Steve Scalise

Mr. SCALISE

Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring to the majority leader the schedule for next week. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the House majority leader.

Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, as we look at some of the bills that will be brought up next week, in the price gouging bill, there are a number of concerns with the way it is not really defined in terms of what price gouging would even be. But as we know, the current state of our energy crisis is really because we, through the Biden administration, have shut down energy production in America. In fact, just the other day, earlier this week, in the midst of dramatically high gas prices, President Biden announced that he is canceling massive oil and gas lease sales. In the Gulf of Mexico, where there are rich reserves of American energy that could be produced, and Alaska, where there are rich reserves of American energy that could be produced, President Biden said no yet again. And this isn't the first time. In fact, since he became President, on day one, Joe Biden started attacking American energy. He killed not only the Keystone but the ability to produce and make any new pipelines in America to move energy around our country so that we don't have to import it from countries like Russia. President Biden made us dependent on Russian oil. In fact, he was begging Putin to send us more oil while he is canceling the ability for us to produce our own energy. You have seen other steps that the President has taken all throughout his Presidency to make it almost impossible to produce American energy, to move American energy, to export American energy. LNG permits are sitting on the desk waiting to be signed for over a year, not a single new LNG export permit to help not just America lower our energy prices but to help our friends around the world, especially in Europe, not need to get energy from bad actors like Putin. As Putin is, hopefully, going to be pushed to the side in terms of energy that we get, the President continues to turn not to American energy but to turn to other dictators, to go to Iran, to go to Venezuela, while shutting down American energy. So, we have a bill, and I brought this up to the majority leader a number of times, H.R. 6858, with over 130 cosponsors, a bill that would actually open up American energy so that we can lower gas prices. We can actually do something about it, not try to point the finger and blame this person. The President tried blaming Putin. Nobody in the country bought it because they knew gas prices were going up dramatically well before Putin invaded Ukraine. In fact, President Biden, by shutting down American energy, allowed Putin to make $700 million a day selling his oil to America and Europe, $700 million a day leading up to the war to help fund the war against Ukraine because President Biden said no to American energy over and over again. This bill would actually fix that. Now, when you look at the price gouging bill, first of all, Secretary Granholm, the Secretary of Energy, was asked in a committee hearing recently, just about 2 weeks ago, if there was price gouging. She said: I am not sure anyone is saying there is wholesale gouging. Now, if you read the bill, what we have seen of it so far, it doesn't allow the FTC to take action against the President of the United States, who actually is responsible for the gouging prices, high prices, whatever you want to define ``gouging'' as. Again, the bill itself is very vague. If you just don't like a high price, you can go blame somebody else, or we could actually do something about it. We could actually bring a bill, like H.R. 6858, that would actually allow us to open up American energy that is here-- great technology, lowest carbon emissions in the world, by the way, as we are now forced to rely on energy from other countries that actually emit more carbon to produce their oil.

