Floor Statements

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the need that we have here in this country for more energy--and specifically, more American energy.

On Thursday, Leader Schumer and Nancy Pelosi held a press conference, and they announced they had finally come up with an energy plan. After nearly a year--a year of Joe Biden's energy crisis where he killed the Keystone XL Pipeline, struck down leasing--it is good to see they finally have a plan.

It turns out this official Democrat energy plan is not going to create one more drop of American energy. So what will the plan do? Well, if you look at it, you will see it sends bureaucrats--unelected, unaccountable, heavy-handed bureaucrats--to shake down energy companies. Instead of producing more American energy, they want more Federal investigations into American energy.

It won't lower the price of energy--no, not by a single penny. If anything, it might actually increase energy costs across our country. People in Wyoming this past weekend were paying $4 a gallon for gasoline. It doesn't take a Federal investigation to figure out what is wrong here with energy in America. We know why prices are up: supply and demand. Very simple. Demand for energy is up, and supply is not. Supply is actually down.

Yet, after a year of high prices, Democrats still refuse to admit it, ignoring inflation, not facing the facts that we have the American energy in the ground here and they won't let us get it out.

But now the Democrats are coming up with election-year conspiracy theories. They say high prices aren't happening because of the law of economics. They are saying it is happening because of secret backroom deals. Democrats claim it is an international conspiracy rigged by a global oil market.

Instead of producing American energy, Democrats want to produce excuses, one after another.

At the Democrat press conference, the majority leader said: ``The American people didn't send us here to point fingers and blame each other.'' They ought to point fingers at themselves. That is exactly what the Democrat leader and the President have done for the last 15 months since the day Joe Biden took office. They blamed inflation on coronavirus, then they blamed it on economic growth, then they blamed it on corporations, they blamed it on ports and shipping companies, they blamed it on Vladimir Putin, everyone except themselves who are the cause of the problem.

They will blame anyone, as long as they don't have to change their radical and reckless policies. But they won't deal with the problem. Right now, Democrats basically point to the fact that they are determined to give the American people more of the same, and it is the same things that have brought Joe Biden's approval numbers to an alltime low--on the inflation, on economy, on the cost of energy-- alltime historic lows, for a President who should know better but is following the lead of the liberal radical left.

So people are going to be facing more inflation, more high energy costs. And it now costs so much to fill up a tank of gasoline; it is over a hundred dollars to fill up, and I saw that repeatedly across Wyoming last weekend.

This is the same level of anxiety for hard-working families at the end of every month when the paychecks don't keep up. On Sunday, just this past Sunday, the cost of diesel hit an alltime high. Not just a 40-year high like we have for inflation, an alltime high for diesel fuel.

Diesel prices have doubled since Joe Biden took office. Higher diesel prices means it will cost more to transport goods to market. Food prices are up; everything that one buys at the market is up. No matter how bad it gets, Democrats refuse to change course.

Joe Biden continues to attack American energy and American energy workers. Right now, Joe Biden's administration are blocking oil and gas leases at 80 percent of the available Federal lands. There are thousands of drilling requests that are in limbo, which is where Joe Biden has put them.

He has done everything possible, you would think, to undermine investment in American energy. Told the banks, don't lend. Told businesses, don't invest. An attack on direct--on jobs and affordable energy.

If Democrats were really serious about lowering energy prices, they would stop their war on American energy. We need to unleash American energy, not keep it in the ground. Look, Democrats remain the party of higher costs, the party of expensive regulations, the party of high taxes, and the party of greater reliance on foreign countries.

Working families cannot afford the Democratic agenda. People feel stuck or stressed. They are squeezed by inflation. They are squeezed by high energy prices. They have to make decisions about how they drive and how they eat and what they eat and how they live.

The Democratic policies have brought us all of this. We need to replace the Democratic policies; and come November, we are going to replace the Democrats in the House and in the Senate.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, please call up my motion to instruct conferees, which is at the desk.

Madam President, I rise in support of the motion to instruct conferees to require the Department of Interior to finalize a 5-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan no later than June 30, 2022. It would require at least 10 sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. In consultation with both Senators Rubio and Scott, it does not impact any moratoriums, including Florida's.

