Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Right.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And if you think about what, in my estimation, great leaders would have done after 9/11, and you think about what the Lincolns and the Roosevelts and the Kennedys would have done in that particular situation, we had so much political clout in the world after 9/11. President Bush's approval ratings were off the charts. He failed to seize that opportunity to call up the oil companies, sit them down in the Cabinet room and say, boys, the party's over. We're all getting together, it's going to be a public/private partnership, and we're going in the alternative energy realm together as a country, public and private. He didn't do that. He asked everyone to go shopping; that was the big, creative challenge to the country. And that was a missed opportunity that few Presidents ever get, and he got it.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Absolutely. So just a few days ago, our good friend from Tennessee, Representative Wamp--who I sit on the Energy and Water Subcommittee of Appropriations with--Rodney Alexander, a Republican from Louisiana, Johnny Isakson, Republican from Georgia, there are some Republicans who are saying, ``put this into the market,'' but not enough to actually have the kind of impact to actually get this done, not as many as we need. And when you look at the American Trucking Association, when you look at the National Farmers Union, when you look at the Air Transportation Association, all of these groups wanted us to do this today. We did it, and it was prevented from happening: 70 million barrels of oil going into the market today. But part of it--and I know the gentleman wants to talk a little bit about this as well--is what is happening with the dollar and how the dollar has been, because of its weakness at this point, the dollar has increased the cost of a lot of these commodities. And I'd like to yield to my friend.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, let's think about it. When the second President Bush got in in 2000, two oilmen in the White House, and Vice President Cheney has this secret meeting--that nobody was allowed to know about--to begin to implement the energy policy of this administration, Republican House, Republican Senate, Republican White House, and here we go, here comes the energy policy. Now, an energy policy that we agree on today doesn't necessarily have an effect today. Moving barrels out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a unique example of something having an immediate effect. But with energy policies, today's decisions have an effect years later. And so in 2000, when the Bush administration came, Mr. Speaker, and implemented this policy, headed up by the Vice President, we are now feeling the effects of it. There was no massive move towards alternative energy. There was no expansion of nuclear. There was no expansion of biodiesel. There was no significant investment into alternative energies so that we can become independent. And when you look at the fact that we import--nearly 70 percent of the oil that we use in this country is imported from other sources, completely dependent on the Middle East and other countries in South America. So they have implemented their energy policy, and today we have $4 a gallon gas. And the comments saying somehow that it's not their fault, it's not their responsibility, when their policies have been implemented, is ridiculous.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And we use 25 percent. So we only have 4 percent and we use 25 percent, and we're shipping $700 billion a year to those countries that are sending their oil over here, and we can't drill enough. Even if we open everything up, we still can't get enough oil to solve the problem. It is simple math and it's disingenuous, Mr. Speaker, to somehow mislead the American public, in the words of T. Boone Pickens, who is an oilman from Texas who is saying the same thing. It is misleading to say that we can drill our way out of this. There are 68 million acres that the oil companies now have, up to 90 million. They've done the research as to where they wanted to purchase the lease. They think there is oil there. They know there's oil there. Go and drill it and stop the political games of trying to say that somehow some of the American people are against it. Go ahead and drill. But that is not going to solve the problem. And I know in your district and I know the people that vote for me in my district want me to come down here to solve problems, not to mislead them and score political points. When I am eating at Vernon's Restaurant about two blocks from me, the best Italian restaurant on the planet, Mr. Speaker, people want to know exactly what we are going to do to solve the problem. And if you explain to them that we don't have enough oil reserves to keep this train going, they're smart enough to realize that they know how the movie ends, and it's not pretty because now we're 10 years from where we are today, gas is at $8 a gallon, and we are more dependent on oil from the Middle East, and we have done nothing with wind and nuclear and biodiesel; so we are in a worse spot than we are today. Now, I would love to go to my friends who are at Vernon's Restaurant and say, ``If we just keep drilling, we're going to be okay.'' But that's not the reality. Those aren't the facts. And the facts have got to dictate what public policy is or we are not doing our job for the American people.