Mr. SCALISE. America knows how to do it better. By the way, it is American innovation that has opened up the ability to produce more energy cleaner than anyone else in the world, and the President of the United States is the one saying no to America. He is not saying no to all energy. He is saying no to the cleanest American energy. But then he is begging foreign countries, which actually produce energy without American standards, begging them to give us our oil at a much higher price than just doing it here in the best place to do it in the world. It perplexes me why the President of the United States says no to American energy while begging dictators to give us our energy at a higher cost, but that is where we are. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, to say that Joe Biden is not the reason that supply is limited just doesn't match with the facts. Again, just 2 days ago, Joe Biden, not Putin, not the big oil companies, Joe Biden canceled oil and lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. Joe Biden canceled lease sales in Alaska. Joe Biden, as a candidate--this isn't just some new development for Joe Biden--Joe Biden as a candidate for President of the United States said: ``No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill. Period.'' That was Joe Biden as a candidate, and he didn't stop there. When he became President, on day one he started an attack on American energy. It is crystal clear why. Now, I am glad the gentleman is bragging about high production levels, but let's not think for a minute that Joe Biden is the reason we have production today. If you understand the oil and gas industry--I was just on a rig in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico 2 weeks ago, one of the largest-producing rigs in the Gulf. Do you know that rig got its first lease in 2002? It took about 10 years to get the first oil. They put private money--all private money; over $10 billion of private money--into developing those leases. There were many leases and permits along the way to finally get to the point where they could bring oil out of the ground, making money to pay back the $10-plus billion, to ultimately get to a point where they could produce over 130,000 barrels today. If Joe Biden wants to try to dare take credit for those 130,000 barrels today, he needs to go check the record at how long it took to get that oil from lease, permits, out of the ground, to ultimately getting it into world markets, not American markets. Oil companies don't set the price of oil, it is world markets. That oil ultimately depletes, which is why the oil companies are always looking for new opportunities. The gentleman talks--as the White House has talked--about thousands of permits that are out there. It sounds really good. Understandably, I think people recognize it is a misleading number because many of these permits are for wells that were tried where there is no oil. There is not oil everywhere. You buy leases to go explore. It is called ``exploration'' for a reason. If it was known reserves--if you go drill right under a gas tank you find oil. If you want to find oil out amongst the natural resources that leases are issued for, you do test wells, you do seismic engineering. By the way, that takes years to go through the process of permitting. Since Joe Biden has been President they have not issued new leases for seismic. So you might have a 3-mile by 3-mile lease in the Gulf of Mexico that you paid millions of dollars to the Federal Government for years ago, and you are continuing to try to explore those 3 miles by 3 miles that the Federal Government was happy to take the money for, but you can't even get a permit from the Federal Government today to explore that lease--to exercise other permits. You have to get permits for the pipelines. Not a single new pipeline permit has been issued. Even if you get it out of the ground, the Biden administration doesn't want you to have the ability to move it through to refineries and world markets. What you see is a recognition by the rest of the world that America has taken itself off the shelf in terms of the ability to produce energy. Again, Joe Biden is the one who canceled all these sales. Joe Biden is the one who, as a candidate, said there will be no drilling. Cartels love this policy because they know now they control the supply. America is producing oil today based on permits and actions that were taken years ago. What we are seeing today is an inability to continue developing these leases, which means ultimately they will dry up, as all of those leases do. That is why you are always exploring for the next round of finds. Those next rounds of finds are not being explored for in America, they are being explored for in other countries, but it is countries that are cartels, countries that are monopolies, so they can control the price. It is interesting that the gentleman brought up the last time we saw these kinds of prices was in the 1970s under a similar Democrat President who had the same kind of attitude toward American energy. It made our country dependent on foreign energy and it created lines at the pump where people had to wait days to get gasoline. When you saw President Trump opening up American energy and allowing a free market to produce energy--we don't put those constraints in place when we are operating under a free market, so the cartels have no leverage, Putin has no leverage. The only reason he has leverage is if you have a President like Joe Biden who says we are not going to produce in America. He said it. He took the actions to follow up on it, including just a few days ago. Amidst high gas prices, he actually took more American energy off the market, giving the cartels more monopoly power to raise prices. I wish we would address that. We have a bill to address that and reverse those bad policies. Unfortunately, I haven't heard the gentleman commit to bringing those to the floor yet. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. So I wish my friend would address that. We have a bill to address that and reverse those bad policies. Unfortunately, I haven't heard the gentleman bring it to the floor yet. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. SCALISE. We will continue this discussion. I would like to see us bring up the bill that would actually address it. We will see this debate go on next week and beyond. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SCALISE

Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 471, the PAUSE Act, so that we can protect all Americans from President Biden's border crisis.

Mr. SCALISE

Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the majority leader the schedule for next week. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the majority leader of the House.

Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, as we look at the schedule for next week, obviously, there are a lot of concerns about the continuing rising price of gasoline that we have been seeing for the last year and a half. President Biden talked about some things that he will do. In regard to some of the long-term fixes to lower gas prices that have been filed, I know I have mentioned them to the majority leader in the past. H.R. 6858 is one of the bills that would address some of the real impediments to getting more oil and gas production here in the United States. There are a number of other bills, including six different bills that were filed by the Natural Resources Committee recently, that would address some of the other specific challenges that are holding back the ability for America to produce more oil and gas. I would ask the gentleman if we could get those bills on the calendar so that we can move to actually address the problems that are holding back American oil and gas production, thus leading to higher prices. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, a number of problems with the way that the President's plan was described is that that is not what the President has done. The President has worked aggressively through many of his Federal agencies to, in fact, block the production of oil and gas. And let me bring you back to candidate Barack Obama. There are a number of specific examples I am going to give the gentleman because the gentleman gave a number of specific examples that just don't comply with the facts, starting with the 9,000 leases, the thousands of acres that I know the----