The Biden administration has failed to develop a 5-year plan. Gina McCarthy has told us why. Last week, she said President Biden is absolutely committed, she said, to blocking additional drilling. Jen Psaki confirmed it at the White House.

Instead of begging for oil from our enemies, like Iran and Venezuela, we should produce more American energy.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this amendment.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about our Nation's economy. On Friday, we saw new inflation numbers, and we found inflation remains the worst that it's been in 40 years.

We also found out that in the first three months of this year, the American economy actually shrank.

Why did it shrink? Well, because of the inflation that is hitting hard every family in America. So now we have a terrible situation with soaring inflation and a stagnant economy--both at the same time. People are paying more and more, and they are getting less and less.

Now, the last time this happened, was in the 1970s. It was called ``stagflation.'' Back then, all the liberal economic experts said it was impossible, you couldn't have soaring inflation in a stagnant economy, but we did. And now here we are 50 years later, same thing again.

This is hitting American families like a sledgehammer, and the people are suffering all across this country. Inflation has been so high for so long, the experts tell us it might lead to a recession.

Now, a recession is when the economy shrinks for six months. We are already halfway there. Joe Biden, the other day, said everything was fine. He said he was not concerned at all about a recession.

He said no one is predicting a recession right now.

Well, that is just not true. Maybe he is not listening, but people within his own administration are predicting additional dire economic times ahead.

Look, our economy has underperformed projections in four out of the last five quarters since Joe Biden has become President. Joe Biden's own Labor Secretary admits a recession is a real likelihood. Last month, Deutsche Bank predicted a recession by the end of next year. Three days later, the Bank of America told investors inflation shock is worsening; interest rate shock is just beginning; and recession shock is coming.

Bank of America went on to say that ``inflation is out of control and inflation causes recessions.''

Last month, Larry Summers pointed out that the United States has never had the current inflation rate and the current unemployment rate without a recession coming within 2 years.

Larry Summers went on to say:

Recession in the next couple of years is more likely than

not.

More likely than not.

I suspect that is how the consensus will evolve.

Well, Larry Summers is right. He has been right before. He has been right about inflation. This is economics 101. It is also American history 101.

High inflation brings about a change in the Federal Reserve, so they raise interest rates, and when they raise interest rates, the economy slows down. That is what we are seeing.

Inflation is the worst it has been in 40 years, and in March the Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in 4 years. The Fed is widely expected to raise rates again very soon. It is easy to see where this is all going. Joe Biden's inflation will soon lead to Joe Biden's recession. Now, maybe Joe Biden is hoping that stagnation will be transitory, just like he said of inflation for month after month after month after month after month.

The American people have seen this before. Unlike Joe Biden, the American people are concerned about inflation and they are concerned about a stagnant economy and they are concerned about a recession.

Apparently, the President likes to laugh about it. In the last 12 months, we have seen the highest inflation ever recorded for household staples--chicken, lunch meat, baby food. It is hard to get infant formula now. There is a shortage of that all across the country. The American people are feeling stuck in place. They are very stressed, and they feel the squeeze every day.

One estimate says the typical family will pay $5,200 more this year than they did last year just to buy the same things. That is $100 a week. This is in addition to the inflation that we suffered last year. Add the two together, working families are paying much, much more to buy the same things that they bought 2 years ago.

The truth is painful, and the painful truth is that the average American family is poorer today than they were the day that Joe Biden took office. People have had to change so much in their lives because of this. They have had to change the way they drive, had to change the way they shop and eat, had to change the way they live.

A poll last week found that two out of every three American families have had to cut back on spending because of inflation. Half said they are struggling to pay rent. Nearly 90 percent of the American people said they want Congress to bring down inflation.

So what have Democrats had to do about this over the last 15 months? Well, last week, the Democratic leader said this: He said he wants to raise taxes. He said it is the only way to conceivably bring down inflation--raising taxes.

Well, that may be the only way that Chuck Schumer knows, but I would just say that is not going to bring down inflation, and it is not going to help the economy.

Prices are up. Interest rates are going up. Now Democrats want taxes to go up on top of it. Energy prices are at record highs. You have to empty your wallet to fill your tank, and yet Chuck Schumer's answer is higher tax rates.

