American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008--Continued

Floor Speech

AMERICAN HOUSING RESCUE AND FORECLOSURE PREVENTION ACT OF 2008--Continued -- (Senate - July 10, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, will the Senator from Illinois yield for a question?

Mr. DURBIN. I will be happy to yield to the Senator from Washington.

Mrs. MURRAY. I appreciate the Senator yielding. I have been listening over the last hour, as we have heard our colleagues from the other side come and excoriate us for not allowing them to bring a bill to the floor on energy and assailing the Senators on this side for prohibiting them from doing that.

That was astonishing to me because, as the Senator from Illinois knows, I have been coming to the Senate week after week and saying how much I pay for gas when I go home. It is now up to $4.45 a gallon that I paid last Sunday. I have been a part of this majority that has tried to bring a bill to the floor to deal with renewable energy, to try to deal with the issue of speculation, and to try to deal with a number of issues. How many times now have we been blocked from bringing an energy bill to the floor to deal with these gas prices?

Mr. DURBIN. In the last 6 weeks, we have been blocked three different times by the Republicans, who refuse to give us the necessary 60 votes to bring the bill to the floor--something they are now complaining about. Some of the Senators complaining the loudest voted against having a bipartisan debate on an energy bill.

I guess they think the Congressional Record is written in disappearing ink; that we don't have a permanent record here of their votes. We do. We know where they have been. We know how they have voted.

I wish to say something else for the Senator from Washington, and I am sure she will agree. They come and argue that the Democrats are against domestic exploration for oil. That is not true. I don't know of a single Democrat, I don't know of a single Senator who is against domestic exploration and production of oil. In fact, as the Senator from Washington knows, we have 68 million federally owned acres that we lease to the oil companies for exploration and production of oil and gas.

Mrs. MURRAY. Well, Mr. President, if the Senator will once again yield, didn't we do a bill several years ago to actually add 8 million acres to that, to allow more drilling?

Mr. DURBIN. Yes. So we had the 68 million, and we added the 8 million just a year ago--in the Caribbean, if I am not mistaken--in offshore drilling. So there is this pool of opportunity for the oil and gas companies. They must be opportunities because they are paying us, the Federal Government, a lease. They believe there could be oil and gas there. But when you ask the question: Well, how much are they drilling of that 68 million, it turns out about a fourth of it. A fourth of it.

So you have some 34 million acres offshore of Federal land available to the oil companies, and they could be drilling it right now.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, if the Senator will continue to yield, if I am not incorrect, I believe that 68 million doesn't include the additional millions of acres off the shore of Alaska that they also are allowed to drill in and that they currently aren't drilling in.

Mr. DURBIN. That is right. I don't know the exact number in Alaska, but there are a significant number of acres, millions of acres available off Alaska where they can be drilling.

So I would say to the Senator from Washington, if they have so many millions of acres available for drilling, why is it that they are making the argument that they don't have any opportunities here for drilling and exploration? I think it is, frankly, because they have no other answer.

What it boils down to is that for 8 years we have had two oilmen at the highest levels of Government in America. When you do the math, 8 years, divided by two oilmen, equals $4 gas. That is what we are paying.

I wish to thank Senator Whitehouse for inspiring me. I helped him with the mathematical equation on this, but it was his inspiration that led to that last statement. I would say that is part of the problem. Any President looking at the mess in our economy and the hardship imposed on American families and businesses would have called the oil executives in a long time ago. Not this President. He used to be in the same fraternity. He was in the oil business. Many of them believe this is the way it works; this is the market at work.

If this is the market at work, we better take a look at the market because it is destroying America's economy--cutting back on airlines, reducing the number of flights, reducing the number of employees. All that tells me is that we need some leadership. Leadership will not be served by Senators coming to the floor, who voted to maintain filibusters, and then beg us to start a debate.

That is what it is all about. They had their chance and they didn't join us.

I would say at this point, before I yield the floor, we need to tackle this issue. There is no more important issue facing America today. We need exploration. We need to have investment in new opportunities. We need to be aggressive. We need to move right now.

We need, for example, to move to a point where we are not putting oil into SPR, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but actually taking it out and selling it and the proceeds will be used to not only bring down the price of oil in that sale but the proceeds are used to help American consumers, families, and business get through this energy crisis we face as a nation. We have to stop this indefensible subsidy of American oil companies at a time when they are reporting the highest profits in history. Put that money back into the economy for the right investments. We need a windfall profits tax to stop what is going on there, excessive profit-taking at the expense of the people who get up and go to work every day, and stop the price gouging and speculation that is leading to higher prices for oil and gasoline. This is the kind of initiative we need.

That was included in the bill on June 10 which the Senator from Texas voted not to take up and not debate. I want to take it up. I am ready to do that at any time the Senator from Texas wishes.

I yield the floor.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington is recognized.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Illinois for coming and highlighting the number of times we have tried to bring a bill to the floor to deal with the very critical energy crisis that is in front of us. There is no doubt this is harming Americans today. For our friends at home and for all of us, when we have to pay $4.45 a gallon, as I did last weekend, that means we will not have as much money to spend on other things. We are hearing about people who are cutting back at the grocery stores, not being able to even go to work because they cannot afford the price to put the fuel into their car to be able to go to work. This has a huge impact. It has an impact on our schools and our communities, that are trying to get their schoolbuses ready for the fall and wondering how they are ever going to be able to budget for that. It is affecting our truckdrivers in tremendous ways as they try to get their goods to market. It is affecting every single American family, every single business, every single community, every single government agency.

It is an issue that we on this side of the aisle believe we have a responsibility to address. We have tried to bring a bill to the floor, not once, not twice, but three times, and have faced a filibuster from the other side.

We are going to keep working and keep trying to get to a point where we can finally address this. I think all of us recognize there are two oil men in the White House and it is going to take an election for us to get to the long-term issues we need to address in this Nation. But there are things we can do today. We want to do them today. As Democrats we are going to keep working because America deserves it.

Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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