Providing for a conditional adjournment of the House of Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

I am opposed.

Mr. Speaker, time and again over the past week, I have referred to the majority's trio of offshore drilling bills as ``amnesia acts.'' They willfully forget the lessons derived at great cost in lives and livelihoods from the Deepwater Horizon spill last summer. Mr. Speaker, and with these amnesia acts, the majority offers false promises to Americans who are struggling to make ends meet as gas prices continue to rise.

The truth is that giving away more of the American people's offshore resources to Big Oil companies will do absolutely nothing to ease the prices at the pump. How do we know? Because the oil giants already are sitting on 11.6 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico without lifting a finger to extract it.

If my colleagues really believe that more domestic drilling is the answer to high gas prices, then they should support this final amendment, which does two things: first, to encourage the oil companies to drill on the tens of millions of acres of public land they already hold so that Americans can benefit from domestic oil production before the oil companies rush to lock up more land; and second, the amendment would help to keep the oil produced within the United States of America here at home.

Mr. Speaker, the facts speak for themselves. Opening vast portions of the east and west coasts to drilling makes no sense when 79 percent of all the potential oil resources on the whole continental shelf already are available in the current offshore leasing program. Why risk every inch of American coastline, which supports millions of jobs in tourism and fishing and over $225 billion in related economic activity when the Energy Information Administration tells us that unrestrained offshore drilling might lower gas prices not at all in the foreseeable future and maybe pennies two decades from now?

Oil companies are active on just 10 million of the 34 million acres under lease in the gulf. My Republican colleagues say, yes, but it takes time and money to explore before you can start production. Well, the fact is that of the 24 million lease acres lying fallow in the gulf, they hold 70 percent of the region's technically recoverable oil, but the companies aren't exploring on a single one of those acres. They haven't even submitted exploration plans in those areas. Why should they when they can squat on these resources and still make $32 billion in profits just in the last 3 months?

Mr. Speaker, every kindergartner knows you should clean your plate before you get a second helping. Evidently the oil company executives never learned that lesson. Here is our chance to deliver the lesson to them, and if my colleagues truly believe that we need more drilling, not just more giveaways to Big Oil, then let's at least make sure the oil companies use the resources they have already leased instead of stockpiling them, and let's make sure that Americans get to use the oil produced on their land.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to now yield to the ranking member of the Resources Committee, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey).

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

I object.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve my point of order while rising in opposition to the motion.

This Democrat motion is just one more example of congressional Democrats attempting to obstruct a bill that will increase access to American energy resources. This motion is already the law. The law says the President has an authority to restrict foreign sales, and ``use it or lose it'' is already the law of the land. If my friends want to reduce the nonproducing leases, then we need to get this administration to issue permits in a timely manner.

This motion is trying to deflect criticism from the policies that have been perpetrated that block American energy production, cost jobs and raise prices. It is simply a distraction from the real work that needs to be done to increase the supply of American energy.

The bill we're voting on today represents a real choice, Mr. Speaker, on the future of American energy: a choice between using American energy resources or remaining dependent on an OPEC cartel; a choice between creating jobs in America or creating jobs offshore of Brazil.

With this motion, the party opposite is standing for a ``drill there and not here'' policy. Mr. Speaker, that is not a strategy that will work to create American jobs. The underlying bill will create these jobs.

Finally, this is a choice between strengthening our energy security in the face of $4 a gallon gasoline or being held hostage to the whims of volatile foreign regimes. Mr. Speaker, there can be no national security without energy security.

As a small business man, I know what the pressure of $5 a gallon diesel fuel did to my business back in 2008, and we only had two trucks on the road.

Now think about what this is going to do to every household, every trucking business, every shipper, and every farmer in our country. The Nation's families are hurting, Mr. Speaker. They're trying to decide between putting fuel in their cars to go to work or putting food on their tables to feed their children. We must act to increase the supply of American energy, and Mr. Speaker, this bill will get us moving in the right direction. This is a commonsense, free market solution that can help us restore America's greatness.

Congress took bipartisan action in 2008 to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling and exploration. Yet this administration has unilaterally defied the will of this Congress and the will of the American people by effectively reinstating a moratorium. The energy resources don't belong to President Obama. They belong to the American people, and they should be used to create American jobs, to generate revenue, to reduce gasoline prices, and to strengthen our national security.

I urge my colleagues to vote against this motion. Let's pass this bill to return these American energy resources back to where they belong, and that is to the American people.

May God continue to bless America.

Mr. Speaker, I submit the following remarks regarding my absence from votes which occurred on May 12, 2011 and May 13, 2011 due to attending my son Hunter T. Wilson's Army commissioning and graduation in Industrial Engineering at Clemson University. Listed below is how I would have voted if I had been present.

Roll Number 315--Tsongas of Massachusetts Amendment No. 5--nay; roll Number 316--Brown of Florida Amendment No. 6--nay; roll Number 317-- Thompson of California No. 7--nay; roll Number 318--Inslee of Washington No. 8--nay; roll Number 319--Motion to Recommit with Instructions, H.R. 1231, ``Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act''--nay; roll Number 320--On Passage of H.R. 1231, ``Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act''--aye; roll Number 321--H. Con. Res. 50, providing for adjournment of the House-- aye.

Roll Number 322--H. Res. 264, Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 754) to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2011 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Community Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes--aye; roll Number 323--Mike Rogers of Michigan Amendment--aye; roll Number 324--Gibson of New York Amendment--aye; roll Number 325-- Hinchey of New York Amendment--nay; roll Number 326--Carney of Delaware Amendment--nay; roll Number 327--Reed of New York Amendment--aye; roll Number 328--Motion to Recommit with Instructions, H.R. 754, the ``Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011''--nay; roll Number 329--On Passage of H.R. 754, ``Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011''--aye.

I thank the gentleman.

Oil companies already have the drilling rights to public lands the size of Minnesota on which they are not producing oil. Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, and the area oil companies already have could be the land of 10,000 wells but they are not drilling on it. And are Republicans saying they should drill on what they have? No. They want to put drill rigs off our beaches in New England, the Outer Banks, and California, all before we have implemented a single safety reform recommended by the independent blue-ribbon BP spill commission.

Today, five of the largest oil companies testified in defense of their billions of special tax breaks. ConocoPhillips said today it would be un-American to take away Big Oil's tax breaks. Well, it's not un-American. It's unbelievable that Big Oil has the arrogance to continue to defend its tax breaks as consumers are being tipped upside down at the pump.

And how are these tax breaks for Big Oil paid for? I will tell you how. The Republicans are planning to put a drill rig on top of the Medicare program. Republicans are building an oil pipeline into the pocketbooks of our seniors for tax breaks for the oil companies. The Republican agenda is to cut checkups for Grandma and cut checks for Big Oil. They want to cut health care for Grandma and give welfare to the Big

Oil executives. The Republican plan is tax breaks for Big Oil and tough breaks for our Nation's seniors.

Vote ``yes'' on this recommittal motion.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained on May 9 in my State of Texas dealing with issues on immigration reform with the President of the United States, and I missed the following rollcall votes; and if I had been present at that time I would have voted on rollcall vote 299, ``yes;'' rollcall vote 300, ``yes;'' and rollcall vote 301, ``yes.''

In addition, yesterday because of another meeting with the President, I missed rollcall vote 321, H. Con. Res. 50. I would have voted ``no.''

On rollcall vote 322, the rule for the Intelligence authorization, I would have voted ``aye.''