Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I support quickly moving forward with a recovery package to put America back to work.

The reckless actions of much of Wall Street, coupled with years of inadequate regulatory oversight, have led to a housing and financial crisis of enormous proportions. Spiraling foreclosure rates have put millions of families on the brink of disaster and infected the entire economy. We must stop an economic collapse and throw a life-line to the millions of people that are struggling to find work and support their families.

In the last four months alone, the economy has lost over 2 million jobs. By the end of 2009, an additional 3-5 million Americans could lose their jobs and without this package, the unemployment rate is likely to rise to 12 percent.

Any final bill must create new jobs by: repairing and improving our nation's roads, highways and bridges and improve and expand public transportation in urban and rural areas. Surface transportation funding in the House bill would create more than 1 million new jobs.

The House and Senate bills would also create jobs by investing in safety and capacity improvements at our Nation's airports; capital investments in Amtrak and intercity passenger rail; and energy retrofits in our Nation's public housing, HUD assisted housing and Indian reservation housing.

This is just some of the important job creating stimulus in this bill.

It is important that we act quickly to bolster the sagging economy.

I strongly support this investment package because it will help put America back to work and improve our transportation and housing infrastructure.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim the time in opposition.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment by the gentleman from Arizona would strike all of the funding for Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.

I want to remind people that the primary objective of this economic recovery bill is to fund ready-to-go projects that create jobs quickly. And very few programs in this bill do that as fast as Amtrak. Amtrak has $1.3 billion in ready-to-go projects that it can spend out in fiscal 2009 and twice that that can be used in fiscal year 2010. Jobs will be created immediately nationwide and include repairing infrastructure, renovating stations to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and rehabilitating or purchasing rolling stock for the company.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida, the chairwoman of the Railroad Subcommittee.

Mr. Chairman, how much time do I have?

Mr. Chairman, let me remind my colleagues, Amtrak provides intercity passenger rail service over approximately 20,000 miles in 46 States which are owned by private freight railroads. But it also owns and maintains 1,000 miles of track, particularly in the Northeast Corridor, and half of all of Amtrak's passengers are carried in the Northeast Corridor.

Amtrak has been consistently undercapitalized during its 37 years' existence. The Department of Transportation's Inspector General estimates that Amtrak's capital backlog on the Northeast Corridor alone exceeds $10 billion to reach a state of good repair.

On the NEC, some bridges date to the late 1800s. The electric tracking system between New York and Washington was funded by the Works Progress Administration as part of a 1930 stimulus bill, economic stimulus. The speed and the capacity and the safety of the Northeast Corridor rail passenger operations are at risk.

This amendment should be defeated, and I urge that there be a ``no'' vote.

I yield the remainder of my time to the chairman--or the ranking member.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this important legislation to put America back to work. The financial crisis on Wall Street will soon be addressed by this Congress, and we must not adjourn for the year without also throwing a lifeline to the millions of people that are struggling to find work and support their families.

In the last year alone, the unemployment rate has risen from 4.3 percent to 6.1 percent. Furthermore, we currently need about 125,000 new jobs each month just to keep pace with population growth. Instead, we have lost over 600,000 jobs since January, yielding a deficit of 1,600,000 jobs so far this year.

The jobs bill before us is needed for two reasons. It will create thousands of new good-paying jobs, and it will help close the investment gap in our transportation and housing infrastructure. The transportation and housing infrastructure parts of this bill will create nearly 500,000 jobs.

In addition to the jobs created, the infrastructure investments we fund will make a lasting and tangible impact on this country. This bill provides funding only for projects that will have an immediate economic impact and can be bid within 90 days. The bill includes almost $13 billion to create safer and less congested roads and bridges, over $5 billion to improve and expand transit and intercity passenger rail, $600 million for safety and capacity improvements at our Nation's airports, and $1 billion in infrastructure funding for the public housing capital fund, which will help repair our Nation's public housing.

Let's put America back to work and improve our transportation and housing infrastructure by passing the Job Creation and Unemployment Relief Act.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation to reauthorize Amtrak and rail safety programs. I want to commend and congratulate the gentleman from Minnesota, the chairman, Mr. Oberstar, and the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Mica, for their tremendous efforts and fine work on this important piece of legislation. I also congratulate Subcommittee Chairwoman Brown and her ranking member, Mr. Shuster, for their tireless efforts on the bill.

At a time of record fuel prices, Americans are finding travel by air more expensive and increasingly difficult. It is no secret that those record fuel prices, along with congestion on our Nation's highways, make travel by car less attractive and less affordable.

Investments in intercity passenger rail and high-speed rail must become more integrated into our Nation's transportation policy, and this legislation will help accomplish that goal. Intercity passenger rail is already experiencing its own renaissance. Amtrak has enjoyed 5 straight years of record level ridership, reaching almost 26 million passengers in 2007, and 2008 will be another record year.

