Strategic Production Response Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I strongly urge my colleagues to vote against the so-called Strategic Production Response Act, which would significantly weaken our critical energy security.

This bill before us would result in more oil supply shortages, higher gas prices for hardworking, middle-class families, and jeopardize our energy security, just so those on the other side of the aisle can do the bidding of their friends at Big Oil.

Big Oil has already received billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies. They enjoyed record-shattering profits, and it is all at the expense of hardworking families.

Today, families live paycheck to paycheck; that is the reality. There is no thought for what this will do to the prices at the pump for families.

Big Oil has more than 26 million acres under lease, and over 50 percent are nonproducing. It is not because they are not allowed to drill. More than 9,500 permits to extract oil were approved in 2021 alone. While the administration has paused wasteful lease sales, the permitting process for already leased lands continues.

The greed of Big Oil just never ends. It inflicts pain, and it inflicts financial instability on working families. It is a daily assault.

There is an old saying: ``Know where you stand, and stand there.'' Well, it is clear where some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle stand, and that is protecting Big Oil, which has a monopoly, and they can do what they want in terms of raising prices or lowering prices--and they never lower prices.

I will continue to stand with the American people. I urge my colleagues to vote against H.R. 21.

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