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And when you think about that, and we had T. Boone Pickens in our caucus this week, he was on the Hill talking to both Democrats and Republicans--many people may have seen his commercials about his plan for transferring energy from being oil-based into some of these alternative energy fields, including wind, primarily, for him--but here's a geologist from Oklahoma University who is worth $4 billion in the oil industry, kind of understands what's going on, telling us ``You can't drill your way out of this.'' But his main point was, not only that we're importing 70 percent of our oil, but there's a $700 billion transfer of wealth from the United States into these other countries. And what we're saying is that $700 billion, that should be put to work here in the United States of America building windmills, building nuclear facilities, moving forward with a lot of these other alternative energy sources that are clean and renewable. And you add to that what we're spending on the war in Iraq, $10 to $12 billion a month in Iraq. This is going to be a trillion dollar war, at the end of the day it's going to cost us $3 trillion when you factor in the cost of dealing with a lot of the veterans who have come back, who we have an obligation to take care of in order to honor their service. If that money was spent focusing on investments in alternative energy here in the United States 7 years ago, we would be so far down the path. We would have a green country. We would have green energy. We would have control of the lithium batteries that are being made. You would have plug-in cars. This all could have happened in the last 5 or 6 years. And so we need to get out of this mentality that somehow we're stuck. And I think for public officials to tell us that somehow, when you only have 4 percent of the world's oil reserves, you can somehow drill your way out of this problem is misleading. And Boone Pickens said that, ``They mislead the public.'' This is what he said the other day when he was here, July 23, ``They mislead the public.'' The public thinks we can go and drill and they mislead it, and that we're going to get $2 a gallon in gas. Let's have an honest conversation about how we can prevent us from getting into the same situation a decade from now, where you and I-- maybe here, maybe not here--that we're not having the same conversation. And we have an opportunity to do that now. Speaker Pelosi, we've put hundreds of millions of dollars into research and development for these alternative energy sources, and some are starting to come online. But this should have been done 30 years ago, but especially 7 years ago.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And that's the best thing from our vantage point: Prove to the American people as to what your beliefs are and how it's going to affect their lives. And if you have a couple of jobs and you're making the minimum wage, you got a pay raise twice already in the last year, just over the last year. If you're going to school, there is more grant money available for you to go get an education. There is a lower interest rate on the loan that you're going to take out or your parents may take out to send you to school. Those are significant investments that Democrats have made into the future of our country so that middle-class people can be successful and take advantage of these tools. We can't do it for anybody. But these are tools that average families will use and implement to move forward. Two of the things that we can't forget, we have also passed the GI Bill out of the House which will say that if you served this country in Iraq or Afghanistan over the past 3 or 4 years that you will have all expenses paid to go to college. In Ohio, there is a policy now that the Governor has implemented that you can come to Ohio, any veteran around the country, can come to Ohio and have in-State tuition rates if you're a veteran. And look at what we've done for veterans' health care. The largest investment in the 77-year history of the VA was made by the Democratic Congress when we got in here. A lot of us weren't for the war. And I will be the first to say I wasn't for it. But what we all are for is honoring the service of the veterans who go over there and make the great sacrifice and the sacrifices that their family makes. So we have made that investment into the VA program so that the vets have the benefits that they need. And we're honoring their service by making that investment. And if you look to the previous 7 years or 6 years, what the President made, Mr. Speaker, and what the Republican Congress made, it was $14 billion in corporate welfare to the oil companies. It was tax cuts to people who make millions and millions of dollars a year. It was an energy policy that got us $4 a gallon gas. It was a health care policy that gets 15 or 20 percent increase on your health care. A dramatic difference. And I'm proud to stand up here and talk a little bit about what we've done and what we're going to continue to do, because I feel like we're just getting started. And we have an election coming up now in November. And I think there is an opportunity for us to really move forward. So, I'm honored again to be with the gentleman from Pennsylvania. And Mr. Speaker, we're going to wrap up. Again, congratulations to my brother and sister-in-law, they're grandparents to Andrea. And we will yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I agree. But it's important for us to realize too that we are moving on the energy issues. We are trying to fix it, short term and long term. Short term by releasing the barrels of oil out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, have a short-term impact, reduce the cost; and then long term, invest in these alternative energy sources with different kinds of cars and incentives and tax credits for renewables and all of these different