This bill will help Amtrak reduce its capital backlog, increase safety and improve service. This bill opens the door to true high-speed rail service in the Northeast corridor and will help many more Americans enjoy the benefits of intercity passenger rail.

Again, I would like to commend the authors of this bill, and I urge Members to support it.

Madam Speaker, as the stock market plunges, financial institutions fail and the economic pain Americans feel grows, our Republican colleagues' only answer is to drill.

Drilling won't help the 2 million Americans who have lost jobs in the last year. Drilling won't protect 46 million Americans without health insurance, 7 million more than when George Bush took office. Drilling won't help nearly 6 million people who have slipped into poverty. Drilling won't bring back the huge surplus that George Bush inherited and squandered. And drilling won't help the 3 million families who have lost their homes to foreclosure in the last 3 years.

Despite their cries for drilling, our Republican colleagues voted against accelerated drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve, already under lease, and against drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. In fact, the drilling they do support wouldn't produce new oil for at least 8 years.

In truth, they don't want to help American families. They only want to distract public attention from eight disastrous years under George Bush.

Mr. Speaker, our Republican colleagues are saying that H.R. 6899, the Comprehensive Energy Policy Act that this House will debate and pass later today, is a sham.

Let me remind them, H.R. 6899 contains essentially the same drilling language they demanded a vote on in June and July. Yet, they will vote against it today just as they did in June and July when they voted against requiring drilling in the already leased National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, against cracking down on speculation, and against releasing a small portion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The truth is, they don't want to even begin to fix the problem. They only want to distract public attention from eight disastrous years of the Bush administration.

A failing economy, a failing foreign policy, a clearly failed energy policy, and no new ideas.

Mr. Speaker, the cornerstone of our Republican colleagues' energy mantra these days is ``Drill Now, Drill Anywhere'' to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil and to bring gasoline prices now. ``Drill now, drill anywhere'' works more like a concrete boot than a cornerstone. In the interest of America's national security, that is just about the worst policy we could adopt.

According to our Geological Survey and our Minerals Management Survey, our total oil reserves both on land and offshore would only last 15 to 20 years at the rate America consumes oil today, which is 8 billion barrels a year and still rising. What exactly would America do in 15 to 20 years when all of our oil is used up and the only remaining sources of oil are controlled by some of the most undemocratic oil dictatorships around the world?

Think about it, America, before it's too late.

Madam Speaker, high gas prices are taking a huge toll. Republicans claim they want to reduce gas prices, but for a month they have voted against every bill that would do so.

Last week, Republicans blocked a bill to release 70 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Much smaller releases by the last three Presidents have produced nearly immediate reductions in crude oil prices of up to one-third. That would translate to savings as high as $1 per gallon of gas. The Republican plan to lease more public land without requiring Big Oil to actually drill and produce oil gives exactly zero savings now.

Today, they will have a chance to vote against the speculation in oil futures. Experts have testified that rampant speculation accounts for roughly $30 of the price of a barrel of oil, or 70 cents per gallon of gas. Isn't it time Republicans voted for 70 cent savings on gas prices by stopping speculation and $1 savings by opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve now?

Madam Speaker, while Americans pump billions of dollars into their gas tanks every week, Big Oil has just completed another quarter of record-breaking profits.

The companies claim they are looking for new oil to bring down the price at the pump, but what they spend on exploration is small compared with their stock buybacks and shareholder dividends. That's great for their investors, but no help for millions of Americans who drive to work every day.

Come to think of it, why would they bring to market the 4 million already

leased and easily developable acres of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, only to have their profits plunge while trying to reduce gas prices?

Last week, Democrats in Congress supported legislation to increase domestic oil production by requiring oil companies to drill on leases they control or lose those leases to companies that would drill.

The Republicans once again voted no. Republicans won't require oil companies to drill, but they have no problem handing them more leases to hoard while gas pump prices and oil company profits soar.

Mr. Speaker, to significantly lower gas prices at the pump, Congress must end rampant speculation in crude oil futures, yet our Republican colleagues in both branches have consistently opposed such legislation. Meanwhile, a whole new crisis looms as families face a price approaching $5 per gallon for heating oil for their homes. That's twice last winter's price.

Last winter in Massachusetts and New England alone, 350,000 low- income families used the LIHEAP program to get by, yet only one in four of the families eligible by income use the program. Many of those already eligible families will be in desperate need of help this winter, and many more middle-income families' budgets will be severely stressed by the doubled price of home heating oil.

Heat for a home or an apartment is not optional for any family, and Congress must act on an historic investment in LIHEAP before we finish our session.