With a recession ready to hit the country, Democrats want to take more money out of the pockets of hard-working people. Well, there is not a lot left to take, I would say to the majority leader of the U.S. Senate and to the President of the United States.

It is really no wonder, then, that two out of every three Americans disapprove of the way the President of the United States is handling the economy. The American people know that Democrats--every one of them voted in lockstep with Joe Biden for 15 months. They remember every single Democrat in the Senate voted with Joe Biden on his major spending bill. The American people remember every Democrat supported Joe Biden's economic priorities, which, of course, hurt the economy.

The results have been disastrous for the American people. We know what we need to do. We need to lower costs. We need to reduce these burdensome regulations. We need to get back to American energy-- American energy, affordable energy, reliable energy--not going hat in hand to people around the world. We do much better if we are American energy dominant, selling energy to our friends rather than having to buy it from our enemies.

We have had the strongest economic times in the United States in my lifetime prior to the pandemic. We know what brought it to us. It was lower taxes, more American energy, limiting regulations. Those are the things that make a difference. Those are the things that Joe Biden has chosen to ignore.

The American people are struggling and suffering, and it is about time they get an administration focused on their needs, not on the needs of an administration which is woefully out of touch with the American people.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Parker for her hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC, office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office as well, as to the State of Wyoming.

Parker is a native of Idaho. She is a graduate of Corban University, where she studied political science. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Parker for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her journey.

Madam President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Morgan for her hard work as an intern in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office, as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Morgan is a native of California. She is a student at the University of Wyoming, where she is studying communication. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Morgan for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with

all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her journey.

Madam President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Andrew for his hard work as an intern in the Senate Republican conference. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office, as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Andrew is a native of Vermont. He is a graduate of Gettysburg University, where he studied philosophy. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Andrew for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Madam President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Jack for his hard work as an intern in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office, as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Jack is a native of Massachusetts. He is a student at the George Washington University, where he is studying international affairs. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Jack for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the Biden border crisis. Right now, our Nation is facing a dangerous national security crisis at the border, and it is all because of the policies and the actions of President Joe Biden.

Now, there are a lot of crises that we are facing. There is the border crisis; the crisis of high gas prices; there is a crisis of inflation, which is at a 40-year high; and there is the crisis of the issue of international affairs with Vladimir Putin on NATO's doorstep having invaded Ukraine.

When you take a look at all of these, the two that I hear about most at home in Wyoming are that of inflation and that of illegal immigration. The thing that is really bringing this to the fore today and why I am coming to the floor to talk about Biden's border crisis is the announcement that on May 23, distressingly, the crisis is going to get a lot worse.

On May 23, the experts tell us, including people from this own administration, that the number of people illegally coming to this country could double or even triple overnight. Since Joe Biden took office, there have been millions and millions of illegal crossings from our southern border into the United States. The Border Patrol estimates that more than 700,000 illegal immigrants got away from them since Joe Biden has taken office. This includes 62,000 people just last month. It works out to about 2,000 illegal immigrants vanishing into the United States every single day. These are the ones who got away. These aren't the tens and tens of thousands who are coming through the process and being registered and released into the United States. Once they get in, most likely, they will never leave.

Under Joe Biden, we are breaking record after record, and these are the wrong kind of records to break. Last year, the number of illegal immigrants who came to the United States was the highest ever recorded. At the same time, America's immigration enforcement is the least amount ever. And to that point, the Biden administration seems to think everything is going just fine.

Yesterday, the Secretary of Homeland Security testified before Congress. I was on a conference call with him the day before, where he met with a number of the Members of the Republican leadership. What the Secretary said yesterday is this. He said:

We have effectively managed an unprecedented number of non-

citizens seeking to enter the United States.

``Effectively managed?''

To me, this is an early candidate for the fact checkers' ``lie of the year.'' They haven't effectively managed anything. The only thing they have effectively managed to do is erase the border completely.

The men and women on our Border Patrol are working around the clock. They are heroes, although they have been vilified by the President of the United States. This crisis is happening because Joe Biden's policies have tied the hands of the border agents. They are being both abused and disrespected by this President and this administration.

On Joe Biden's first day in office, he stopped all construction of the border wall. He ended the successful ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. In fact, just last week, his lawyers were pleading a case before the Supreme Court to eliminate a policy that protects the national security of our Nation.