policies that will help stimulate a lot of the renewable energy fields long term. We are also trying to do other things along public policy areas that will have an effect for families who are getting hurt today and getting squeezed because of energy and because of health care and because of tuition. One of the things I would like to talk about that we have been doing, families want their kids to have a better life than they had, and they want their kids to move further on in life than they have. And the key in 2008 for that is an education. And what has happened just a week or so ago, one of the policies that we have implemented is reducing the cost of student loans. The cost of a student loan used to be 6.8 percent, or the interest rate on a student loan used to be about 6.8 percent last year. As of just a few days ago, this went down to 6 percent. And this is going to continue to go down over the course of the next few years to about 3.4 percent for a student loan because when we got in, when the Democrats got in, and Speaker Pelosi has a major priority and a major emphasis on education, this is where we put our resources. This is where we made the investment. So for my friends, Mr. Speaker, who don't seem to think there is a difference between the two parties, when you go to get a student loan and its .8 percent less this year than it was last year, that's because the Democrats are in and it was a priority for us to reduce the interest rate on a student loan. And when you go next year and it's even lower and when you go the following year and I think by 2010 it's down to 3.4 percent, the average student loan is going to be reduced by about $4,400. So when you take the $4,400, you take the increase in the minimum wage, you look at all of these different little policies that we have, they add up to where families and kids can have a better, more prosperous future than their parents had. But those are the kinds of investments that we're making. And just today the minimum wage went up again because of what the Democrats have done. There's a clear focus and a clear philosophy of what we are trying to implement here, and that's for middle class families to have success and for them to move forward and have their kids have more opportunity than they had. Whether it's energy or health care or education, that's where we are moving towards to make sure that we can advance that cause.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay respect and tribute to Mr. John P. Shaffer, who passed away July 21 at the age of 84. Mr. Shaffer was born April 25, 1924 in Youngstown, the son of John H. and Genevieve Perry Shaffer. A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, Mr. Shaffer proudly served his country with honor. Following the war, he returned home to Niles and soon married Ann M. Bancroft, his wife of 62 years. Mr. Shaffer retired in 1984 after working 31 years as a supervisor at National Gypsum Co. A lifelong public servant in the city of Niles, he was a city councilman at large for 12 years, and safety director for the city from 1976 to 1980. In 1984 he was elected mayor, a position he held until 1988. Mr. Shaffer's tenure as mayor is best remembered for aiding the city in its time of need. In 1985, his second year in office, a devastating tornado swept through the city leaving a path of destruction in its wake. Mr. Shaffer's strong leadership helped the city rise from the rubble, providing hope in the face of devastation. A patriotic American family man, Mr. Shaffer cherished time spent with his daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. An avid fisherman and outdoorsman, he enjoyed his retirement to the fullest extent, often retreating to the Florida sunshine during harsh Midwestern winters. He was a member of the Niles Men's Democratic Club, Loyal Order of Moose, and the Niles American Legion. A man of faith, Mr. Shaffer was a member of St. Stephen Church in Niles, often devoting time to those less fortunate. For much of his life, he was a Eucharistic minister for homebound parishioners. A man of the highest character, Mr. Shaffer's legacy in the Mahoning Valley will live on through his work, public contributions, and family. John P. Shaffer touched many lives in his lifetime, and he will be greatly missed. I am honored to have represented him.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think it is important. Here is the history. Not just the short-term history, kind of what the gentleman from Connecticut Mr. Murphy just went over, but that long history. We have been since we got in trying to push legislation on every single issue that is going to help middle-class families in the United States of America. We raised the minimum wage for the first time since 1997. The new increase will go here in just a few more weeks. On July 24th there will be another minimum wage increase for those people earning the minimum wage. Some people have two minimum wage jobs, who will get another $28 a week, which isn't a lot, but with high gas prices it is a lot more than what would have happened if the Democrats were not here. If you look at the investments we made in biofuels already through the farm bill and the alternative energy that Mr. Murphy already mentioned, some economists are saying this is keeping gas down 50 cents a gallon more now because of the biofuel blends that are coming in. If you look at what just happened last week when you would take your kid or a student was going to try to take out a loan to go to school, and the interest rate was 6 percent instead of 6.8 percent, that is because the Democrats are in Congress and pushed that bill. That did not happen when the Republicans were in charge here. Madam Speaker, we did that. Democrats