Joseph Pitts

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, the Senate passed the $410 billion omnibus spending bill last night containing some 9,000 special interest earmarks. Sadly, it included a provision that will effectively kill a popular and successful program here in our Nation's Capital that provides a ray of hope for the children it serves. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program provides low-income families with a voucher they can use to attend the school of their choice. For many students, this provides the opportunity to get out of dangerous and failing public schools into private schools that provide them with a safe environment and a quality education. This program is under attack by politicians in Congress, many of whom send their own children to private schools. If school choice is good enough for their kids, why not school choice for everyone? I urge the President, who has chosen private school for his own children, to veto this special interest, pork-ladened bill and work with Congress toward meaningful education reform.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, there is an effort underway in Washington to take away the right of the secret ballot vote from American workers. Colleagues on the other side of the aisle will introduce today a bill misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, also called the Card Check bill. This is a bill that would allow for the establishment of a union not by secret ballot vote, but simply if the majority of employees at a company sign a card lending their support. This process, called ``card check,'' opens employees up to coercion and intimidation. The secret ballot is a fundamental principle of American democracy. If individuals want to join a union, they are entitled to that right. They can show their support with their vote. But if workers do not want to pay union dollars to be used to advance a political agenda they disagree with, they should also be afforded the same right, to cast their vote free of coercion and intimidation in a secret ballot election. Card check is an assault on the principles of our Nation and would be a job killer during a time when we cannot afford to lose more jobs.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, one of my constituents, Gail, from Lititz, Pennsylvania, recently wrote to me about a provision in the President's recently released budget. She said, among other things, ``God has blessed us abundantly in many ways; in turn, we have been able to bless others. We donate a very large percentage of our income to the hungry, homeless, orphaned and widowed. We are in the top tax bracket. Any increase in our taxes or decrease in our charitable deductions will not hurt our standard of living, it will, indeed, hurt the very people that the government is trying to help.'' When Alexis de Tocqueville wrote with praise for America, he cited our civic institutions, like churches and other nonprofit organizations, as the basis for our strength in the Nation. The Obama administration is woefully misguided if they think reducing the tax credit for charitable donations will help America. During an economic recession, our churches, charities, and other community organizations that assist many individuals quicker and more effectively than government programs will be harmed. It's a mistake to change our tax policy to reduce funding to these organizations when their help is needed most in communities across America.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, the President is expected to sign the omnibus appropriations bill this week, once the Senate acts on the bill. Since the President made numerous promises to reduce earmarks during his campaign, the American people should know what is in the bill that he will be signing, another 1,100-plus page bill. This is a $410 billion spending bill which contains 8,500 earmarks, including $300,000 for migrating loons in Nevada, $900,000 for planetarium equipment in Chicago, $190,000 for trolleys in Puerto Rico, $3 million for a foot bridge in St. Louis, $380,000 for a lighthouse in Maine, $1 million for red snappers in Florida, $7 million for sea turtles in Hawaii, and on and on. Migratory loons in Nevada? Red snappers in Florida? Trolleys in Puerto Rico? In a time of trillion dollar deficits, enough is enough!