Joe Biden is now ending title 42. People at home say: What exactly is this title 42? Well, it is a section of our laws that deal with public health. At the start of the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control closed our border to people from coronavirus-impacted areas. So this title 42 decision by the administration likely, at that point, saved thousands of American lives; it protected our public health; it helped our Border Patrol bring down illegal immigration.

Last July, Joe Biden tried to end title 42. He said coronavirus was over; it was behind him. He was patting himself on the back for the great job he had done. And then the Delta variant hit the country like a sledgehammer. Joe Biden and the administration were caught by surprise. People looking for testing were running into long lines, empty shelves. He and the administration were caught completely off guard as has this administration on so many things--on the border; on the failure in Afghanistan; on inflation, which they said was going to be temporary and transitory, month after month after month.

The administration showed they have no core competence to run this Nation. By September of last year, the Biden administration was forced to admit that one in every five illegal immigrants coming to this country was bringing disease with them. That is tens of thousands of illegal immigrants bringing disease into a country each month.

But now Joe Biden wants to end title 42 forever and do it on May 23. If it ends, we are told and believe that this will cause a tidal wave of illegal immigration like this Nation has never seen before. Right now, Homeland Security is preparing for up to 18,000 illegal immigrants each and every day after title 42 ends. That is half a million people a month. That is a population equal to the entire population of the State of Wyoming. Mr. President, I assume the State of Maine--I don't know the exact population--but if you bring in half a million people a day, it doesn't take too many days to add up to the population of the State of Maine.

So what are Democrats saying about this? Well, Barack Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, whom we met with regularly when he was in that position--he once said 1,000 a day would overwhelm the system. Joe Biden seems pretty happy with 18,000 a day. Right now, we are at 6,000 a day.

We have a system that is overwhelmed and it is going to get a lot, lot worse. Joe Biden could triple the number of illegal immigrants overnight to 18,000 a day come May 23.

Earlier this month, former Secretary Jeh Johnson, whom I alluded to earlier--this is what he said. He said the current crisis trends are unsustainable. He said it overwhelms communities in Texas and Arizona; it overwhelms the Border Patrol. This is Barack Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security saying that. I believe Secretary Jeh Johnson is right.

Recently, the head of the Del Rio, TX, Border Patrol union--and my colleague from Texas is on the floor here, the senior Senator--this head of the

Del Rio, TX, Border Patrol union spoke here on Capitol Hill. He said there are some days in Del Rio when officers are so busy with transportation and processing of these illegal immigrants that no one is patrolling the border, the southern border of the United States.

And I am certain that the senior Senator, the distinguished Senator from Texas--Senator Cornyn, who is on the floor--will address this issue after I get finished speaking because he sees this every weekend, as he is home in Texas and talks to people from Texas every day, the crisis that is hitting his home State and is hitting this entire Nation.

So this Del Rio sector covers an area of 240 miles of border. And the head of Del Rio, TX, Border Patrol told us no one is patrolling that section of the border because the personnel are too busy filling out paperwork and moving illegal immigrants from location to location.

In Yuma, AZ, up to 90 percent of Border Patrol agents are busy with transportation and caretaking duties. Ninety percent of their agents cannot spend their time guarding the border. As a result, large portions of the southern border in Arizona are wide open, which is why I believe the junior Senator from Arizona is so vehemently opposing the President of his own party for a reckless move by a President, who seems to disregard the importance of even having a border to our Nation.

Media reports show that 60,000 people right now are waiting at our southern border. They are counting down the days until title 42 is over. Some of them will bring in drugs, some will be human traffickers, some of them may even be on the Terror Watch List. If you are a foreign terrorist on the Terror Watch List, this is a dream come true if you are trying to get to America.

On May 23, we will face a humanitarian crisis, a public health crisis, and a national security crisis all in one greater--much greater than the one we are facing today and is already terrifying Americans in every State because with an open border, every State is a border State, every city is a sanctuary city, and people are subjected to the drugs and the crime that is coming with it and the deaths that are coming as well.