did that. So when you are talking about who is on the side of the person going to the pump at $4 gas, it is the Democrats. We are against the oil companies. We are against President Bush. And if you look at the last 8 years, who would you rather have fixing the problem? President Bush and Dick Cheney and the oil companies, or the Democrats, who increased the minimum wage, invested in alternative energy, and made the kind of commitments on student loans and education that we have made. There is a clear difference here. And here is all the land that the oil companies have to drill on: 102 percent of Colorado, 130 percent of Kansas, twice the size of Illinois, 2\1/2\ times the State of Ohio. Go drill. Go drill now. You have the leases. You have picked out the land yourself. Go and drill it. But, no, you want to go up to ANWR and drill, a small little piece. All we are saying is you have the leases. We are talking about 20 years down the line. Even if you started drilling here in ANWR or anywhere else, 20 years. Speaker Pelosi is saying, take it out of the oil reserve that we have right now, and the President is saying no. So do you want to get oil into the market now, Madam Speaker, or not? It is pretty clear. There are people in our communities that are hurting, and we have a short-term plan and a medium plan and a long- range plan that is being fought tooth and nail by the oil companies.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I yield back.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And save 5 cents a gallon. This is about people that sent us down here to make mature, responsible decisions, not the issue de jour, what is going to rattle will public. We have got a responsibility. We only have a couple of percent of the whole reserves in the world, and we consume 25 percent of the daily energy in the world. And for us to come here and say if we just drill, which we are saying, go ahead and drill. That is fine. Drill now. Here is all the places, 6 million acres you have. Go ahead and do what you have to do and make your money. But we are going in another direction, because we are not going to rely on imported oil from the Middle East to solve this problem. We are going to rely on the Midwest and the ingenuity in the country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. One of the provisions for taking this right out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and pumping it into the market is it stays in the United States market. What they are drilling now, wherever they are drilling, doesn't necessarily mean the oil they are taking out is staying here in the United States, all of it. So there are a lot of issues here that we need to deal with. But, Mr. Meek, I just want to get nostalgic for 30 seconds with you, if I could, before we close up. I remember four or five years ago when the whole 30-Something Group started and we started on the issue of Social Security privatization accounts. Congressman Meek and I started coming down here on that issue. Then-Minority Leader Pelosi asked us to come down here, and we got into the nuts and bolts of the privatization accounts. And it was 60-40 people in our generation were for it, until we got into the nuts and bolts. We began to explain night in and night out on this floor, and throughout the country Members would go home and started to talk about Social Security privatization, putting this social insurance program in jeopardy, and we ended up killing the President's privatization account scheme that he was going to set up. What I am saying to Members here is if we just continue to get the facts out on this, that there is oil, 80 percent of the known reserves, the oil companies have the permits to drill it, we passed legislation that says use the permit or lose it so we can get people in there who want to drill, and we just keep talking about that, and what we are going to do with taking the oil that is already there in the reserve and put it into the market, there is no doubt that our plan in the short-term is better and we have already made the investments in the long term that I know will be better.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If the gentleman would yield, if you think about the amount of money that we have spent in Iraq, that we are going to go and fix the Middle East and make it different and the money that it costs, almost $1 trillion that we have spent there already and the projection of $3 trillion when you start talking about taking care of all the vets that are going to come back with traumatic brain injury, amputees. When you factor that cost in, Joe Stiglitz, the Nobel winning economist, says $3 trillion it's going to cost. And I think it's important for the American people to realize that if we had made different decisions early on in this decade that those billions and billions and billions of dollars could have been invested into alternative energy sources, could have been invested into loan guarantees for nuclear plants, could have been invested in coal to liquid or whatever. Pick your issue. I yield to my friend.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I just want to make the point that I was there with you, talking to the chairman of the Transportation Committee, and the point is it's not just airline fares, it's not just reducing from $4 a gallon down because of the millions of gallons that we could just take out of the oil reserve that is just sitting here in our country, and there are several of them. Just take the oil out. Everyone's talking about drilling. Take the oil out of where it is right now. Just turn the spigot on. Just turn that spigot on and let that oil flow. My point is that when you do this, it's going to have an effect because the airline companies are laying people off, just today in Toledo, and all over the country. So this is about making sure that we have jobs in the country. Airline pilots, machinists. The whole nine yards. So I wanted to put a little texture into that argument, a little context in that argument, support it even more to talk about jobs here in American.