Mr. SCALISE. President has talked about and others have talked about that, frankly, don't tell the picture of what the President is also doing to ensure that you cannot develop on those lands. You cannot develop with those 9,000 leases. And I will go back to candidate Joe Biden. This is what Joe Biden said when he was a candidate for President. ``No more drilling on Federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period. It ends.'' That was Joe Biden as a candidate. The problem is he continued to take steps to carry through on that, starting with the 9,000 leases. If you have a lease to drill, it sounds really good until you realize that you still have to go through other steps to develop that. First of all, in some cases, you may actually go test wells, and you find out that they are not producing. Thousands, by the way, of those in the 9,000 are not producing wells, meaning they are dry holes. There is no oil. Now, I don't know if you are going to fine a company because they are not drilling in an area where there is no oil, but maybe that is what the President is talking about, or maybe he doesn't understand the process of drilling for oil. So then you go to some of the other areas, and I will give you section 1002 of ANWR, as an example. There needs to be seismic development where you go and test to see where the oil is. We have a lot of advanced technology where, in the past, they might drill even more dry holes. Today, you can actually go and develop through seismic technology to know pretty well where the oil is, where the biggest reserves are, and then that is where you go and drill. And so the Federal agencies are blocking the ability to do seismic activity, so you can't find out what is under the ground. So great. You have got a permit. You can't find out the seismic because the Biden administration is blocking it, so you can't make the multibillion- dollar investment because you don't know what is under the ground where. In other countries, they allow that to happen. These companies are making investments, by the way. They are just not making the investment in America because they can't get cooperation from the regulating agencies because the regulating agencies don't want them to drill. Because, again, President Joe Biden as a candidate said, ``There will be no more drilling. . . . No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period. It ends.'' And then he directed his agencies to do it. Another example that has been brought up just the other day, less than a week ago. Again, we are talking about prices hovering in the $100 range. Raiding, in the short term, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve actually makes our country less safe because the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is there to be a safety net. If there is a national crisis somewhere, you can rely on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to get you through the next few weeks while you are working on a supply chain issue. That is not what is going on. The President is just raiding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to cover up for his failed policy. And so if you look at what he just did the other day, President Biden's Securities and Exchange Commission just put out a whole new set of rules and regulations to make it hard, not just for oil and gas companies, but any other company to use fossil fuels. Again, he has talked about this publicly. He wants to move away from fossil fuels. The problem is, he is telling his regulatory agencies to go make it incredibly difficult and more expensive to use fossil fuels. In his budget just earlier this week, he proposed $45 billion in new taxes on oil and gas in America. Now, I know he has been, in the past, begging Putin to produce more. He is begging Venezuela, other dictators, Iran, to produce more oil. He is not proposing to raise their taxes. He is proposing to raise the tax on oil and gas produced in the American to the tune of $45 billion in his budget he just released Monday. That would mean higher gas prices. But what it also does is it tells the oil and gas companies, don't drill in America because that is what President Biden as candidate said, No more drilling, period. It ends. Then the SEC continued to do other things; this ESG movement where they are trying to get the big oil and gas companies to not drill for oil. So you are an oil and gas company, you are Exxon, and they are pushing to try to get those companies to separate into two different entities so that they can cut off financing for oil and gas development projects. They are doing it right now. We have got a number of bills to fix this. And as the gentleman talks about, we want to do these things. We want to open it up. Except if you are saying on one hand, I am going to build this road, and I don't know why you are not driving down the road. But on the other hand, you have got people barricading the road, and then you say, look, nobody's using the road, so why even bother. You know, fine them for not using the road. And then you go look at the on-ramp, and you find out that they have put 10 barricades in front of the on-ramp so you can't get on the road. That is what President Biden has done to oil and gas drilling in America. He has actually failed to comply with the law on the requirements that he conduct lease sales that he has not conducted which the law requires him to do. There are actually lawsuits that we have won in court, and he continues to obfuscate those laws. So there is a bill called the Restore Onshore Energy Production Act. It immediately resumes oil and gas lease sales and requires quarterly lease sales in each State with an oil and gas program. That is something the President should be doing if he wanted to actually lower the cost of gasoline and produce in America, he would be doing, but he won't do it. So this bill would require him to do it. I would love us to bring that bill up. And, again, if the gentleman says, Hey, why don't we produce on those 9,000 leases? This would actually help the ones that aren't dry holes where companies are trying to find out how they can go and drill, but they are being blocked by President Biden's different regulatory agencies. This would remove some of those roadblocks. The Strategy to Secure Offshore Energy Act would actually require the publication of the 5-year plan for offshore oil and gas lease sales and require timelines for developing subsequent leasing plans. That is supposed to be done under law. The President's not doing it. This would require he do it. The Energy Permitting Certainty Act requires the Department of the Interior to process applications for permits to drill under a valid lease, regardless of any unrelated civil actions where some of these groups use other laws like the Endangered Species Act to block drilling, again, saying there are leases. Why aren't you using them? President Biden is saying, We are going to fine you for not using them as he is using his other agencies to stop them from using the leases. You have got EPA over here and the Department of the Interior over there. You have got the SEC over there, all putting up roadblocks to the roadway, and then the President says, Look, there are no cars on the road. We are going to fine you for not using the road. Well, how about you take the roadblocks off the on-ramp so that you can actually get on the road and drill? President Biden is trying to have it both ways. He is trying to appease the people who he promised, I am going to shut down drilling. Unfortunately, he is doing that. But then he is going and telling the public, I want them to drill. And in fact, I am going to fine them if they don't drill, while he is stopping them from drilling. Again, other bills that we have to fix these problems that President Biden is putting up as roadblocks: The Securing American Energy and Investing in Reliancy Act requires the Department of the Interior to conduct all remaining offshore oil and gas leases in the current leasing plan and issue the leases, one, as a result of Lease Sale 257; additional impediments he has put in front of people that have already followed the rules, but he is still not letting them actually go do what they want to do. They want to drill in America, and he is forcing them out of America. That is why he is begging foreign countries when he, himself, can remove the roadblocks that he put in place to stop drilling in America. And there are more bills. There are a number of other bills. We will be happy to go over each of them with you. But what we are saying is, there are very specific things President Biden has done to impede the ability for us to drill in America. There are companies all across the country that know how to drill and can't drill in America. And instead of the President trying to use taglines and divert and talk about Putin and everybody else, when he is the one that is giving Putin leverage by shutting America off--and, again, this isn't accidental. He, as a candidate, said, ``No more drilling on Federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the gas industry to continue to drill, period. It ends.'' Unfortunately, it has ended, and we are trying to get it started up again by reversing the very things Joe Biden did to stop it. And we are asking for help here on this floor to address these very specific problems. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, for correction, that is not what I did. I actually went through how those 9,000 leases are being blocked by the President from being utilized properly.

Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, clearly the gentleman and I disagree on many of these items. Drilling in America is the cleanest way to produce oil in the world. If it is going to come from Russia, which I don't want, if it is going to come from any dictator, they actually emit more carbon than if you make it in America. But I want to point out, as the gentleman talked about, this magical lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and why no one bid on it, the reason is because it didn't happen. The Biden administration did not move forward with that lease sale. That is what we are trying to address with these bills.

Mr. SCALISE. But the gentleman was saying it wasn't bid on; the oil companies didn't want to do it. They did. They wanted to invest in America. An environmental group went to block it and got a court to go along with them. The normal practice is the administration stands up for America and American policy and objects, and the Biden administration refused to challenge it in the courts because they didn't want the lease sale to go forward. And the lease sale did not go forward. That is why no one bid on it, because there was no lease sale. We fix that with these pieces of legislation we would like to bring to the floor, but we will continue this discussion. Hopefully, we can resolve it. We will continue pushing for it. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SCALISE

Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri for yielding. What a great tribute, to be naming this Coast Guard reauthorization bill after Don Young. While we mourn his loss today and pay tribute to Don in Statuary Hall, his family was here, and as you are paying tribute to a great life, the dean of the House who served 49 years in this great Chamber from the 49th State of Alaska, you can't help but think of all the Don Young stories. Clearly, there is a tie to this bill because Don served on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee for his entire tenure that the committee was in existence. Don loved the Coast Guard, loved the relationship they had in Alaska, just trying to get more icebreakers so that we could keep up with Russians continuing to open up their shipping lanes, but our not having the ability to get enough Coast Guard cutters to break ice in Alaska. Don Young was always a champion for Alaska. He was a great friend. He was somebody who you knew where he stood all the time. And if you stood in his way, he would make it clear that he was going to keep moving forward. As we look at the seat that Don Young always sat in, in a Chamber of 435 people where there are no reserved seats, everybody knows that is where Don Young sat. When you look over there today, it is a little bit sad, but you can only think of great memories of Don Young when you see the black cloth draped over that seat. We will always remember Don Young, a man who loved this country, surely loved the Coast Guard, and epitomized what is the great State of Alaska. No better champion they had in Congress than Don Young. I look forward to passing this bill with overwhelming support.