Now, many Democrats are asking and telling Joe Biden: Keep title 42 in place. Yet these same Democrats, they voted in lockstep with Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden the last 15 months. They understand today that Joe Biden's policy is unwise and very unpopular. But these are the same Democrats who came to the floor and voted to stop building the border wall; the same Democrats who in this very Chamber voted to give stimulus checks--send out checks to illegal immigrants when they voted last year. Not one of those Democrats joined us in supporting title 42 last summer.

Democrats can run for reelection, but they cannot run from their records. They voted for the Biden border agenda, and every Democrat shares the blame for this crisis.

What happens if the border doesn't stay at the border? No, it makes each one of us less safe. Border Patrol tells us they have caught, so far, 42 terrorists trying to cross the border since Joe Biden took office. How many got away? We are hearing the numbers getting away is 60,000 a month--getaways. How many of those are terrorists who are now living in our midst?

Federal narcotics agents say that the vast majority of illegal drugs in this country came here over our southern border. That is how they are getting in. Drug overdoses have never been higher than they are right now. One hundred thousand Americans died of drug overdoses last year. People are dying every day in every State because of drugs being brought in across the southern border by the lax border policies of Joe Biden and the Democrats.

If title 42 ends, it is going to mean more drugs, more crime, more death in all of our States. Even the Washington Post newspaper--their editorial board, that is not known for being conservative or lining up with conservatives--this is what they recently said:

A migrant surge is coming at the border--and Biden is not

ready.

All of America knows that. They know Biden is not ready. He is not ready to be President, not ready to run the economy, not ready to help with the military, not ready on any level, and at the border, the Washington Post points out he is not ready.

The article went on and said:

The predictable effect of lifting Title 42 is a new influx

of migrants . . . which would compound an existing surge at

the . . . border . . . for weeks or much longer.

The Washington Post points out and predicts:

Absent progress on [addressing the root causes], the Biden

administration . . . will surely face more chaos at the

border.

This is an administration of chaos. The Washington Post--that was my addition. They ended by saying ``more chaos at the border.'' I am adding ``an administration of chaos.''

Look, the Post is exactly right. This crisis is 100 percent preventable. It is a crisis of Joe Biden's choosing and Joe Biden's making. It is a crisis that is entirely the result of Democrats' reckless open border policies. We need to go back to policies that work.

I ask the President to keep title 42 in place. Listen to the Democrats who are talking to you in addition to us, Mr. President, who say keep title 42 in place.

And enforce the laws on the books, close the loopholes that encourage illegal immigration, finish the wall, bring back the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy; we know it works.

The American people in every State are pleading with Joe Biden. Only about one in three Americans support the President's policy at the border, two-thirds don't. Overwhelming numbers oppose what this President is doing to this country in terms of how he is affecting the economy, inflation, energy prices, and the border. This is a President with record low numbers on all of those areas, and it is all of his own doing and his own making. Mr. President, do not make this, your own border crisis, even worse.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the need for more American energy.

Since his first day in office, Joe Biden has been on a war--an all- out war--against American energy.

In his very first week in office, he stopped all new leases of oil and gas on public lands. That was completely illegal for the President to do that. A few months later, a Federal court told the President that what he had done was illegal.

The law states that the American people may explore for energy on Federal lands, and the law calls for ways that it can be done. So here we are now, 15 months into the Biden administration, and, finally, Joe Biden has grudgingly agreed to follow the law. He is going to sell a bare minimum of leases to obey the court order.

So how much is a bare minimum? Well, for the entire State of Utah--my neighboring State--they are only offering one single parcel to the entire State. And at the same time, Joe Biden is raising the cost of American energy production to the point that he is raising Federal royalty rates on the energy produced on that Federal land by 50 percent.

When we produce less American energy, the American people end up paying more for the energy they use. This is Joe Biden's economy in a nutshell, the economy that has given us the highest cost inflation in 40 years.

In the last hundred years, no President has ever raised these royalty fees for producing American energy until Joe Biden. It just shows that when it comes to energy, Joe Biden is further to the left of any previous American President.

So who is going to pay for these higher fees on Joe Biden's attack on American energy? People understand it. They know that they are going to be the ones who are going to have to pay for it, and often it is the people who can least afford it in our home States and across the country.