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate that. And it is time to wrap it up. And I think as we were home over the July 4th break and as we were meeting with our constituents and going to parades and getting out and about and reconnecting with our district, one of the issues we heard, obviously, is gas but also just the squeeze that families are feeling now. And one of the reasons we need to get Iraq wrapped up and get our troops back home is because it is costing us $12 billion a month in Iraq. And if we continue to go down this road with supplementals of $180 billion and continuing to go down that road, those are investments that we can't make here in the United States. And I think a lot of people would say, Mr. Meek, that we have got to make investments back here in the United States of America so that we can build roads and bridges here in the United States as opposed to roads and bridges in Iraq. And that's one of the key issues here. I know the gentleman from Connecticut wants to say a few words. But I think it's important for us to realize there is a direct connection between what we are doing in Iraq and what we are unable to do because of the budget. One of the issues that we're talking about too is what has happened to our budget here in the United States. And just a few short years ago in 2000, January of 2001, we had a $5.6 trillion surplus, and after President Bush got sworn in up until today, we have a $3.2 trillion deficit. That's an $8.8 trillion swing, and that is part of the reason we have a weak dollar, and that is part of the reason that oil is so expensive. So we've got to get our house in order here. So we talk about the war in Iraq and about how we need to finish it and honor our troops and support our veterans and make sure we have health care and whatnot, but we have got to balance the budget here in the United States and make those investments here, put people to work here in the United States building roads, bridges, infrastructure, water lines, sewer lines, septic tanks, broadband. I yield to my friend from Connecticut.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Absolutely. One of the issues is we have in this country only 300 million people. We are now competing in a globalized economy with China and India and a variety of other rising economic countries. So we have to make a point that all of our 300 million citizens, a major disadvantage in human capital, are educated. You've probably had a similar experience as I have had dealing with interns and staff members and people you have met back in the district. The benefits that a soldier brings to your organization, because of the discipline, the focus and the organizational skills, the ability to deal with situations that are very challenging, and you add to that a college degree or a master's degree or a Ph.D. or a law degree, you are talking about someone who is prepared to really contribute value to whatever organization they are joining, whether it is government or business. There can't be a better investment to make. And why is it that we have enough wherewithal to borrow the money for the $12 billion a month, but when these soldiers come back, the President says I'm going to veto that bill. We don't have the money for that bill. I think of all of the issues that you mentioned earlier, it is important for us to recognize that last year under a Democratic Congress, led by Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid, we made the largest increase for veterans' benefits in the 77-year history of the VA because as Democrats, we are committed to the soldiers. Whether you are on one side of the war issue or another, we all say we are behind the soldier. And when the soldier comes home, you will have the health care and the benefits you deserve. And we want to add onto that this GI bill. So we have made that commitment and will continue to push for that commitment for this GI bill so we can reward the soldiers. It is important for us to deal with this issue. All of these posters with all of the information can be found on the Speaker's Website, the 30-Something Website that we have. You will be able to find, you will be able to get all of these. All of these are available for Members to look at and analyze and to get a visual of what we have been talking about over the last few minutes.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I think it's important that we realize that this is not going to be some kind of very narrow solution to the problems that the country is in now. The point is that when President Bush came into office, there was a pretty good economic forecast, a lot of things were stable, it was time to make some key investments. That did not happen, and the situation got dramatically worse. The middle class has continued to get squeezed, whether it was energy costs, health care costs, tuition costs, everything in the 6 years in which the President was pushing all of his agendas. I've said this more than one time on this House floor. There is no need to wonder about what the neoconservative Republican agenda would look like, because we are living in it today. All you have to do is go to the gas pump, get your health care bill, pay your kids' college tuition, deal with the global environment, look at the foreign policy of this country, the destabilization of the Middle East, unable