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, Members were informed yesterday that a deal has been struck on the $1 trillion spending bill that Speaker Pelosi is calling an economic stimulus plan. The American people have a right to know what is in this bill, but I have serious doubts that the majority party will allow the American people to view the bill for the 48 hours like they said they would; so let's look at a couple of the provisions of the bill. Davis-Bacon, a policy that forces government contractors to pay union wages, will force the cost of all infrastructure and construction projects up by millions and millions of dollars in every part of the country. The bill directly undermines key welfare reforms passed by Congress in the nineties that got people off welfare and back to work. In fact, under provisions in the bill, States are actually incentivized to put more people on welfare. Not to mention the pork: $4.8 million for a polar bear exhibit, $3 million for golf carts, $150 million for honey bee insurance, and on and on. This isn't much about creating jobs; it is massive government spending. First the bailout, now the so-called stimulus. Enough is enough.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 554 and the importance of nanotechnology. It's a very important part of our economy. It's an important part of health care. Our stimulus bill has a lot of things to do with our economy that this could be a part of. And so I'm glad we're taking time to recognize the importance of this. An hour ago, we stood here honoring one of our colleagues, John Dingell, and his service as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. And I just want to say he served with dignity. He was always fair to the minority. It was a pleasure to serve with him as chairman. And the Energy and Commerce Committee is one of the three committees that has jurisdiction over this stimulus, this massive stimulus bill that's coming up later this week. The gentleman from Tennessee mentioned there is a bipartisan conference today at 3 o'clock on this bill. The problem is there are only two Republicans. Not one Republican from Energy and Commerce, which has jurisdiction over a lot of this bill, is on this conference committee. We spent 12 hours a week ago in marking up this bill, and then our amendments were promptly stripped out of the bill. Debate has been limited. Literally in this case, we're not even given a seat at the table, with a Republican Member of this important committee of jurisdiction being included in the conference committee and negotiating the final bill. We're barreling full steam ahead, railroading through Congress a trillion dollar massive spending bill that is masquerading as an economic stimulus bill, and I think on a day when we honor good men like John Dingell and his service, the kind of governance he has provided for so many years in this institution and with this committee that has jurisdiction, that it would be appropriate that we govern differently. And I thank the gentleman.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, this big government spending plan being called a stimulus is deeply flawed and being rushed through Congress with little regard for the consequences. Take a look at some of the provisions, including $1.1 billion in spending to prepare the country for socialized medicine. Under the guise of economic stimulus, the bill creates a Council for Comparative Effectiveness, which amounts to government bureaucracy deciding what is best for your health care based on cost averages, not what is best for each individual sick patient. President Obama's health care advisers have made clear that this is part of their overall plan to move toward universal government-run health care. People don't want socialized medicine in this country. This has nothing to do with creating jobs and getting our economy back on track. Using this so-called stimulus bill to move the country towards the agenda of the left is wrong. First the bailout, now the stimulus, millions of dollars in pork. Enough is enough.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, I stand today to honor Pennsylvania State Police Chaplain Grover DeVault. Grover has spent his entire adult life ministering to the spiritual and emotional needs of those around him. Early in his professional life, Grover served as a chaplain in the United States Army, including time spent in Vietnam. In this capacity, Grover provided guidance and counseling not only to members of his military unit, but the people of Vietnam as well, whose lives were upended by war in their homeland. It is my understanding that Chaplain DeVault was wounded as a direct result of enemy action during his active duty service. The event occurred on February 27, 1969, while he was stationed in Da Nang, Vietnam. For this, I recommended him for a Purple Heart. He retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel, but his ministry did not end there. Grover has remained very much involved in ministering to our troops and veterans in various capacities. His work on their behalf is no longer a duty, but a commitment that he has made because of his personal belief in the importance of ministering to the spiritual needs of those who serve our nation. One of the ways he continues to serve our troops is as a missionary, along with his wife Nancy, with Cadence International. Cadence is an evangelical mission agency dedicated to reaching the military communities of the United States and the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ. In addition to his work with our troops, he actually established the chaplaincy program within the Pennsylvania State Police force and has provided chaplain services to the Troop J Lancaster Barracks of the State Police for many years. It was in this capacity that he provided a desperately needed service as a counselor to the emergency personnel who responded to the tragedy at the Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania in 2006. Grover is a man of great integrity who has dedicated his life to serving the spiritual needs of the men and women who serve our nation. I am pleased to honor him here in the House of Representatives, and I thank him for the important work he has done in spreading the Gospel to a community that is so important to our nation.