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AMERICA CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR MANUFACTURING, PRE-EMINENCE IN
TECHNOLOGY, AND ECONOMIC STRENGTH ACT OF 2022--Motion to Proceed
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 282, H.R. 4521.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 282, H.R. 4521, to provide for a coordinated Federal research initiative to ensure continued United States leadership in engineering biology.
Cloture Motion
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 282, H.R. 4521, a bill to provide for a coordinated Federal research initiative to ensure continued United States leadership in engineering biology.
Charles E. Schumer, Patty Murray, Benjamin L. Cardin,
Tammy Duckworth, Mark R. Warner, Robert P. Casey, Jr.,
Jack Reed, Tina Smith, Brian Schatz, Christopher
Murphy, Mazie K. Hirono, Mark Kelly, Tammy Baldwin,
Jacky
Rosen, Ron Wyden, Margaret Wood Hassan, Maria Cantwell.
Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call for the cloture motion filed today, March 17, be waived and that following the 1:45 p.m. vote, the Senate resume legislative session.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Wyoming.
Inflation
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about America's inflation crisis. People in my home State are noticing it every day.
This morning, the majority leader came to the floor and expressed his shock that prices have gone up, but they have been going up for over a year now. Price increases last year on energy alone cost hard-working families over $1,000 more last year--the first year that Joe Biden was President--compared to the previous year. This year, it is going to cost even more for energy--to drive, to heat, all of those things.
So I am glad that the Democrats now are--14 months into Joe Biden's Presidency--finally concerned about energy prices, but what we are seeing the Democrats offer are gimmicks.
Some Democrats want to call it a gas tax holiday. Of course, the gas tax is what is used to pay for our roads and bridges. So they want to defund--stop paying for roads and bridges but then put the gas tax back on right after the election. It is a cynical ploy.
Other Democrats say: No, no, let's not do that. Let's just send everybody more government checks.
Well, the Democrats have been doing that, and it is what has caused much of the inflation that we are facing today.
Still other Democrats say: No, no, no, let's clamp down on American energy even tighter.
These are nice sound bites. We are seeing them. We are hearing them. Those aren't solutions.
We know why prices are rising. Prices are rising because supply of American energy is down. We are actually 1.3 million barrels less energy producing now with oil in the United States than we were before the pandemic. So why is supply down? Well, the policies of the Democrats in the House and the Senate and the policies coming out of the White House. Democrats have been in charge of Washington now for a full year, and high prices are really the rotten fruit of Democrat rule.
As I said, we are at 1.3 million barrels of oil per day less than before the pandemic. People say: Well, what has caused it? Joe Biden was proud to talk about what has caused it. His first act as President was to stop oil and gas leases on Federal lands, kill the Keystone XL Pipeline, and it is one of his campaign promises. You can go back and look at the videos of Joe Biden as a campaigner saying: I promise you there will be no new oil and gas in the United States. That is actually what the video says, and that is what he says. They are his own words, his own promises. Then he went back to try to clarify that and clean it up a little bit, and he said: Well, not on public lands.
This isn't a surprise that Biden has crushed U.S. production of oil and gas. This administration still has not held a single auction for oil and gas leases on Federal lands since the day he has taken office. How does that compare to other administrations? Well, under President Obama, there were more than 30 oil and gas lease sales on Federal lands that had been conducted in the auctions in this same period of time.
So has anybody said anything about it? Actually, yes. The courts have ruled. The courts said the President's executive office on Federal land leases is illegal. That is what the courts ruled. President Biden thumbed his nose at the Federal courts. The President has stubbornly refused to open up more Federal lands to American energy production, ignoring what the courts have said.
In Western States like Wyoming, where half of our land is owned by the Federal Government, and controlled, it is devastating. Half of Wyoming is Federal land. We are sitting on a treasure trove of American energy. We wouldn't have to be relying on Vladimir Putin or we wouldn't have to be relying on Iran or going hat in hand to Venezuela. We have it here in America, and we do it a lot cleaner than they do in any of these foreign countries run by dictators.
When we keep energy buried in the ground, American families get buried in costs.
The White House says we don't need to open up Federal lands, no. The White House says there are oil and gas leases that are not being used--
another sound bite. In reality, most of the leases that aren't being used--it is because they are tied up in Democrat redtape or Democrat-
run lawsuits.
There are some that aren't being used because the companies that have the leases can't get the funding to go and do the exploration. Why can't they get the funding? It is the cancel culture of the Democratic Party. We have seen it. Joe Biden's recent nominee to the Federal Reserve wrote in the New York Times that banks, she said, shouldn't lend money to oil and gas companies--shouldn't do it, period. These are businesses that get loans to do business, and she said: Nope, none for you. A lot of banks listened to her because they thought she was going to be confirmed. Thankfully, that nomination has been withdrawn.
Less investment means less production. It results in higher prices.
This morning, the majority leader, standing at that podium over there, also said gas prices had gone up ``at a time when families are already struggling.'' Well, why do you think they are already struggling? We know why they are struggling. It is because of the inflation caused by this administration and the policies that have been going on for a full year even though, month after month after month, the President of the United States said they would be transitory.
The price of gas has gone up. The price of heating in your home has gone up. The price of groceries has gone up. The price of nearly everything has gone up. Over the past year, prices have gone up 8 percent. We are at a 40-year high of inflation in this country. The average family's income cannot keep up with the price increases that we have been sustaining since the day Joe Biden took office. Just last month, some of the price increases were the biggest on record: chicken, lunch meat, baby food--things that people need to buy.
I am glad to hear that the Democrats are finally admitting the crisis is only going to get worse. Why do they say it is going to get worse? Because the cost of producing things has gone up. Energy prices are up; you use energy to produce things. The inflation cost for producing things now is actually higher based on--the price index for production is at 10 percent. So that says that prices are going to go up because if it costs more to produce things, the pricetag has to go up. Food costs continue to go up. Senator Fischer, my colleague, the senior Senator from Nebraska, pointed out that fertilizer costs have tripled.
Now Democrats want to make it worse. Democrats in the House--not in the Senate but Democrats in the House--are asking Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and tighten his choke hold on American energy production. It is going to make inflation even worse.
In yesterday's Washington Post, Larry Summers warned that we might face something, I say to the Presiding Officer, that you and I remember, something from the Jimmy Carter days called stagflation. That is where you have inflation and stagnation at the same time. It is a terrible thing to happen to an economy.
The crisis is only going to get worse. We need to change course. We need to do it now. Stop the reckless spending, and above all, unleash American energy. Don't be a country that not too long ago was asking Russia to produce more, asking OPEC to produce more, asking Iran to sell us energy, asking Venezuela. Produce it here. We have it here. Open up these Federal lands. Approve the drilling permits--the 4,600 drilling permits that are stuck in limbo by this administration.
American families cannot afford 3 more years of Joe Biden.
I yield the floor.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 48
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