to deal with China. We deal with a lot of trade issues, with China, with Wheatland Tube that has a facility in my district, a facility in your district, in imports coming in from China. It's tough for us to advocate the administration to be hard on China, to take a firm stance on China, because the administration at the same time is borrowing money from China to finance the $12 billion a month for the war in Iraq. So the foreign policy of the United States has destabilized the region where a lot of the oil is, and that has not helped the situation. Our domestic problems continue to exist because we are living under the President's current economic policies. The debt burden that has been placed on our children and grandchildren over the next generation was put in place, the $3 trillion borrowed, this is the conservative Republican agenda currently implemented. We are trying now to take the Congress in a new direction and to move into alternative energy so we don't have this dependency which would relieve the pressure for a lot of the foreign policy issues that we are dealing with, to use PAYGO to pay for what we are spending here in Washington D.C., to try to repair this debt and eventually pare down the debt so that we can have a firm negotiating stance with China, these all fit together. We can't continue to go down this same road. At every instance, the New Direction Congress has changed course from the current administration. But that did not stop the President from coming before the American people today and asking the American people to continue to go down a road that is a dead end, and that's drilling. It's amazing to me, whether we are dealing with the supplemental, or dealing with the regular order of business here in Congress, when we try to push an agenda of helping the soldiers, for example, we are trying to get the GI Bill, which would pay for 4 years of college for our soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, for free. They have served this country. We need an economic recovery, we need brain power. These young men and young women should have 3, 4 years of college. But the President says, we don't have the money and turns around and asks for $140 billion in the supplemental to continue the war at $12 billion a month. Now, I don't think anyone is saying tomorrow, we are going to be able to pull out of Iraq. I think everyone knows that this would be a process. But what we are saying is why do we always have money for war, and then when our soldiers come back and we want to put them through college and reward the effort, all of a sudden the President says we don't have the money when he has just got done borrowing $3 trillion. I yield to my friend.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I'm sure the oil companies spent a good deal of money to identify the area. They hired a lot of geologists whom, I'm sure, they have working for them. They spent a lot of money and used a lot of technology to identify this. But this is the area that is underdeveloped, and the President comes out and says ignore all of this, and go to ANWR or do this, which is not even being done now, and then go to ANWR. There are 4.8 million barrels of oil that would come out of this per day at maximum production and, in ANWR, 800,000. This is the Outer Continental Shelf and this is onshore. It's the same kind of situation: 47 million. Only 13.2 acres that are actually in production right now. Again, there is the number of permits. It's interesting because we kind of went through this a few years back. You'd hear testimony from executives, and you'd hear about supply and demand. Then with the situation dealing with Enron, all of a sudden, it was not supply and demand. All of a sudden, it was all this manipulation that was going on. Our job here is to oversee what is going on in the markets and figure out how we can make sure that everything is above board, that everything is legal. Now, a few weeks ago on a Friday, the increase in the cost of a barrel of oil was more than a whole barrel of oil cost 10 years prior to. Something funny is going on here, and I think we need to move with the commodities issue. We've already done the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. We've already passed out of the House that which deals with the cartels. These are steps that we are taking, but if we don't move into the alternative energy category, we're going to be sitting here 10 years from now, dealing with the same, exact issue that we're dealing with today.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, we have other illustrative charts here. This is the Outer Continental Shelf: The acres that have been leased and the acres producing. So this is in the Outer Continental Shelf already, 44 million acres, and only 10.5 million acres are being utilized. That's in the Outer Continental Shelf. It just helps. You read it, but it helps. These are statistics that are coming from the Energy Department. These aren't things that we're making up.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Would the gentleman yield?