Madam Speaker, as we commemorate the 13th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, perpetrated by nationalist Serb forces predominantly against Bosniaks, Bosnian Muslims, it is time to pay tribute to the tragic episodes not only in Srebrenica, but also in other less-known places in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the spring of 1992, a deliberate, centrally planned, and well- organized campaign of ethnic cleansing, mass murder, rape, torture, and intimidation terrorized the civilian population throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and took the lives of 200,000 men, women, and children. Out of those, 8,000 perished in Srebrenica alone during a period of less than five days in July of 1995. In the end, 2 million Bosnians were displaced from their homes, and the country's rich cultural and religious heritage and monuments were deliberately destroyed. Shattered state institutions remain dysfunctional from the chaos and are struggling to cope with the significant loss of Bosnia's population. Today, survivors are battling post-traumatic stress disorder, orphans are still searching for their parents' remains, and new mass graves continue to be discovered. The entire western Balkans region has still not fully recovered from the violent break-up of Yugoslavia.

The human tragedy that befell Bosnia and its citizens in places less known such as Bihac, Zepa, Gorazde, and Visegrad needs to be revisited and marked in its proper place in the memory of human experience and history. If the international community had possessed the will to protect the UN-designated ``safe haven'' of Srebrenica, it would have prevented the tragic outcome and thousands of innocent lives would have been with us here today. The world had said ``never again'' to genocide, only to abandon the people of Bosnia to an unspeakable nightmare. Today, let us remind ourselves of the consequences: Srebrenica was the worst single atrocity in Europe after World War II. We cannot pretend that Bosnia's struggles are simply in the past, nor that the country has fully stabilized. The people of Bosnia are still trying to rebuild their country, to reform the institutions that were responsible for the genocide, and to move beyond ethno-territorial divisions into a functional democratic state.

As we mark July 11th, we must always remember the innocent people who lost their lives while the international community failed to act. We must acknowledge that justice will prevail only when General Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are apprehended, and we must never forget the horrors that befell the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I thank the chairman for yielding me time.

I just want to say that we have a very severe problem in this country on our energy supplies. In the short term, there are a series of ways that we might save ourselves some money on the gas prices, and those ways include driving less, driving slower, carpooling, and using public transportation where it is available.

And I have to commend the chairman for bringing so quickly to the floor this important legislation, which provides a substantial increase in moneys, authorization, at least, for public transportation, which is already in place in our smaller metropolitan areas and even in our rural areas, so that we can enhance the public transportation available for people--what is already available--and take care of people who are making that move toward using a bit more public transportation.

In the longer term, which is speaking about the 10-year kind of time frame, whereas the short term is in the first year or so, in the longer term, living closer to where we work so you don't have to commute so far, doing the research and development on renewable energy sources, drilling wherever it's open for leases, and I say that's in the longer term because everybody agrees that it will take, even in the best of circumstances, 5 years to bring new leased areas to production and more likely 10 years to bring those new leased areas to production, that and changing over our whole vehicle fleet, our whole vehicle fleet, which will take a considerable period of time, to using much more fuel- efficient vehicles, those are the longer-term ways that we can get out of this problem.

And by far the fastest way to immediately have an effect is the elimination of speculation. There has been much testimony before our committees that speculation is a very significant portion of what is going on right now. The speculative activity in the oil market has quadrupled in just the last few months, 3 or 4 months, and that would be the fastest and most effective way.

My friend the ranking member from Florida has pointed out that we need to increase supply. Well, yes, it would be possible to increase supply. But remember, as the majority leader said here a few minutes ago, we in America have 5 percent, somewhat less than 5 percent, of the planet's population. We are now consuming 25 percent of the oil produced on this planet today, and we in America have only 3 percent of the reserves. You can't drill your way out of this problem because we do not have the reserves.

Madam Speaker, we are witnessing the mother of all oil and gas power plays in this country. Big Oil and their allies are desperately trying to open every possible site for oil drilling before the Texas oil men, Bush and Cheney, leave the White House in January.

Under the Bush-Cheney-McCain plan, were it to become law, every acre of the Outer Continental Shelf, 50 to 200 miles offshore, and all of our coastline would be open to leasing and drilling. You can bet your home that the most promising areas for oil production would be fully leased at the foolish, long-term, low-price policy now in effect, but that's all. There's no certainty that the newly leased areas would be producing a drop of oil 10 years out. Big Oil could simply bank their cheap long-term leases until the price of oil reaches $200 or even $500 per barrel. And we, the Congress and country, would be over the barrel. That, after all, has been the history.

