Legislative Program
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman, the Republican whip from Louisiana, for yielding.
On Monday, the House will meet at 12 p.m., Madam Speaker, for morning-hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning- hour and 12 p.m. for legislative business.
On Thursday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business.
The House will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of business today.
The House will consider a resolution from the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol recommending the House ask the Justice Department to charge Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino, Jr., with criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about their actions and knowledge relating to the violent effort to prevent the certification of the 2020 election.
Additionally, Madam Speaker, the House may consider legislation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional legislative items are possible.
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that question, and I have been thinking about that because he asks that regularly.
I particularly have been thinking about that question in the context of the fact that we have so much available acreage on which to produce oil and gas currently permitted. When I say a number, we are talking about literally millions of acres.
Madam Speaker, there are 9,000 unused, approved permits right now. There are 26 million acres of public land available right now. There are 11 million acres of Federal waters available. That is 37 million acres in total.
In addition to that, 80 million acres in the Gulf were put up for auction last fall, 2021, under President Biden, which was the largest lease sale in U.S. history. Unfortunately, the private sector bought only 1.7 acres out of 80 million.
Frankly, it appears to be that no matter what we pass, no matter how many permits we make available, there is not an appetite in the private sector for producing more.
I say that in the context of the producers. To their credit, they are claiming victory. They are claiming victory at the extraordinary profits that they have gotten. They are buying back stocks. They are paying large dividends. But they are not producing more product.
Now, it may well be that they think the price is pretty high, and they are making a good profit and don't need to do anything more. But the gentleman's questions, Madam Speaker, continually imply that there is some impediment to producing more product.
Of course, the United States is the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world, and we have increased very substantially over the past few years in production.
I say to the gentleman the committees are looking at the bills the gentleman refers to. But in terms of production, the United States is producing 18.61 billion barrels per day, which is 20 percent of the world's production.
The President announced, just the other day, the release of a million barrels per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That is going to be 180 million barrels over the next 6 months.
In fact, when he did that, I don't know whether it had direct impact, but as the gentleman knows, the price on the global market has come down. I think it came down $7 in the last month or $7 in the last week.
The administration is clearly making some substantial policy changes, one of which is use it or lose it. I said there were 9,000 permitted, ready to go, ready to drill, right now, today.
The President has said, in his policies: We have given all these permits. If you are not going to use these permits, then you are either going to pay a fee or give them back, and we are going ask other people who want to produce more product.
You would think in the capitalist system which we have, which I strongly, strongly support, that given the price of oil being so high, people would look for more product, unless they want to limit the availability of product and, therefore, keep the price even higher.
I don't know which is the option there, but I will tell the gentleman that the President has activated the Defense Production Act, looking for critical materials, not just oil, but lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, manganese, for all sorts of things that we need. The President has taken very, very strong steps.
In addition to that, which is very important, Madam Speaker, what we have done is passed legislation which will, in the relatively near term--not tomorrow, not next week, not next month--make us less and less reliant on overseas suppliers of energy that clearly have shown themselves to be not reliable and clearly have been seen to be people who want to create a monopoly, a cartel, so that they can keep prices unusually high and, of course, in the process continue to assault the environment and damage the climate of this global community, which will have an extraordinary cost.
In answer to the gentleman's question, the committees are looking at those bills that you mentioned. I will mention to them again looking at those bills.
Very frankly, any implication that we are not producing more product because there is some constraint by the Federal Government on production is simply not accurate, Madam Speaker. Again, 9,000 leases; 37 million acres available--26 million on public lands--permitted, ready to go, and they have not been drilled on.
The President is saying: If you don't drill, if you are not going to produce more product--we want more product. We need more product in the short term. If you don't want to produce it, then we are going to give those leases to somebody else.
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Mr. HOYER. Millions, millions.
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Mr. HOYER. Well, I am not surprised that the gentleman, and many of the bills that he refers to, want to undermine the regulation to protect the health and welfare of the American people which those are designed to do, and most of which I think, you know, the gentleman's side of the aisle did not support or enforce when they were in charge of the Presidency.
