Strategic Production Response Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of a point of order.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chairman, the legislation we are considering today is a national solution for a national challenge. We cannot arbitrarily remove places from consideration if the best science, technology, and practices can safely and responsibly obtain the energy we need to power our economy.
H.R. 21 will strengthen our energy security and stop the Biden administration from raiding our strategic stockpile.
I urge a ``no'' on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I insist on my point of order against the amendment.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, clause 7 of rule XVI prohibits the House and its committees from considering nongermane amendments. The amendment violates clause 7 of rule XVI of the House rule because it is not germane to the underlying bill.
Specifically, the bill limits the drawdown of petroleum in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the Department of Energy develops a plan to increase the percentage of Federal lands leased for oil and gas production, but the amendment addresses the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This is outside the scope of H.R. 21. Conditioning enactment of this bill upon an entirely unrelated foreign military event is not germane.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, H.R. 21 is about strengthening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by requiring any nonemergency use to be accompanied by a plan to produce American oil resources. It is about conditioning nonemergency uses with the requirement to focus on energy production.
Notably, this amendment does not seek public comment on nonemergency political uses of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It doesn't require comment on the value of preserving our strategic assets for true energy emergencies. This amendment needlessly delays the plan, and I urge a ``no'' vote.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, H.R. 21 is about strengthening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by requiring nonemergency use to be accompanied by a plan to produce American resources. This amendment raises a misleading issue.
Consider a couple of facts. The majority of leases on Federal land are currently producing oil and gas. Two-thirds of active leases are producing. The rest are going through a burdensome regulatory process or being tied up by litigation. This is an unnecessary amendment that seeks to impede the important goals of H.R. 21.
Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I reserve a point of order.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I do insist on the point of order.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, the amendment violates clause 7 of rule XVI of the rules of the House because it is not germane to the underlying bill.
Specifically, the bill limits the drawdown of petroleum in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the Department of Energy develops a plan to increase the percentage of Federal lands leased for oil and gas production, but the amendment would establish an effective date based on the certification that the Federal lands considered for the plan will not impact deployment of renewable energy projects on Federal lands.
Since this bill is about strategic petroleum supply, the deployment of renewable energy projects is outside the scope of H.R. 21, and the amendment is not germane.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, H.R. 21 is about strengthening the SPR by requiring any nonemergency use to be accompanied by a plan to produce American oil resources.
This amendment undermines the purpose of the bill. It seeks to erect limits for the sake of expanding renewable energy projects on Federal lands. Yet, these very same renewable projects--such as weather- dependent wind and solar--must have natural gas backup and other firm energy to assure reliability.
This amendment not only undermines the energy security purpose of this bill, it would help intensify the reliability crisis that is growing worse and worse all across the United States.
It is time to get serious about energy security and affordable, reliable energy.
Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, the purpose of the bill is to prevent further abuse of the SPR and require the Secretary to establish a plan to increase and unleash American energy production on Federal lands and offshore waters.
This amendment is nothing more than another attempt to limit oil and gas production in the United States. American energy workers are eager to get back to work--we can produce millions more barrels of oil per day instead of relying on OPEC and Russia for our energy needs.
President Biden's Department of the Interior only leased 126,228 acres for drilling during his first 19 months in office.
To put that in perspective, no other President since Richard Nixon leased out fewer than 4.4 million acres at that stage in their first term.
The Biden administration has made it more difficult than any other administration in history to produce energy, and this amendment would add to that.
Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, this amendment prohibits oil and gas production within 3,200 feet of a residence, school, or a hospital. The limits established by this amendment are arbitrary and would further restrict our ability to lease land to produce energy.
A 3,200-foot boundary would be among the most aggressive prohibitions in the country. This is an issue best handled by State and local governments, not the Federal Government.
Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is just aimed at delaying the implementation of the bill.
We all know the Biden administration has used the SPR for political gain to artificially decrease the price of gas at politically convenient times for his administration. They have deflected the blame for high energy prices everywhere but their own policy.
They have attempted to blame these record-high prices on Russia, on Putin, on gas station owners, and on oil companies.
The reality is prices were already up over $1 a gallon well before Russia invaded Ukraine. Maybe it has something to do with President Biden's stating on the campaign trail: no more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. No more drilling on Federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period.
He also pledged to stop the Keystone XL. On his very first day in office, he placed a moratorium on drilling and revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Earlier this week, Secretary Granholm said at the White House press briefing that there is nothing standing in the way of oil and gas production in the United States.
The simple fact is the Biden administration has taken a whole-of- government approach to regulate the industry and try and force it out of existence.
Mr. Chairman, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, H.R. 21 is about strengthening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by requiring a nonemergency use to be accompanied by a plan to produce American oil resources.
Increasing energy security means increasing energy supply, reducing prices as we witnessed during the tremendous advancement of American energy production up until just a few years ago.
This amendment aims to limit any expansion of energy in these areas, regardless of the environmental practices. It will harm local economies, ensure higher prices for fishermen, and undermine the purpose of this bill.
Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, H.R. 21 is about strengthening the SPR by requiring any nonemergency use to be accompanied by a plan to produce American oil resources. This increases energy security, increases the supply and affordability of oil, and creates stable prices.
This amendment seeks to condition a plan based on entities that may or may not even participate in available lease tract auctions. This amendment undermines the purpose of the bill, and I urge a ``no'' vote on the amendment.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I reserve a point of order.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I do insist on my point of order.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, the amendment violates clause 7 of rule XVI of the rules of the House because it is not germane to the underlying bill.
Specifically, the bill limits the drawdown of the petroleum in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the Department of Energy develops a plan to increase the percentage of Federal lands leased for oil and gas production.
This amendment requires the Chair of the Federal Election Commission to submit to Congress a report of certain campaign donations. Campaign donations are outside the scope of H.R. 21.
I would also suggest that the disclosure of campaign donations falls within the jurisdiction of the Committee on House Administration, but that committee does not have any jurisdiction over the subject matter of H.R. 21.
This amendment is not germane.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, H.R. 21 is about strengthening the SPR by requiring any nonemergency use to be accompanied by a plan to produce American resources. By lowering the number from 10 percent to 0.1 percent, you essentially defeat the whole purpose of introducing the bill.
To be quite frank, it wouldn't be worth the paper we are using to put it in front of Congress at this point in time.
We should have a conversation about this because at any point in time we are going to blame, whether it is an invasion in the Ukraine or Big Oil or small oil or gas stations or American consumers or the climate crisis or all of those different things. The reality of this conversation is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is at the lowest rate it has been since 1983, is putting us at dangerous risk if any kind of weather event happens in the Chair's home State of Texas or Florida or the Gulf, where we really have these types of issues.
The reality to this entire conversation is that prior to the election of President Biden as President, the oil and gas production onshore and offshore in the United States had made us less vulnerable to foreign interference than at any other time in our current history.
Since this administration has been in place, we have relied more and more on outside oil and become subject to the same crises and problems that we witnessed in the 1980s and the 1990s and until we discovered shale in places like North Dakota.
This amendment guts the entire purpose of the bill. And while that is the intent of the amendment, I would strongly urge a ``no'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chair, I move that the Committee do now rise.
The motion was agreed to.
Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Brecheen) having assumed the chair, Mr. Sessions, Acting Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 21) to provide for the development of a plan to increase oil and gas production under oil and gas leases of Federal lands under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of Defense in conjunction with a drawdown of petroleum reserves from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, had come to no resolution thereon.
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