The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE NEED FOR ENERGY INDEPENDENCE” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H132 on Feb. 1, 2006.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE NEED FOR ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, last night we heard the President say something that has been repeated on news broadcast after news broadcast across our country: America is addicted to imported oil. This chart shows that over 30 percent, one-third of what we consume, comes just from the Middle East. Mr. President, thank you for finally saying what many of us have been trying to tell you and your administration and your father's administration for the past decade-and-a-half. Your own Secretary of Defense told me on the record in the Defense Appropriations Committee that energy independence for America wasn't his job, and yet he runs the largest department in your cabinet.
My constituents complain to us daily about the cost of home heating, the cost of gasoline. Small business people can't afford to pay their bills. But they don't want to have to wait until 2025 for a solution after you have been out of office for nearly two decades.
The United States consumes over $7 billion worth of imported petroleum, most of it from very undemocratic places. You called them
``unstable'' last night. They are more than unstable. They are undemocratic, Saudi Arabia being the premier country.
Now, Mr. President, you are in the sixth year of your Presidency. Four years ago you claimed to offer an energy plan in this book that had 103 recommendations. I said then and I say now, not a single one of these recommendations were directed at new fuels like ethanol and biodiesel, which you referenced last night. It is interesting that you waited until the sixth year, the middle of your second term, to even offer any kind of new energy program for our country. It kind of makes you wonder whether the Bush administration is really serious.
We must do something now about America's chief strategic vulnerability. We don't need to wait 20 years; we don't need to wait another decade for cellulosic research. In fact, Minnesota moved to a 10 percent ethanol blend, and we ought to do the very same thing nationally.
We can provide funds for infrastructure; just put the pumps in the ground. I can buy the vehicles in Detroit today. I can't get the fuel in my own district.
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We landed a man on the Moon in 10 years. A man on the Moon. And yet we cannot get pumps in the ground across America. We lay tar and concrete all over the country. Let us get serious.
The 2002 farm bill contained the first-ever energy title. I know, we wrote it. Have we had any support from the administration? So small, it is almost embarrassing. In 2004 the administration recommended cutting the minuscule biofuels program operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture by $70 million. In 2005 by $2 million more.
They have cut the money for the National Renewable Energy Labs by over $46 million in Golden, Colorado. All of the pieces of the puzzle that could give us the answer and wean us off this foreign dependence are not part of the President's budget proposal.
What are you going to do, Mr. President, to recapture lost markets? Think about this: Exxon yesterday reported extraordinary profits of over $36 billion, the largest corporate profit in U.S. history. $36 billion. Yet the entire budget of the Department of Energy is $23 billion.
Exxon's profits are almost double the entire budget of the Department of Energy. How many jobs we could create if that windfall could be put to making America energy independent here at home.
So, Mr. President, we welcome your interest at long last. We hope it continues. Though you are late to the table, do not shortchange the American people. Our national security depends on it.
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