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, I stand today to commend the opening of the new Dove Chocolate Center for Excellence in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania on Monday, September 29th. On the 29th, I will join Dove in celebrating the completion of a $70 million factory expansion. The expansion not only represents an investment in Mars production capacity, but represents a $70 million investment in the Elizabethtown community as well. Mars Snackfood US has a history in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, dating back to 1970 when Mars, Incorporated purchased the Klein Chocolate Company. In order to keep up with production demand, their facility, which was originally built in 1915, has been renovated and expanded several times since the purchase in 1970. Today, the Elizabethtown plant is the center of the Mars Snackfood US chocolate making world, roasting and grinding the cocoa beans used in the company's various snack products. Mars currently employs more than 300 people at the Elizabethtown plant, and the expansion will retain current jobs and add more than 30 new jobs as well. As a part of the financial commitment to the expansion, in November 2007 Mars showed its ongoing commitment to the Elizabethtown community by contributing $125,000 to the borough to be used for mitigating traffic concerns during the expansion project. I want to congratulate Mars on the completion of a successful expansion project and praise their commitment to American jobs by maintaining and indeed expanding production here in Pennsylvania, to the benefit of the Elizabethtown community. It is important that we recognize firms like Mars for their investment in the communities in which they operate. At a time when many jobs are being sent overseas, I commend Mars for creating expanding opportunities for employment right here in Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 1451, which would form a permanent Human Rights Commission in the House of Representatives. As we've heard, we currently have a Human Rights Caucus here in the House which does great work on behalf of many of those around the world that simply lack a voice. This resolution would create a Commission that would ensure the activities of the Caucus would be more stable and permanent by creating a budget and a permanent staff devoted to working on these issues. I want to thank all of the various parties that have worked on getting this legislation to the floor so quickly, including the leadership on each side of the aisle. This resolution is aptly named after our friend and colleague, Tom Lantos, who passed away earlier this year. Tom was a survivor of one of the most heinous crimes against humanity, the Holocaust, and he dedicated his public service to ensuring that good people would not stand silently by while people were deprived of their most basic, God-given rights. The resolution would establish the permanent Commission in order to promote and advocate in a nonpartisan manner, both inside and outside Congress, internationally recognized human rights norms. Our Founding Fathers believed that we are born with certain unalienable rights, namely, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and they established in our Constitution, in the very first amendment, the rights of freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, redress of grievances. And yet we live in a world where people are deprived each day of even these most basic rights. We have a duty, as fellow human beings, to speak out against these most depraved violations of human rights. The creation of this Commission will dedicate the necessary resources to ensure that the Members of this great body are informed on this issue, and have an opportunity to affect real change in the lives of people who need it most around the world. I urge support for this resolution.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, Exelon, an energy company which provides electricity to my district in Pennsylvania, recently announced a voluntary goal of reducing, offsetting, or displacing more than 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year by 2020. This is more than the company's current annual carbon emission total and is equivalent to taking nearly 3 million cars off American roads and highways. The campaign, called Exelon 2020, will pursue three broad strategies: first, reduce or offset Exelon's carbon emissions by reducing energy consumption and operating to the highest environmental standards; secondly, help customers and the communities in which they serve to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency programs and a diverse portfolio of green products and services; and third, offer more low-carbon electricity in the marketplace. The voluntary, market-driven strategies such as Exelon 2020 will help to strengthen our clean energy infrastructure, and they should be commended.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Today my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are bringing up legislation promoting drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve, a large desolate tract of land to the west of ANWR in Alaska. It is nice that they finally acknowledge we need to access more of our own energy resources right here at home. But I do find it strange that they are willing to advocate drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve, which was originally set aside for the use of our military in an emergency, yet they continue to oppose oil exploration in ANWR. The National Reserve contains about 440 barrels of oil per acre, compared to ANWR's 5,475 barrels per acre. The National Reserve's oil and gas fields are more than 250 miles from existing pipeline infrastructure, compared to ANWR's 75-mile distance. The National Reserve's oil and gas fields are spread out over 23 million acres, compared to 1.9 million acres in ANWR. It is strange that my colleagues, who are supposed to be more environmentally conscious, would wish to drill for oil that is more spread out and will require a much larger footprint to access instead of using the more concentrated oil and natural gas resources in ANWR.