The claim has been made that opening the Outer Continental Shelf would unlock 86 billion barrels of known estimated reserves. Eighty-six billion barrels, by the way, would provide a dozen years of America's oil without using any foreign oil at all, but our Minerals Management Service estimates that 80 percent of those reserves lie in areas already open for leasing and for drilling. So the big oil companies have already leased large areas that have the greatest potential for high production, and yet they're producing on less than one quarter of the already leased acreage. Ironically, that may be the best policy for the U.S. because America's problem is huge.

Our less than 5 percent of the planet's population consumes almost 25 percent of the oil produced in the world. We are so dependent on oil that we have limited leverage to reduce demand, but we have only 3 percent of the known oil reserves on the planet, and therefore, have very little leverage to increase the supply. Because exploration has been more thorough and extensive on our land and in our sovereign waters, the oil yet to be discovered on this planet lies not just predominantly but overwhelmingly beyond U.S. sovereignty.

The Bush-McCain solution is doomed to failure because, first, opening more land and waters to leasing will not necessarily lead to production. Second, even if it did, the production under the best circumstances of shallow waters and of easy drilling and infrastructure in place would take 5 and, more typically, 10 years to produce. Third, if we were foolish enough to pursue that policy, we would use all of our oil, economically recoverable, in about 20 years and would be totally at the mercy of unfriendly oil producers.

For America, the only certain solution to the high price of gasoline is to reduce the consumption of gasoline. Many of the big ways to do that require time to achieve, things like developing and switching to renewable energy, the research and development of fuel cell vehicles, living closer to work, building more extensive public transportation systems, replacing the whole vehicle fleet--both cars and trucks--with high fuel efficiency vehicles.

There are immediate ways we can cut the speculation now. We can drive slower. We can drive less. We can carpool. We can use public transportation when it's possible. We can develop ``work from home'' wherever and whenever that's feasible as an option, and we need to start doing all of those immediate ways immediately.

Mr. Speaker, the cornerstone of the Bush-McCain plan to lower gas prices is to open every acre of the Outer Continental Shelf between 50 and 200 miles offshore to oil leasing, drilling and production. That plan is a surefire failure.

You can bet your house and your children's college education as well that the most promising areas would be leased for long terms at bargain prices, but there is no guarantee that those new leases would be producing a drop of oil even 10 years from now. That's been the history.

The Minerals Management Service estimates 66 billion barrels of oil are recoverable on already-leasable areas of the continental shelf. Sixty-six billion barrels equals 10 years of America's need without any foreign oil at all. Yet less than a quarter of the area actually leased is in production. The oil companies are simply banking their cheap, long-term leases for future higher prices and profits. And we, the Congress and the country, will really be left over the barrel.

I thank the gentleman for yielding time.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased today that the House of Representatives is considering House Resolution 1050, which honors the city of Pittsfield for its rich baseball history. As a sponsor of this legislation, I would like to thank the Committee on Education and Labor, especially the gentleman from California Chairman George Miller for his assistance in bringing this resolution to the floor.

Pittsfield, Massachusetts, can trace its baseball roots all the way back to 1791.

The city, which was only the town of Pittsfield then, was in the middle of constructing a new meeting house. Trying to protect the windows of this new building, the town enacted a bylaw that banned the playing of ``baseball'' within 80 yards of it. You see, even back in 1791, youths were already breaking windows playing America's favorite national pastime. With that, the first mention of baseball was penned into history.

Madam Speaker, besides being home to the earliest known reference to baseball, this resolution also honors the city for being designated the Birthplace of College Baseball by the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

On July 1, 1859, the city hosted one of the Nation's oldest collegiate rivalries, Williams College versus Amherst College, in the first collegiate baseball game to be played in the Nation. Now this game was played under the old ``Massachusetts'' rules. No gloves were used, the ball was pitched under hand, only one out was necessary, and a foul ball, if uncaught, was considered a hit.

The record shows that Amherst College won this first contest by a score of 73-32.

Pittsfield is also the site of many other historical baseball moments. Among others, this resolution honors the city for being the birthplace of Ulysses F. Grant, born in 1865, who's generally considered to be the best African American player of the 19th century, as well as Mark Belanger, born in 1944, who spent most of his career playing for the Baltimore Orioles.

In 1924, Lou Gehrig made his professional debut at Wahconah Park, the venerable ballbark in Pittsfield that is listed on the National Historic Register, and in that debut he appropriately hit a home run into the Housatonic River. Jim Thorpe, considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports, also played there.

In recognition of its baseball past, the city of Pittsfield plans to erect three permanent monuments, Bat, Ball, and Glove, representing the virtues of the game.

Overall, Madam Speaker, I am proud to recognize the city of Pittsfield for its rich baseball history and I am honored to stand on the floor today to honor its significance to our national pastime.

I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, Madam Speaker.