Mr. SCALISE

Mr. SCALISE. I appreciate that clarification because it is in President Biden's set of sanctions that he specifically exempted energy. Clearly, that is not unifying, even to us. But it is the money that is still allowed to be flowing into Russia, into Putin's pocket, to finance the war that many of us want to get at. If H.R. 6858, after the gentleman looks at it, has some provisions that we could work on, I think it would be very unifying to the country to say we are finally going to confront what might be Vladimir Putin's largest source of funding, and that is his oil exports to the United States. It offends many, many people that, today, we are getting over 100,000 barrels every single day from Russia because we took things like the Keystone pipeline off the table. That would have brought us oil from Canada. Canada is a friend, by the way. And it is not like the need and the demand just went away. The demand is still there. President Biden said no, we don't want Canadian oil. But it wasn't because he didn't want any oil. He didn't say no, we don't want any pipelines. He just said no to the Canada-to-America pipeline, but he said yes to the Nord Stream 2, initially. But he also said to Vladimir Putin: Would you produce more oil? And let's keep in mind--I know there is this conversation about the planet. Let's be honest about carbon emissions. Carbon is emitted all around the globe. So if we shut down production in America, which has been done--and it is not just on Federal lands where the President is not issuing permits. He put a freeze just 2 weeks ago on all new permits. But it is also the banking system that he is using to go after oil and gas companies, so there is no investment being made in America. They are making investments, billions of dollars of investment, in other countries. They are just not making it here in America because of those policies. Again, that just gives more leverage to Putin. We were paying less than $2 per gallon under President Trump. I know the gentleman wanted to bring up President Trump. President Trump stood up to Putin, by the way. You didn't see an invasion anywhere in Ukraine under President Trump. You surely did under President Obama and Vice President Biden when Putin walked in and took Crimea with no consequence. Afghanistan, the weakness that was being showed clearly was being watched by Putin and Xi and other adversaries as a preface to then go and start marshaling troops on the Ukraine border. President Trump didn't let that happen. He stood up to Putin and pushed back on Putin. He also used energy as a weapon against our enemies because we were producing enough to not only meet our needs but to export to our friends around the world. Surely, lower pricing was a benefit to Americans, but it also helped our allies around the world. That has been taken off the table. But let's talk about the carbon emission side because oil is being produced. It is just that a lot of it isn't being produced here that would otherwise be in the mix. So if you look at, for example, Russian oil, Russia emits probably 40 percent more carbon to make the same oil that otherwise would be made in the United States because we have better standards in America. I know a lot of people love beating up on America. We do it better than anybody else. Our technology is better than anybody else. In fact, our technology for producing energy is the envy of the world. It should be the model for the world because if we are not making it, Russia is going to be making it. Believe me, futures prices of oil have an impact on price today, which is why, when President Biden walked in and shut the spigots off in America--sure, there is production going on from previous leases that happened under previous administrations, including President Trump, that was driving the price down. But when he walked in day one and said no to the Keystone pipeline--in other words, no to Canada's oil but yes to Russia's oil--that had an impact on price. When he said no to Federal drilling, which then he expanded to all drilling, any new permits--sure, the stuff that is going on out there is still going on, but there is no new investment being made in America. It is being made in other countries, including Russia, including OPEC nations. Because of that, they are able to control the price because they are cartels. We had literally taken the monopoly away from OPEC and Russia when we were producing enough and using the resources of this great Nation, by the way, in a much more energy efficient way than anywhere else in the world. We were reducing carbon emissions in America while producing our own energy, while manufacturing more in America. The more things are shut down here, they are being made in other places, and those other places emit more carbon. China is building a coal plant probably every single week. China emits more carbon, probably five times more carbon, to make many of the same things we make in America. So the less we make here, it is still being made; it is just being made in other countries. They get the jobs, but they also emit more carbon. So, as people talk about carbon emissions, don't leave that point out because it is an important point. Again, it was President Biden himself who asked Putin to produce more oil, just last year. The oil produced in Russia has a higher carbon price than made here in America. And it makes us less secure. It makes Putin more strong. It gives him hundreds of millions of dollars a day that we can take off the table. I think that would be very unifying if we had that debate and said: Can we get an agreement on some of these provisions that would actually strengthen our country? Even if Russian wasn't invading Ukraine, it would be smart American policy. It would reduce carbon emissions. But especially considering what is going on in Russia, this is much more pertinent today to have this discussion. Again, I think it can be unifying. Just because right now we may not see eye to eye, I think there is a way to see eye to eye on this if we actually had that debate and looked at it from a global perspective, not just in a silo in America because, again, there is a global market for oil. Carbon emissions are global. The countries that are taking the things away that we are shutting down here in America emit more carbon. It is a fact. Why shouldn't we be talking about that, too, and, frankly, taking away the leverage that Putin would have? Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the majority leader the schedule for next week. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the majority leader of the House.

Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I share the gentleman's expression of unified support with the people of Ukraine. Clearly, we stand with the heroic people of Ukraine, President Zelensky, and the inspiration he has been showing to the world, and the strong people of Ukraine. What we are seeing from Russia is barbaric. One of my colleagues, Representative Spartz, who actually was born in Ukraine, she has been very outspoken about the genocide that is happening to the people of Ukraine. As the gentleman mentioned, the resolution that we passed with Mr. Meeks and Mrs. Spartz, it was bipartisan, and an overwhelming vote of support standing with the people of Ukraine. Clearly, they have asked for a number of very specific things: some military equipment, supplies, as well as humanitarian relief. We need to continue to push as hard as we can to make sure it is delivered as expeditiously as possible as we watch continuous barbaric attacks, raids, bombing, carpet bombing, cluster bombs, things that are illegal under international law, yet Putin continues to commit these barbaric crimes against the people of Ukraine. They are tough people, and they are not going to give up their country. We need to do everything we can to help them. One other thing that was mentioned in this resolution because people, obviously, want to know what they can do. There are a number of steps that are being taken and there are other steps that we would also like to see this Congress take. In the resolution there were two provisions specifically that I wanted to bring up. One of the resolution requests was that we--the United States Congress--pledge support working with Europe and international partners to bolster Europe's energy security and reduce its dependence on Russian energy imports. The resolution that we passed also goes on to say: We resolve that we underscore the importance of maintaining United States' energy independence for the benefit of the American people and United States' allies. With that there was a piece of legislation that was just filed earlier this week to do just that. H.R. 6858, offered by Mrs. McMorris Rodgers and Mr. Westerman, the ranking members of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Natural Resources Committee, goes to the heart of what we can do as a country and as a Congress to take leverage away from Vladimir Putin as it relates to energy. We can all see over the years how Europe has become very dependent on Russian energy. They, unfortunately, get over 40 percent of their oil from Russia. This is also putting billions of dollars in the pocket of Vladimir Putin. When you look at the price of oil today, over $110 a barrel, just look at the daily benefit that that gives to Vladimir Putin. He is making over $700 million every single day selling oil to the United States and Europe. Think about that. Vladimir Putin is pocketing today over $700 million, and he is going to get another $700 million tomorrow and another the day after by selling his oil to the United States and to Europe. There are things we can do to stop that. That is what H.R. 6858 goes to the heart of. Some of those things are very specific. President Biden, just a few weeks ago, put a complete freeze on all oil and gas projects in America. All oil and gas projects. That means we are not allowing the United States to provide for the resources of our country and our allies. We used to be exporting oil to our allies around the world, it is becoming harder to do that because those policies by President Biden are shutting off American energy, and at the same time President Biden was asking Vladimir Putin to produce more oil for us. There is no reason we should be asking Russia to do what we in America can do, yet that is a policy that was put in place. President Biden can reverse that today. I have called on President Biden to reverse all of these specific actions today. This legislation would at least show that Congress is ready to allow ourselves to be energy independent so that we can take that leverage away from Putin. We can take that $700 million away from Putin. Obviously, there are a number of other things, just permits for things like LNG--natural gas--Putin is supplying a tremendous amount of natural gas to Europe. There are six projects right now sitting on the Biden administration's desk to approve LNG permit applications for major projects, multibillion-dollar, private-sector-funded projects in America to allow us to ship natural gas to our European allies so they don't need to get it from Putin. Not one of those permits has been approved in over a year. Same thing, permits for pipelines. It is not just the Keystone pipeline. There are many other pipeline projects including two States in the Northeast. In the United States, States like Massachusetts are importing their oil from Vladimir Putin because they can't get it through pipelines in America. This opens that up. It does a number of other things to allow America to become energy independent, but, more importantly, to take the leverage away from Vladimir Putin that he has today that he is using to pocket over $700 million a day by selling his energy to us and Europe. I would love to see that bill on the floor, and I think a lot of other people would, too, to send a message to Putin that we are not going to be a part of helping him finance this barbaric war on Ukraine. Mr. Speaker, I would ask the gentleman if we could look at bringing H.R. 6858 to the floor, have a full debate, and pass a strong piece of legislation that would send a signal to our friends around the world, surely to the people of Ukraine, but also to Vladimir Putin that he is not going to be able to finance his war off the backs of oil he is selling to the United States and Europe and using that against the people of Ukraine. Mr. Speaker, I yield to gentleman.