These higher costs for American energy--thanks to Joe Biden--are going to be paid for by working families, people who are already struggling to keep up and falling further behind in Joe Biden's economy. Producing less, raising costs--it is the perfect recipe for more inflation.

As I was coming down to the floor, I walked by a TV screen. The bottom screen shot said: ``Joe Biden's approval rating hits an alltime low.'' It seems to be happening all the time, week after week, month after month, continuing to fall in the polls because the American people are distressed and in pain over what this President and what the Democrats in the House and the Senate are doing to the people of this great country. Doing the bare minimum, this President may satisfy the courts, but it is not enough to satisfy or save struggling families.

To stop this inflation nightmare, we need a long-term commitment to producing more American energy. Energy companies aren't going to invest if they think--and Joe Biden tells them and threatens them--that he wants to shut them down tomorrow. That is exactly, though, what he continues to talk about doing.

So just last week, after the President gave a speech and said: Well, we need to at least do these leases, his climate czar, Gina McCarthy--I guess she must really be the one who is running the show down there in the White House. This is after the President of the United States made a speech about what he says we are going to do, you know. ``Pay no attention,'' she says, ``to the President.'' She said he is ``absolutely committed to not moving forward with additional drilling on public lands.'' Who is calling the shots? She said: ``We had no choice but to follow the court ruling.''

Then they asked the Press Secretary. She said last week: ``We are going to continue to fight this court [ruling]''--continue to fight-- ``that is forcing our hand.''

They are going to continue to fight the American people all the way to the ballot box in November, where the American people say, we have had enough of this stuff.

Then there is Joe Biden's climate czar, John Kerry, former Member of this body, former Secretary of State. Here is just a couple of things that he has had to say recently. He said, ``We have to put the [natural gas] industry on notice.'' He said, ``You've got [no more than] six years, eight years, no more than 10 years,'' he said. He said, ``by 2030 in the United States, we will not have coal plants.'' He says, ``We will have to be phasing out coal plants five times faster'' than we are doing now.

These are people who are not committed to affordable energy. These are people who are not committed to the fight against inflation. These are people who are not committed to the American people and the American families who go to work every day, try to put food on the table, try to get their kids to school. Oh, no.

And what does John Kerry, then--who does he have to praise? Well, he praised the energy policy of the State of California. Which State has the highest energy cost in America? California. That is the Biden administration telling the American people, we want you to be like California. We want you to pay even more than you are paying now.

Joe Biden and the environmental extremist who the President obeys are

doing everything they can to undermine investment in American energy. It is time for this White House to stop this war on American energy.

The White House cannot get by--this country cannot get by when the White House does the bare minimum. This White House should be doing everything that we can to produce more American energy, bring down the costs for American families.

Joe Biden needs to open up public lands for energy production. The Federal lands are the property of the American people. We have the resources. We have it in our country. We have it in the ground right now. This is a solution to the inflation crisis that is hitting families all across the country.

There is no excuse for this administration to continue to block the American people from developing the resources that we have in order to bring down the costs, improve their lives.

Joe Biden needs to approve the 4,600 drilling permit applications he currently has sitting on his desk. He needs to speed up the process for pipeline permits, not crush them. And he needs to stop attacking American energy workers. These workers, these are the people who keep the lights on in this country. These people are those who keep the economy running. These hard workers deserve our support. They deserve our gratitude. They don't deserve the way they are being treated by this administration and this President. These are the people who can help us get out of this crisis that Joe Biden has created.

The American people are fed up with Joe Biden making excuses and dragging his feet. It is what I saw while walking here to the Senate floor on the television screen today: ``Joe Biden's approval rating hits an alltime low.''

The American people want and demand real solutions. What they deserve is more American energy. And unless this administration wakes up and delivers that, those alltime low approval ratings of this President are going to get even worse.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Cam for his hard work as an intern in my Casper Office. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office, as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Cam is a native of Casper. He is a graduate of Kelly Walsh High School. Cam currently attends Casper College, where he is studying political science. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Cam for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Rachelle for her hard work as an intern in my Casper Office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office, as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Rachelle is a native of Casper. She is a graduate of Kelly Walsh High School. Rachelle currently attends Casper College, where she is studying international studies and communications. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Rachelle for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her journey.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Violet for her hard work as an intern in my Casper Office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office, as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Violet is a native of Casper. She is a graduate of Natrona County High School. Violet currently attends Casper College, where she is studying public relations and human communications. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Violet for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her journey.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about the need for more American energy.