Madam Speaker, all of that rhetoric about the President doesn't want to do this, doesn't want to do this, 80 million acres. 1.7 million acres bid on. If, in fact, people were looking for additional ways and means to produce at a price that is historic, they would do so. And he dismisses, Madam Speaker, the 9,000 leases that exist. Now, maybe----
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, yes. If, in fact, that was the reason for non-production, we all would have heard of the fact when we are not producing, and the stock market would have heard about that, and the companies would be lamenting the fact that they are not producing more.
In fact, when you read their reports, they are indicating we are making very high profits. We are not putting money into production at this point in time, and we are buying back stocks, and we are paying high dividends.
I do not criticize them for making what is a business decision. That business decision, however, has had an adverse effect. Why? Because we are not moving quickly enough to not be reliant on fossil fuels which the President, in his remarks, wants to get to.
We have a disagreement between our parties, Madam Speaker, on that issue. Drill, baby, drill. That has been the mantra forever. And it was 73 degrees yesterday. And our planet is hurting.
The trees on my property produced blossoms long before they usually do. They are confused. But not only are they confused; it is dangerous for agriculture. It is dangerous for human beings. It is dangerous for animal life. It is dangerous for our seas. And we have a difference of opinion.
That is what the President was speaking to, that we need to move towards that end, but he understands, as we all understand, that fossil fuels are necessary right now.
Natural gas is--we are the biggest producer of natural gas in the world. We are the biggest producer of oil in the world. That hasn't stopped. And, yes, we need to get to, as our Build Back Better bill does, that none of the Republicans voted for, it gets to a reliance on fuel that will not help Putin.
Now, there are some people in the Republican party who apparently think Putin is a pretty good guy. He is a genius. He is this, that, and the other.
We don't think so. We think he is a war criminal. And we think there are some other folks who are providing us with oil on whom we ought not to rely, not only for the global health, but also for our national security.
And to the extent that we invest in alternatives which, by the way, every energy company in America, and I think the world, probably--I am not going to say that, but in America--that I thought wants to do. They are all doing research on alternative energy sources because they know that at some point, we need to get off of the reliance on fossil fuel. That is what the President was speaking about.
But he leased--he put 80 million acres in the Gulf for lease. Well, why would anybody put 80 million if there was no more drilling? He put 80 million acres, and only 1.7 million the private sector even sort of nodded at, before any tests, before any knowledge. You know, they need the lease to test it.
So I say to my friend, we are going to need fossil fuel, and we need to bring gasoline prices down. But, very frankly, we are not going to bring prices down if we don't produce more product, and the focus is not higher profits, buying back stock, and making high dividends. There is no incentive to do that.
We need to do it. I have urged the President to talk to the leaders of the energy companies in our country. They are part of the success of America. We are at war. We are at war with Putin, a war criminal, a tyrant, and that has destabilized world markets; since the last month up a dollar. That is Putin's dollar we are paying. We are paying that dollar because of Putin.
Madam Speaker, the whip mentioned Putin as an aside; just as an aside, as if the contemplation, as the President pointed out, Madam Speaker, that Russia was going to invade Ukraine. Even Mr. Zelenskyy thought maybe you are overstating the case. Extraordinarily courageous leader in Ukraine.
So even in preparation for the instability that this war that Putin has criminally undertaken without any provocation--murdering people, women and children, people in hospitals, people in schools--yes, oil prices have gone up because the world market was very concerned about this. We don't control it here.
So although it is a dollar since he invaded, I am convinced that a substantial amount of the increase was caused by the instability of his threat. Marshalling troops at the border of Ukraine and Belarus from Russia destabilized the market, no doubt about it.
I tell the gentleman again, there is an ability to drill. There is an ability to do research and discover and do the seismic tests. There is that ability now. I don't accept the gentleman's premise that there is a roadblock.
The President does not want to expand. You understand that. He has said that; you quoted him. He wants to get to alternative energy sources. He wants to save the planet. I share that view with him. But we are going to have to have fossil fuels in the short term because we won't be able to power our economy or our people for some years to come.
Hopefully, by 2035, we will have a substantial reduction, and hopefully, by 2050, a very, very substantial reduction, perhaps zero. But in the short term, we are going to need a resource that has been a critical resource for the growth of our economy and other economies around the world.
Nobody is criticizing those who produce that. I say nobody. At least I am not criticizing them. But I really believe that we could get more production under present circumstances, and that is what we ought to be doing.
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Biden didn't make that decision; the courts made that decision.
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