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, until this week, there were two prohibitions on offshore drilling, two prohibitions from keeping us from accessing billions of barrels of American oil. One was imposed by Congress; another by executive order in 1990. But now President Bush has lifted the executive ban. Standing in the Rose Garden he said, ``The only thing now standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress. Now the ball is squarely in Congress' court.'' There can be no mistake. Congress must answer to the American people why we are not allowing the production of American-made energy right here at home, why Congress prefers the money to be sent to dictators and unsavory regimes around the world. Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leadership in this House should bring legislation to the floor to vote on opening the deep waters off our coast to allow us to access billions of barrels of American-made energy immediately. Otherwise, the price of gasoline and home heating oil will continue to rise.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, more good news out of Iraq. The AP recently reported that U.S. forces, in cooperation with Iraqi authorities, have just completed a top secret operation that involved shipping 550 metric tons of uranium yellowcake out of Iraq from a cache discovered there. This stockpile of concentrated natural uranium, which is a seed material for higher-grade uranium enrichment, was shipped out of Iraq aboard U.S. cargo planes, then shipped across two oceans, finally arriving in Canada where it will be used by a Canadian firm for nuclear power. The operation was an important step in ridding Iraq of the last vestiges of Saddam Hussein's one-time nuclear program, and it removed the uranium from the possibility of falling into the hands of insurgents or smugglers crossing into Iran to sell it for use in producing nuclear weapons. This issue certainly has not received much attention in the mainstream press, but it is important news the American people should know.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the practices of an industry that are characterized by death, deception and depression--the abortion industry--and that's just what it is, an industry. Since 1973 and the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, 50 million unborn babies have been lost. Abortion has burgeoned into a thriving industry. At the average cost of hundreds of dollars per abortion, the abortion business is a billion-dollar-a-year industry in the United States. It's even bigger than that internationally, and the American taxpayer subsidizes it. Abortion providers continue to receive hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds every year. The U.S. Government subsidizes this industry every year in every budget. Planned Parenthood has emerged at the front of this big business as one of the top abortion providers in the country. Two years ago, this not-for-profit organization posted record-breaking profits. Last year, it reported even higher profits, but at whose expense does this profit come? It's at the expense of helpless unborn children, young girls and women. While the government continues to provide a slush fund for abortion providers, a mother mourns the loss of her child; siblings grieve their unborn brother or sister, and grandparents lament the grandchild who was taken from them. My own words could never fully capture the pain that has been meted out by the hand of the abortion industry. So, instead of sharing my own thoughts, I'll give voice to the stories of so many who have been silenced by the powerful abortion lobby. One woman tells the story of how she was routinely raped by her father. When she was 16, he forced her to have an abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Cincinnati where she reported the abuse to the staff. However, the staff chose not to report her case to law enforcement. It was not until the girl told a school counselor that the authorities were notified so that they could intervene and rescue her. The bottom line is that abortion clinics are habitually covering up abuse by failing to report statutory rape, and we are funding those clinics with title X money. We must stop funding clinics that facilitate abuse and that cover up crimes against children. Another woman from Nebraska recently filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood after undergoing an abortion that resulted in the perforation of her uterus and in a severe loss of blood. According to reports, the abortion practitioner began the procedure with a shot in the woman's uterus, and she immediately complained of severe pain. She told the practitioner to stop, but he allegedly replied ``We can't stop.'' The woman was then restrained by three Planned Parenthood employees while the practitioner completed the abortion. She experienced severe pain, bleeding and three seizures by the time she arrived at the hospital. A hospital report stated that her uterus was perforated during the abortion and that doctors had to perform an emergency hysterectomy because of the severe damage to her body. The doctors later said that the botched abortion could have killed her. The abortion industry makes false claims that abortion is harmless and that it is a simple procedure. They often use safety as a talking point for legalization. However, the truth is that abortion, legal or not, is a risky procedure that carries potentially serious side effects for the health of the woman. Unfortunately, the deceit does not end there. The abortion lobby denies the reality that abortion has a very powerful and lasting emotional impact on most women, but real human stories decry this lie. Again, I'll share not my words but the stories of those who've experienced the pain themselves. A 14-year-old girl writes ``This was something I really never thought I'd go through, something I don't want anyone else to have to go through. I did not feel a thing physically, but emotionally, I'm scarred for