On Thursday, President Biden announced that he is going to release even more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. To me, this is another desperate Hail Mary pass. It is a short-term effort to deal with their midterm election crisis. It is a crisis that has been created by the policies of this administration.

The real crisis is the cost-of-living crisis, and it is a crisis that is punishing American families. Inflation is at a 40-year high. Gas prices recently hit the highest price ever. Why is it happening? It is economics 101. The supply of energy is not keeping up with the demand for energy.

We are now producing about 1.3 million barrels of oil per day fewer-- less--than we were in 2019. Yet, for the last 14 months that Joe Biden has been in the White House, he has done absolutely nothing to increase the supply of American energy. He has not sold one lease to produce energy on public lands--not one. President Obama, at this time into his first term, had already held 47 Federal lease sales--in his first 14 months in office. For Joe Biden, the number is still zero.

This just shows that when it comes to energy, Joe Biden is to the far, far left of any previous American President. Joe Biden is already the most anti-American energy President we have ever had. He refuses to do any of the things that would actually help our country in terms of our energy needs. He won't increase oil production by a single drop. No. He wants to release some from the strategic reserve but not actually produce any more American energy.

What he is essentially doing is burning through our savings account. This is now the third time that President Biden has released energy from the strategic reserve. He is on pace to burn through a third of our oil savings in less than 2 years in office. Soon, we are going to have the smallest amount in our reserve, the smallest amount in our savings account, since 1984.

In November, Joe Biden conducted the largest release in history from the strategic reserve. He released 50 million barrels. So what was the result? He made a big announcement of it. The Secretary of Energy did as well. The price of gas went down by 2 cents--2 cents. The White House was so proud of itself that they actually sent out a press release congratulating themselves. Prices went back up almost immediately. The result was an utter failure. So now Joe Biden said he is going to release 180 million barrels over the next 6 months, which is a million barrels a day for the next 180 days--in other words, between now and right before the elections.

The strategic reserve is meant for emergencies. It is not meant for the cynical, political coverup of what the President has done to our American energy policy. Some people call it an election-year gimmick. I call it dangerous--dangerous because we are going to be less prepared for emergencies and be less secure as a nation. We will be less safe.

Now, 180 million barrels sounds like a lot. It is about the amount we use on an average of 9 or 10 days. We use about 20 million barrels a day in the United States. We are currently importing a lot more than that.

Even the President admits that it won't have a big impact, but he doesn't know what else to do. On Thursday, he said this would reduce prices by as little as 10 cents a gallon. We are still over $4 a gallon nationwide in terms of the national average. I expect it is going to remain that high, over $4 a gallon, through the summer.

So who do the American people blame for this? Well, in poll after poll, they blame Joe Biden because he is the one who proudly stood there and beat his chest and said: I have killed the Keystone XL Pipeline.

The day Joe Biden took office, gasoline was $2.38 a gallon. America was energy independent for the first time in 70 years. We were energy dominant. We were exporting energy. We were selling it to our friends instead of having to buy it from our enemies. Joe Biden took office and started attacking American energy, and things have deteriorated ever since.

That is why it is no surprise that energy and gas prices were up 13 out of the last 14 months. By the time Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, the average price of a gallon of gas had gone up from $2.38 gallon to $3.53 a gallon. So it was already up over $1.15 a gallon in just over that first year in office for President Biden. Today, the average price of a gallon of gas is about $4.18.

Prices may actually go higher if Joe Biden gets his way in terms of energy policy. That is because, when the President put out his budget, we found he wants to raise taxes on American energy. The budget that the President has proposed for the next year contains 36 new taxes, and 11 of them are directly on American energy. It would cost about $45 billion, which, of course, would be carried on to the people who buy American energy. It would be paid by working families in the form of higher gas prices, higher oil bills. It would cost more to heat your home.

Even Nancy Pelosi, when she looked at the budget, said:

Consumers pay for that.

On Thursday, Joe Biden asked Congress to charge fees on oil and gas leases that aren't even being used. Now, this is another gimmick. People want to use those leases, but the administration is blocking the permission to drill to use the leases. This is just a continuation of the Biden blame game.

