Lois Capps

Mr. Speaker, I was not able to be present for the following Roll Call vote on February 10, 2015 and would like to reflect that I would have voted as follows:

Roll Call #69: YES.

Roll Call #70: YES.

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

Yes, I am.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer the final amendment to this bill.

Passage of this amendment will not prevent passage of the underlying bill. If it is adopted, my amendment will simply be incorporated into the bill, and the bill would be immediately voted upon.

Mr. Speaker, no matter if you support or oppose Keystone XL, we can all agree that extracting and transporting oil has some serious risks. It only takes one small crack, one small mistake, to cause a major oil spill and a catastrophe, irreparable damage to the surrounding communities and to the environment.

History has shown us that there is simply no such thing as a spillproof well or pipeline. Accidents happen, and they will continue to happen, regardless of what we are told by the oil companies building and maintaining the pipelines.

In fact, accidents have already happened 14 times on the existing section of the Keystone pipeline, and these oil spills don't just devastate the surrounding environment. They harm lives and livelihoods as well.

In 1969, my home district in California experienced one of the worst oil spills in American history. I saw, firsthand, the devastating damage to our local economy, to human health, to property, to natural resources. We have sadly seen this happen far too many times since then in communities all around this country.

The Deepwater Horizon disaster cost 11 lives, billions of dollars in economic damages, and untold devastation to the delicate ecosystem of the gulf. That very same year, we saw as well a terrible spill in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This spill was particularly noteworthy because it involved tar sands oil, which is the same type of oil that would flow through the Keystone pipeline.

Tar sands oil is much harder to clean up than standard crude, which is one of the reasons the spill took nearly $1 billion and several years to clean up.

Mr. Speaker, despite numerous assurances that Keystone XL will be safer and that the risk of a spill will be minimal, safer simply does not equal safe. That is why we have the oil spill liability trust fund, to ensure that the oil companies that create these messes will also pay for them to clean them up.

This trust fund is financed by an 8 cents per-barrel fee on crude oil and petroleum products, but TransCanada is currently not even required to contribute to the trust fund for Keystone

because tar sands oil is not considered crude oil for purposes of this program--a loophole, if I have ever heard of one.

If there is a spill, taxpayers and local communities, not those responsible, could be stuck paying for this cleanup. That is why I am offering this straightforward amendment.

My amendment would simply require TransCanada to certify that it will pay the same per-barrel fee for its tar sands oil as it does for its regular crude. It would ensure that TransCanada--and not taxpayers--pay to clean up its own mess in the event of a spill.

I have offered this amendment several times before, both in committee and here on the floor, so the majority should be quite familiar with this issue. In fact, the majority has assured us on several occasions that they would work with us, on Ways and Means Committee as well, to resolve this issue; yet the majority has failed to even propose a meaningful solution, let alone bring one to the floor for a vote.

Mr. Speaker, this is a straightforward issue that should have bipartisan support. We taxpayers, if we are going to bear 100 percent of the risk of an oil spill from this Keystone pipeline, the least we can do is to ensure that those that are responsible for it also pay to clean it up.

I urge my colleagues to adopt this amendment, to protect American taxpayers, and hold oil companies accountable.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

As I said in my opening remarks, I would not, but as we know, the bill would still pass.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding.

It is not a joke. It is disheartening that here we are for the 56th time again considering a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

This time it is different. This time repeal will do more than simply take away the important consumer protections that hold insurance companies accountable and make sure everyone is insurable.

This time it will actually take health insurance away from millions of families, plans they have both chosen and paid for. This time it will hit families where it hurts, raising their costs by erasing the benefits that make their insurance more affordable, as well as raising Medicare prescription drug costs.

This time small businesses who have received tax credits to make insurance affordable will lose them, leaving employees without coverage and few, if any, affordable options.

We all know that the Affordable Care Act is not perfect and there are clear areas where we could work together to build on and improve this law, but today's repeal vote would turn back time, reverting back to a system everyone agreed was broken. The American people deserve better than that from us. I ask for a ``no'' vote.