation in this country where the people out there don't have the dollars in their pockets because they're paying more and more out. We had that report not too long ago that said we used about 4\1/2\ percent less fuel and energy this past summer. That was almost like a good news/bad news. Good news is we have more fuel supply, but the bad news is we had companies not making product. We had people not going places. We have a lot of places in my area, the State of Ohio, especially along Lake Erie--which is a huge tourist destination area-- and a lot of people said, ``You know what? We can't take that summer vacation this year. We can't go there.'' So by them not doing that, they didn't help the local tourist trade in our area. So it's a very tough situation. You know, when other countries are out there, they're exploring. As you pointed out as we were talking about oil shale that 2.1 trillion barrels, trillion barrels. And you're absolutely right; we are the Saudi Arabia when it comes to oil shale. At the same time you have got the Chinese and the Indians and the French and a lot of other countries in the world right now are out there producing energy. And you have got China in the next 25 to 30 years, they're probably going to build 40 nuclear power plants. The Indians are going to be building another 25 to 30 in the next 25 years. You have the French. The French right now are at least 75 percent nuclear. They have enough power that they can export that power into Europe. And here in this country we've got a situation where they're saying, ``What are we going to do in the future? What have we done?'' You know, the last nuclear power plant site in this country was 1977. Last one to go on line was in 1996. That's a crisis.

Mr. LATTA. In one year.

Mr. LATTA. You bring up a very interesting point when you're talking about what is happening, especially with the oil situation. When we went up to ANWR, there were 11 of us from the House side that went up. And we saw that pipeline. We saw mile marker zero, that 800- mile pipeline. That pipeline, as you remember, was carrying 2.1 million barrels of oil a day down it. It's at 700,000 barrels today. The problem we're going to have is we're watching about a 15 percent reduction every year in that pipeline. And because the Prudhoe Bay area and the other areas, they're slowly starting to tap out. When that pipeline gets down to 300,000 barrels a day, as you remember, probably the most telling problem that we're going to have up there is that pipeline can't flow any more. And it's just that they can't say we're just going to shut the pipeline off and we'll turn it back on in a few years. Once that oil stops, that pipeline is ruined. So if we can't get that million extra barrels a day that could be coming from ANWR--and let's just talk about that ANWR area as you mentioned a little bit earlier. It's the size of South Carolina, 19 million acres. Congress, in 1980, had set aside that section 1002 ground which was about 1.5 million acres. The area that we're looking----

Mr. LATTA. That's absolutely correct. And you're looking at that 1.5 million acres. The area that we're looking at is comprised of about 2,000 acres, which most of us from the farm country know that there's 640 acres in a section. So we're talking about 3\1/2\ sections of land, a little over 3\1/2\ square miles, probably. That's a pin drop up in Alaska. And Alaskans, 80 percent, want those jobs. They want to make sure that they get that oil down here. They want to make sure there is natural gas. Right now, as you remember, what's happening with that natural gas? They can't bring itself. There's no pipeline. So they're reinjecting it back in the ground. When you're talking about your constituents out there wondering what they're going to do this winter about--I've got my constituents right now that are only buying half a tank of propane because the problem is it is the same price as it was for a full tank last year. So, the problem is, what happens when they run out of that half a tank of propane halfway through winter? It is a crisis, and we have got to address it, and if we are going to stop the flow of watching our dollars leave this country, if we want to make sure that we can have a future for our kids and that the people aren't living from hand-to- mouth and they start thinking about their future, that they can put things away for their own retirement, thinking about their kids' college education. And then to buy those things, the only thing we didn't talk about. Buying that new house, putting new windows in from that company that makes them up in your district. So we've got a problem, and that problem's got to be solved now. We can't wait. We can't say we will pass this on to another Congress and pass this on to another generation, because we're going to be held responsible by every future generation as to what we do in this House Chamber in the next week.

Mr. LATTA. Something else at play in the hands in the last few weeks is called a hurricane, by not having diversification in this country and not having our fields dispersed around this country where we can get oil and natural gas. Everything had to be shut down in the gulf. Not only is everything shut down in the gulf, but we also then lost refineries. We haven't had new refineries built in almost three decades in this country. So we don't take care of ourselves. The problem has been in this country, we say, you other countries take care of us, we'll pay for this oil. It's not too expensive. But boy, I tell you, the chickens have come home to roost by now because by watching what's happening in the gulf and still knowing that we can't get the production up in the gulf, they're saying we might be out for another seven to eight days and maybe a little bit longer before we get back up. But at the same time, when I left Bowling Green this morning, I filled up the car. It was $3.79 a gallon. That was before there was a spike of $16.37. So when I get home, gas will probably be over $4 a gallon again, and people are going to say, wait a minute, what are we going to do. One of the things I did this morning was I was at our senior center in Wood County at their Meals on Wheels, the kitchen where they make the meals. They send out about 750 per day from that place. The problem is this: These folks are out there, a lot of the volunteers are saying, wait, I can't afford to volunteer my time anymore because I can't afford the gasoline. We've got volunteer firemen around this country, they're out there. We have all these people that do so much greatness for this country by being volunteers that are being shut off from doing it, not because they don't want to do it, because they can't afford the price of a gallon of gasoline. One of the bills I've introduced recently is to say, let's take that 14 cents for the volunteers that drive that Meals on Wheels vehicle, or their own personal use, and get that up to the business expense. That's the problem we have. It's not taking care of ourselves. It's only having a very small area that we're going to get our oil from in this country. It's having overreliance, like 70 percent, on other countries that bring us the oil and the resources that we need when we should be taking care of them ourselves.

Mr. LATTA. Well, I want to thank the gentlelady for her time this evening and for her expertise and all of the work that she's done.