life. The day it came, I was so upset: the last time I could sing or talk to my baby again. Not even a day after, I'm already regretting it, just sitting here, wondering what he or she would have become.'' While we continue down the path of deception, women continue to suffer. I hope, during this hour, we might remember the lives of those who could have been. We might remember the lives of unborn children who are lost. We might remember the lives of women and families who carry hurt and pain from an experience that they were told would be harmless. Organizations like Planned Parenthood claim to work to reduce abortions, but ironically, they remain the top abortion provider in the country. Every Federal dollar to support abortion providers is a dollar to help the abortion industry flourish at the expense of women, of young girls and of unborn children. As the chairperson of the Feminists for Life, Frederica Mathewes- Green once said, ``An abortion wounds a mother's heart. They will never recover from the grief of an abortion. There are always two victims within an abortion--the baby and the mother--one wounded, one dead.'' Mr. Speaker, the taxpayers deserve to know that their hard-earned dollars supposedly destined for family planning services are being used to subsidize the abortion industry. I urge my colleagues to oppose Federal funding for abortion providers and to support the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act. I thank the great leader in the pro-life movement here in the House, Chris Smith, for leading this hour. Like my hero, William Wilberforce, the British parliamentarian who led the abolition movement in Britain because he was against slavery, Chris Smith and other pro-life leaders here tonight are leading the pro-life movement because we're against abortion. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, in a story from The Hill newspaper yesterday, a Democrat staffer is quoted as saying House Democrats' strategy on the issue of skyrocketing gas prices is to ``drive small cars and wait for the wind.'' What a terribly insulting idea to the American people who continue to suffer as the price of gas soars over $4 a gallon. The truth is, I know there are plenty of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who would support reasonable bipartisan legislation to increase American production of oil here at home. Unfortunately, the Democrat leadership controls the floor agenda, and the same article notes that Democratic leadership is terrified their Members might actually support legislation that would open up exploration in the deep waters off our coasts or in ANWR. It's time for the Speaker to let the Members of this body do their job and represent their constituents' desires and drill for American oil. When will the Speaker's office hear the cries from the American public?

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, the House voted this week on Medicare. First, let me make one thing clear: We need to pay our doctors. We cannot continue to make it more difficult for doctors to make the decisions to see Medicare patients. A permanent fix is absolutely necessary. Having said that, the bill we voted on this week took a very short- sighted approach. By cutting the successful and innovative Medicare Advantage program in order to pay for the doctors' payment fix, there will be cuts to Medicare Advantage plans that will reduce access, benefits, and choices for millions of our senior citizens, especially low income seniors and those in rural areas. We can take care of our doctors without cutting benefits for our seniors, our Nation's senior citizens. The cuts to Medicare Advantage were $47.5 billion. This would do great damage to an effective aspect of Medicare that serves our senior citizens. We can do better than that.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, in light of last week's Supreme Court decision giving enemy terrorist detainees at Guantanamo habeas corpus rights, I thought I would offer a brief history lesson as described by my friend Gary Bauer. On June 13, 1942, four armed German spies came ashore on the beaches of Long Island, New York. Four days later, four more spies came ashore at Jacksonville, Florida. All were sent to sabotage American defense sites. All eight were quickly captured, tried by military tribunal, not civilian courts. Less than a month later, their cases began, and by August 4, all were convicted. Sixty-six years later, almost to the day, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision declared that foreign terrorists captured on foreign soil possess more rights under our Constitution than those Nazi spies sent here to ambush our domestic defenses. I believe history will no doubt judge that this flawed Supreme Court decision has left the United States less safe as a result.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, this week's Supreme Court decision regarding enemy terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay threatens the separation of powers by undermining the authority of the President as commander-in-chief and thwarting repeated efforts of Congress to address this issue. Taking enemy combatants from before military tribunals and putting them before civilian judges is a mistake. Justice Scalia, who wrote a dissenting opinion to the 5-4 decision, said, ``America is at war with radical Islamists. The game of bait-and- switch that today's opinion plays upon the Nation's commander-in-chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.'' Chief Justice Roberts said, ``Today the Court strikes down as inadequate the most generous set of procedure protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants.'' Madam Speaker, I believe history will judge the five Justices who supported this policy to be mistaken. Unfortunately, this most serious issue was stripped from the jurisdiction of America's elected officials, who are accountable to voters, and given to judges never elected and not accountable to the population at large.