Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

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Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I am proud to join as a co-sponsor of Senator SPECTER's Oil and Gas Industry Antitrust Act. This bill should help us curb the skyrocketing energy prices that have been an increasing burden on our Nation's consumers and businesses. It also should help us figure out how we can address these problems in the future.

High fuel costs are affecting every family, whether they are driving across town or heating their homes, and we must continue our efforts to do something about it. This bill would take immediate steps to help decrease possible price manipulation by oil companies and allow government enforcement agencies to take action to prevent price-fixing by oil producing nations.

I have been working on this problem for a long time. In fact, Senator KOHL and I have worked hard in our Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights to encourage FTC monitoring of gas prices and their careful investigation of oil industry behavior. I believe that those efforts have helped limit the fuel price increases; unfortunately, we still face enormous problems in this area, and we are all paying higher and higher prices for gas and heating oil. So, we need to continue our efforts and try some different approaches, and this legislation does just that.

Specifically, this bill calls for the Government Accountability Office to undertake a thorough study of the past enforcement actions taken by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice in prior oil industry merger investigations. This study will provide much-needed information on how effective the antitrust agencies' actions have been in preventing harm to consumers from mergers within the petroleum industry. Even more important, this bill also will call on the FTC and DOJ to use the findings from that study to examine those specific mergers and determine if they need to take further enforcement action regarding those deals. In addition, the antitrust agencies will utilize this information to take a close look at the petroleum industry and to determine whether they require special antitrust rules--applicable specifically to the oil industry--to give the agencies the tools they need to promote competition in the oil industry. This would be a very significant step, of course, but it is something they will consider.

Another important provision of this legislation creates a Joint Federal and State Task Force to investigate information sharing in the oil industry that may lead to artificially high prices for gasoline, electricity, and heating oil. The Federal Government and the various States have worked very effectively in the past to look into price spikes, supply disruptions, and a host of commercial arrangements that can harm consumers, and this bill provides a valuable framework for continuing and increasing this very effective cooperation.

Moreover, this bill will put an end to certain types of activities that oil companies may use to drive up prices or create shortages for all types of fuels. Specifically, this bill makes sure that oil companies cannot manipulate prices by refusing to sell their products in particular markets or diverting oil products away from American shores to artificially create a shortage and pad their profits. I am particularly pleased that the bill includes a provision that Senator KOHL and I have pursued since 2000--a provision that would make it clear that the Antitrust Division can prosecute OPEC for its price-fixing.

I believe that some of the provisions of this bill will help right away, like limiting the ability of the oil companies to refuse to sell petroleum in markets that need it and putting OPEC on notice that they can be prosecuted if they violate our laws. These provisions should help in the short-term. And, the other provisions, which require studies and review of past enforcement actions and analysis of possible changes in the antitrust laws, may help us address this problem in the long-run.

This bill will make a difference and help consumers. I strongly encourage my colleagues to join in support of its passage.

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By Mr. DeWINE (for himself, Mr. DOMENICI, Mr. KYL, and Mr. MCCAIN):

S. 2570. A bill to authorize funds for the United States Marshals Service's Fugitive Safe Surrender Program; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, today I join Senators DOMENICI, KYL, and MCCAIN to introduce a bill to support the Fugitive Safe Surrender Program, which encourages those with outstanding arrest warrants to turn themselves in peacefully. This program--conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Marshal Service, with the cooperation of public, private, nonprofit and faith-based partners--involves using a local church or community center as a temporary courthouse, where fugitives can turn themselves in and have their cases adjudicated.

This is not an amnesty program. Those who surrender are still held accountable for the original charges. However, by moving the prosecutors, public defenders, and judges to the new location, non-violent cases can be resolved promptly on-site, in a setting where fugitives feel they can safely turn themselves in.

In a pilot program implemented last August in Cleveland, over 800 people turned themselves in during a four day period, including 324 who had outstanding felony warrants. Almost all the cases were adjudicated on the day of the surrender. As means of comparison, the Fugitive Task Force conducted a more traditional sweep for three days following the implementation of the Fugitive Safe Surrender program, resulting in the capture of 65 people with outstanding warrants. Clearly, the Fugitive Safe Surrender program was a tremendous success, and I'd like to offer my personal congratulations to Pete Elliott, the U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio, and Dr. C. Jay Matthews, the Senior Pastor of the Mt. Sinai Baptist Church in Cleveland, for their efforts in heading up this successful endeavor. This type of innovation and creative thinking is exactly what we need in the law enforcement community, and it has obviously paid off in Cleveland.

The Fugitive Safe Surrender program has exceeded expectations and demonstrated its value to the community. The logical next step is for the U.S. Marshals to expand their initiative nationwide. They already have been working with law enforcement, community, and church groups in eight cities that have volunteered to be sites for Fugitive Safe Surrender in 2006: Albuquerque, NM; Phoenix, AZ; Washington, DC; Louisville, KY; Camden, NJ; Indianapolis, IN; Richmond, VA; and Akron, OH. They are hoping to expand to even more cities in 2007 and 2008. This expansion is worthy of federal support, and that is why I have joined Senators DOMENICI, KYL, and MCCAIN in sponsoring the Fugitive Safe Surrender Act of 2006, which authorizes $3 million for fiscal year 07, $5 million for fiscal year 08, and $8 million for fiscal year 09. These funds will allow the U.S. Marshals Service to coordinate with the Fugitive Safe Surrender sites around the country, also providing for the cost of establishing secure courtrooms inside of a local church or community center.

This is a good bill, and I encourage my colleagues to support it.

There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

S. 2570

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