Mr. SCALISE. Thirty million, I believe it is.

Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, there are many areas where we have been unified in our response to Ukraine, but it is not unifying to say leave Russia's oil off the table in terms of sanctions. That was left out by President Biden. When he issued sanctions he specifically exempted Russia's oil, and that is not unifying. There are a lot of people who are angry about that because we are watching the amount of money that Putin is putting in his pocket every day, and he is using that money. So you take other sanctions, you take other things off the table, the banking system might be hit hard, except if he is able to put $700 million--and it is probably closer to $1 billion a day now with this higher price of oil because of what he has done and because of what our country has done to take energy off the table.

Mr. SCALISE. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. SCALISE. As we talk about this energy policy difference, again, I do think it could be unifying. I do think we can get to a point where we recognize some of the impediments that are real today. While the President says Make It In America, there are things that President Biden is doing that are blocking the ability for us to make it in America. Again, I have talked about some of the regulatory agencies that are making it very hard even on some of those lands the gentleman references that could be open for production where they can't because they reinstated some of the things like WOTUS and some of the other regulations that were removed so that States could look at the ability to permit applications where now they are not able to do that, where banking systems, through Treasury, through the SEC, are blocking financial institutions or bullying financial institutions to not allow investment by American banks into American production of energy. It is real. It is going on. It is a problem. And it is why many of those energy companies are making their billions of investments in other countries right now. Again, when you have John Kerry, the President's global warming czar, just the other day saying he hopes Russia helps us with this.

Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, probably about 4 days ago, where he was talking about getting energy production addressed and some other things addressed. We shouldn't have a strategy that involves Russia helping us right now or Putin helping us right now. So don't give Vladimir Putin that leverage. He has leverage. While Nord Stream 2 is blocked today, Nord Stream 1, the original Nord Stream pipeline, is still operating, providing over 40 percent of Germany's energy. That was what President Trump was critical of Merkel about, why are you signing contracts that make your country more dependent on Russia? He said that verbatim. He was right back then. Germany probably wishes they wouldn't have done it today because they were hamstrung in the beginning of this. They are now helping, but they are also dependent on Russian oil. We should be looking at things that we can do to not only wean ourselves off of Russian oil but our allies around the world. There are real specific things we can do and there are impediments in this country today that exist that are unnecessary, that are hurting our ability to shut down Russia's ability to use energy as leverage. They are doing it right now. They are using it not only as leverage but as a financing source. Putin still is pocketing over $700 million a day by selling oil to Europe and America. If there are things that we can come to an agreement on that would address it, I think it would be important that we do it as fast as possible to take away those points so that Putin has to think twice about continuing what he is doing, this barbaric genocide that is happening in Ukraine. So just saying that while it might not be something we recognize as unifying today, I think it could end up being something unifying in a short period of time, if we can keep working through those differences. I would just encourage that we try to do that. If there is anything else on that, I would yield, but there is one other issue I wanted to raise as well. The Senate just a few days ago passed unanimously a resolution asking to open up the Capitol again to the American people, our constituents, who still are not able to come to the Capitol to visit with Members of Congress, to sit in the gallery, to participate even in the State of the Union. It was a unanimous resolution in the Senate. There is a companion resolution by Congressman Steil that was filed, H. Res. 961, that would do the same thing and express from the House side what the Senate just expressed, that it is time to open the Capitol to the public again. The Senate Republicans and Democrats came to an agreement to do it. I would just ask that we do the same and show the American people that the people's House is open to the people of the Nation. If the Senate can come to an agreement on it--again, I don't think there is anything controversial in the resolution, but I would ask that we would bring that up as well. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I have been very clear from the very beginning, anyone who broke into this Capitol ought to be held accountable and is being held accountable. More arrests have been made than probably all of the cities where people were burning down cities across America in the summer. That is something that ought to be addressed, and the Democratic Party doesn't want to talk about that. They just want to talk about January 6. These resolutions are not about January 6. It is allowing the American people to exercise their First Amendment right to come and meet with their Members of Congress, which they are not able to do right now. If you look at that resolution, the head of the RNC even came out and said that is not what they were referring to, what the gentleman just alluded to. They said they were talking about the people who weren't even in the District of Columbia on January 6 who are being targeted right now. That is what they said that they were doing. Go take that up with them. I have been clear about what has happened to the people who broke into this Capitol and that everybody who breaks the law ought to be held accountable, not just the people who broke in here on January 6, but also people who burned the cities down over the summer of 2020 who haven't been held accountable. That is something that angers people all over the country. They want to see the law equally carried out for people who broke the law, no matter where they were, here or in cities across America. If you want to criticize one side of it, at least be willing to criticize the other side of it, too. I surely have. I haven't heard it from the other side. I would be more than happy to hear the gentleman talk about people who were shooting at cops, killed cops, beat up people in streets, burned down police stations, government buildings in cities, took over cities, and haven't been held accountable. Shouldn't they also be held accountable? I say both should be held accountable. Does the gentleman agree with that? And I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. SCALISE. Just again, we condemn violence of all kinds: Political violence, people that just commit violence because they want to or they think they can get away with it or they think somebody will bail them out if they do it. But we should do it across the board, and the punishment fits the crime. The laws are on the books. It is the prosecutors who go after the people, and they are in some instances. It should be in all instances. I will continue to call it out on both sides. I would hope on the other side we hear that as well, not just when they see it in one place, but when they see it in all places, and I would hope we would open up the people's House and get the Capitol back open to the American people who want to and have a right to come and express their views on issues. They might want to send an email, they might want to make a phone call, but they also might want to go to the office and sign that log book and try to sit down either with the Member of Congress or their staff to convey their feelings, and we just hope that happens. Again, the Senate unanimously said they want that to happen. I would hope the House would do it, too. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SCALISE

Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Pennsylvania for yielding. First of all, opposing the previous question, the bill that is going to be coming up later is a very partisan bill. We could actually bring up the Senate bill for our veterans that passed the Senate unanimously. Imagine in these times when a bill passed the Senate unanimously, and Democrats in the majority won't even bring that bill up, which clearly is the way to help our veterans. But there is something more important that we can do today, dealing with the crisis in Ukraine. There are many crises in America, but in Ukraine Putin is running roughshod over the people of Ukraine, carpet bombing cities. One of the ways he is fueling his war is with oil that America and other countries are buying because President Biden took American energy off the table. There are very specific things President Biden does that if we reject this previous question, we can turn around and bring up this legislation by my colleagues, the gentlewoman from Washington (Mrs. Rodgers) and the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman), that actually open up American energy and take leverage away from Putin and also take billions of dollars away from Putin that he is using to finance the war. Let's talk about a few of those very specific things we can do with rejecting the previous question to bring up this important energy legislation. When President Biden came in office, he did a number of very specific things to undermine American energy. Not energy all over the world. He is begging OPEC and Russia to produce more oil. Think how tone deaf that is, begging Russia to produce more oil. Let's open up our American energy reserves that President Biden shut off. Let's approve LNG exports so we can help Europe get energy from America, not from Russia. President Biden hasn't approved a single LNG facility in over a year or pipeline. Let's get rid of the red tape that they are using. Do you know that Russia right now is making $700 million a day by selling oil to America, EU, and U.K.? $700 million a day to fund his war against Ukraine. Let's end it by opening up American energy reserves. Reverse all these radical policies by President Biden that are emboldening Putin. Let's reject this.