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, a new oil refinery has not been built in the United States in over 30 years, and the refineries that we do have are operating at or near capacity. No matter how much crude oil is made available, the United States simply does not have the capacity to refine it. And today we are importing processed refined gasoline, last week, 1.2 million barrels of refined gasoline. Less than a week after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf, the price for regular gasoline increased by 46 cents, because much of our refining capacity is located along the Gulf Coast. Oil refining capacity is just one of the many aspects of our energy policy that we need to reconsider as gas prices continue their steep climb. My bill, H.R. 2279, the subject of this week's discharge resolution, would address one of the largest hurdles to building a new refinery; finding land. By using a few closed military bases, we can jump-start the process and help address our refining needs.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, I rise today over the comments made by the brutal generals, military dictators in Burma, saying that Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and rightful leader elected by the people, deserves to be flogged. Come again? These are the generals who stonewalled for weeks and refused to allow desperately needed humanitarian aid to get to the people after the cyclone, who order their military to attack ethnic groups throughout the country, who in 1988 issued a blood assimilation order to their troops to marry or rape the ethnic women in order to ``purify'' the ethnic's blood line, who forcibly conscript children to serve as child soldiers in their army, who plant land mines around the villages they attack so that returning villagers get maimed or killed, who pillage or plunder the resources of Burma so they can have huge weddings with millions of dollars of jewels around the necks of their daughters. It is the SPDC generals, brutal dictators with their crimes against humanity and campaigns of ethnic cleansing who deserve to be stripped of power and placed under arrest for many years to come.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, on Monday the Investor's Business Daily printed an editorial entitled ``The Drill Nothing Congress.'' Here is a short quote from it. ``It is a problem driven by domestic supply restrictions imposed by the Democratic Congress in the face of growing worldwide demand. The Democrats preach energy independence while they do everything in their power to prevent it.'' The problem they are speaking of is $4 a gallon gasoline. The American people are fed up with a Congress that can't seem to respond to one of their most basic concerns. People are tired of Democrat leaders blocking action to bring down skyrocketing gas prices. So we have introduced a discharge petition to force a vote on the No More Excuses Energy Act. We need to increase domestic production of energy in order to bring down the price of gas at the pump. I urge all my colleagues to sign on to the discharge petition and support the bill when it comes to the floor of the House. There is no excuse not to.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, President Bush recently went to Saudi Arabia to ask the gulf kingdom to increase its oil production to help bring down gas prices. Instead of flying all the way to the Middle East, perhaps he should have made the short trip down Pennsylvania Avenue for a visit with Congress to ask the lawmakers here to increase the supply of oil right here at home. According to the Department of Interior, 86 billion barrels of oil are available in the Outer Continental Shelf, added to the 53 billion barrels available in land. According to the Bureau of Land Management, we have 139 billion barrels of oil right here at home. That's more than the oil-rich countries like Kuwait, Venezuela and Russia have. Last year we imported over 6 billion gallons of refined gasoline into the United States. One might ask, considering these numbers, why aren't we attempting to access more of our fuel right here at home? The Democrat leaders have a roadblock to every bill to drill for oil, natural gas, shale oil, right here in the U.S. How long is it going to take them to learn?

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, since 2006 the Democrats have been completely in control of Congress. The Democrat leadership continues to put a roadblock in the way of accessing American oil. Gas prices have doubled in the past year. At the station down the street from my home, gas is now over $4 a gallon. House Republicans believe in increasing production of American-made energy. Vast untapped American energy resources are currently under lock and key and off-limits. American energy resources can make our Nation more secure and less dependent on foreign oil. House Republicans believe not only in technologies like wind, solar, and biomass but that we ought to make use of the billions of barrels of oil in Alaska, off the deep waters of the Outer Continental Shelf, and on Federal lands. We can do this in an environmentally sensitive way. And we should eliminate the red tape it takes to build a new oil refinery. We should develop American-made energy.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. On April 24, 2006, while campaigning to become Speaker of the House, the Democrat leader said, ``Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices.'' On the day the Democrats took control of Congress in January of 2007, gas in my home State of Pennsylvania was averaging $2.37 a gallon. Today, it's averaging over $3.75 a gallon. Many people have taken to calling this $1.38 increase the ``Pelosi premium.'' This Congress has yet to do anything substantive to help American families who are paying nearly $4 a gallon at the pump. The Democrats in Congress have been voting against increasing domestic oil and natural gas production as well as domestic refining capacity for years. This is a matter of supply and demand. We have billions of barrels of oil in Alaska and in the deep waters off the Outer Continental Shelf right here in the United States. Yet, due mostly to the Democratic opposition, we have been unable to access these vast resources. We should take steps now to increase production.