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I just want to share, because this is third-party validation. Mr. Speaker, I would ask to have this submitted for the Record, all these quotes in order. Vice President Dick Cheney: ``Oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. We're not doing it. The Chinese are in cooperation with the Cuban government.'' That was June 12. Minority Leader Boehner: ``Right at this moment, some 60 miles or less off the coast of Key West, Florida, China has the green light to drill for oil in order to lower energy costs in that country. Do Congressional Democrats really trust the Chinese that much more than Americans?'' That was from June 11 of this year. Minority Whip Roy Blunt: ``Even China recognizes that oil and natural gas is readily available off our shores; thanks to Fidel Castro, they've been given a permit to drill for oil 45 miles from the Florida Keys. U.S. energy producers can't go there, and that's because our Congress won't let them.'' That was also on June 11. But then, as you stated earlier, Congressional Research Service says, facts, third-party validator, nonpartisan Congressional Research Service: ``While there has been some concern about China's potential involvement in offshore deepwater oil projects, to date its involvement in Cuba's oil sector has been focused on onshore extraction in Pinar del Rio province through its state-run China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec).'' From the Miami Herald, they had a quote from Jorge Pinon, an energy expert at the University of Miami: ``China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period.'' This gentleman, from Miami's Center for Hemispheric Policy, who supports oil and gas exploration, said he met with several congressional offices Wednesday about the China-Cuba connection. He said he told them: ``If you guys want to use this as a scare tactic to lift the moratorium on drilling off the west coast of Florida, at least be factual, be correct. They didn't do their homework.'' June 12, 2008 Republicans Use Scare Tactics To Promote Failed ``Drill & Veto'' Energy Policies of the Past; GOP Claims China Is Drilling for Oil Off Florida's Coast Proven False American families and businesses are struggling to keep up with skyrocketing gas prices--now averaging a record high of $4.06 per gallon across the country. Instead of working with Democrats to pass legislation addressing high energy costs and moving America to energy independence, Congressional Republicans are spreading scare tactics and proven falsehoods to push their failed ``drill and veto'' energy policies of the past. Republican leaders--including Vice President Cheney--have recently claimed that China is drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba ``60 miles off the coast of Florida.'' But the facts show China does not have a deepwater drilling contract in Cuba. From the Congressional Research Service: ``While there has been some concern about China's potential involvement in offshore deepwater oil projects, to date its involvement in Cuba's oil sector has been focused on onshore oil extraction in Pinar del Rio province through its state- run China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation. (Sinopec)'' [CRS, 2/29/08] From today's Miami Herald: ``China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period. . . .,'' said Jorge Pinon, an energy expert at the University of Miami's Center for Hemispheric Policy. . . . ``Pinon, who supports oil and gas exploration, said he met with several congressional offices Wednesday about the China- Cuba connection. He said he told them: `If you guys want to use this as a scare tactic to lift the moratorium on drilling off the west coast of Florida, at least be factual, be correct.' They didn't do their homework.'' [6/12/08] The New Direction Congress is committed to bringing real relief to those feeling the pinch from high gas and diesel prices and ensuring the needs of families and businesses are put before the interests of Big Oil. The American people deserve the truth and a cleaner, greener, more energy efficient future. Republican Scare Quotes: Vice President Dick Cheney: ``[O]il is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. We're not doing it. The Chinese are in cooperation with the Cuban government.'' [6/12/08] Minority Leader John Boehner: ``Right at this moment, some 60 miles or less off the coast of Key West, Florida, China has the green light to drill for oil in order to lower energy costs in that country . . . Do congressional Democrats really trust the Chinese that much more than Americans?'' [6/11/08] Minority Whip Roy Blunt: ``Even China recognizes that oil and natural gas is readily available off our shores; thanks to Fidel Castro, they've been given a permit to drill for oil 45 miles from the Florida Keys. U.S. energy producers can't go there, and that's because our Congress won't let them.'' [6/11/08] Rep. George Radanovich (R-California): ``Florida, for example, has objected to U.S. oil exploration off its coast. But China, thanks to a lease issued by Cuba, is drilling for oil just 50 miles off Florida's coast. America's offshore drilling policy amounts to a government handout of U.S. natural resources to foreign countries in the name of environmental protection.'' [6/10/ 08]

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It would be very little impact. I tell my constituents this all the time when we are chatting, if there is a politician that has one silver bullet, if we just do this, that all of these problems are going to go away, be very, very, very skeptical. We grow up learning, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The oil companies are spending a lot of money, I'm sure, through Internet traffic, through advertising and TV about how they're going green. So ExxonMobil, Mr. Speaker, has spent--the industry totally--$52 million on advertising about how they're going green and everything else. ExxonMobil, of their $40 billion in profits, has spent $10 million on alternative energy research and development. That is not the direction. So, when we say that it is important for us to shoot the Moon like we did in the 1960s and get into the alternative energy, that's why. That's what we have to do. I yield to my friend.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And that would save you 2 cents.