If you want to explore for energy in America, the lease is just the first step, the first of many. You need to apply for a permit to drill. In Wyoming, people know all about this. They call it an APD, an application for the permission to drill. You have to pay to apply after you have paid the rent on the lease.

So you apply, and somebody has to make a decision. Those decisions used to be made at the local level. Not anymore. Now the Biden administration has said: We know better than any of you people out around the country. We will make all of the decisions out of Washington.

The decision they have made is they are not going to give any of these permits to drill. That is why the President could say: They are not drilling.

Well, you are not letting people drill.

Now, we are not talking about a couple of leases; we are talking about thousands and thousands--over 4,000 leases--that are tied up that way.

We have another group of leases that is tied up by environmental activists who love to sue to stop energy exploration. They want to keep it in the ground.

So companies are paying their rental fees. They want to explore for energy, but they are being blocked by the administration. Then they are being blamed by that same administration for not exploring for energy.

The President says: Use it or lose it.

Well, that is the law of the land right now. If it doesn't produce oil or gas within 10 years, you actually lose the permit. He doesn't want to explain that to folks.

If the lease does produce energy, if it does produce oil, then the government actually reaps the benefits from that. They get tax money from that. That helps to pay for many of the things that we do as a government. In Wyoming, in our State areas, we use it to help with paying for education, with paying for healthcare. These are vital services in the community that are paid for by the successful exploration and recovery of energy that is currently underground and that Joe Biden wants to keep underground.

In the President's budget, he wants to charge an additional fee on top of all of this. So he refuses to let them drill, and he wants to charge them for not drilling. This is something out of ``Alice in Wonderland.'' More fees will mean producing less. We need to produce more. That is the way to get down the price at the pump--to produce more American energy.

Democrats refuse to admit that the percentage of leases that are actually being used today has never been higher. These are old leases. The Democrats' excuses on this issue are what I would put in the category of the Big Lie--the Big Lie to support an anti-American energy agenda. It is an agenda of less American energy, more taxes, and higher prices. It is the reason millions of American families today are struggling to get by. They are feeling the pain.

According to one estimate from economists at Bloomberg, American families will spend an extra $5,200 this year--that is $100 a week-- compared to last year, just to stay even. It is all due to inflation in the cost of groceries, the cost of gas, the cost of goods. All of those things are squeezing American families. People are getting crushed. Their dreams are being crushed. Potential savings to send kids to college--that is going away. The savings for a vacation--that is going away. You have to empty your wallet to fill your tank under Joe Biden's energy policies, and the extra $100 a week is on top of last year's inflation whereby people across the country said they were paying more and more to get less and less and that even if they got a raise, they couldn't keep up. They have kept falling further and further behind.

People across the country are already living paycheck to paycheck. They can't afford more price increases. They need real solutions, and they are not getting them from this White House. The answer seems pretty simple: Stop the reckless spending here in Washington. Unleash American energy.

President Biden needs to do a couple of things right away to unleash American energy.

The first is to have a long-term commitment to produce more American energy. Energy companies aren't going to invest if they think Joe Biden is going to shut them down tomorrow, and in a recent speech, he said that is what his goal is. He wants them to produce more today so he can shut them down tomorrow.

He does need to open up our Federal lands. We should auction off leases right away, and Joe Biden should approve those 4,600 drilling permits, which, today, are still stuck in limbo. He put them there and locked them in.

It takes months to get production up and running. You have to get the right permits. You have to tap the pipelines. You have to speed up the process for pipelines as well. Although we did see the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission--all of the Commissioners--come to the Energy Committee, they don't seem to be very interested--at least the ones in the majority don't seem to be very interested--in speeding up the pipeline process or in allowing pipelines at all.

Finally, Joe Biden needs to stop attacking the hard-working men and women of this country who continue to produce energy, who go to work every day to keep the lights on and to keep us warm in winter. We need these workers out there, and Joe Biden needs to stop attacking them on a daily basis. They are the ones who can get us out of the crisis. They are the ones we need for the economic recovery.

Instead of spending our savings, it is time to unleash American energy. We need more American energy, and we need it now.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.