Seal of the United States of America
Congressional Record
PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 107th CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION

House of Representatives

June 19, 2001
 
DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT 
ISSUES FOR AMERICA
 Page: H3233
Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, today we passed a resolution to honor our troops in Bosnia. I personally want to thank the National Guard troops, our men and women in uniform. I want to especially recognize them today because they spend time away from their families and their jobs. 
   I know this because I have a neighbor in my hometown of Prescott, Arkansas, Kevin Smith, who is serving tonight in Bosnia through the National Guard while his wife remains home, pregnant, and continues to hold down a job. Our families make huge sacrifices so our men and women in the National Guard can serve our country and yes, serve Bosnia in this time of need and they do so with honor and dignity and I want to thank each and every one of them. 
   This is especially important to me because I have two National Guard units from my district, one from Magnolia and another from Sheridan, that are presently serving in Bosnia. My legislative assistant for military affairs has been there to visit with the troops. I wish I could have gone, but it was at a time when we had votes going on here in our Nation's capital. So I want to thank all of them. I want to thank them for this important service to our country and to Bosnia during this time of need. 
   Today we celebrate Juneteenth, something else that is important to me that I would like to visit with my colleagues about this evening. On this date in 1865, Major General Gordon Granger lead his troops into Galveston, Texas and officially proclaimed freedom for slaves for the State of Texas, concluding a 2 1/2 year journey through the Deep South. Today I join African Americans and citizens of all races across Arkansas, across America, and across the world in celebrating Juneteenth in honor of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln and Major General Granger's historic journey. African Americans have played an important role throughout America's history and we should all be grateful for their many, many contributions to our society. 
   Mr. Speaker, as we gather today with family, friends and neighbors in marking the tradition of Juneteenth, I extend my warmest wishes for a special celebration, one that we will remember, and I ask all citizens to renew our commitment to a nation that stands for civil justice and opportunity for all people. 
   Finally, this evening I would like to visit for a few minutes on the issue of energy. Mr. Speaker, as temperatures across the country heat up and this summer's travel season begins, our Nation finds itself in the midst of an energy crisis like one that has not been seen in 2 decades. While my constituents in south Arkansas have not had to face the electricity shortages that California has seen, like all Americans, they have been strapped by the dramatic rise in oil and gas prices. 
   The hardworking families of south Arkansas already struggle to make ends meet. Many of my constituents come from poor and rural areas where they depend on their cars or trucks to get to and from their jobs, oftentimes traveling many miles, or where they have large tractors and equipment to tend to their family farms. When already faced with the cost of feeding their families, paying their electricity bills, and paying for expensive prescription drugs to stay healthy and get well, they simply cannot afford these high gasoline costs. 
   Mr. Speaker, I believe we must act to bring these prices down, and we must do it now. Since this most recent increase in gasoline prices began, I, along with many of my colleagues in Congress, have written letters to energy Secretary Spencer Abraham as well as President Bush asking them to come to the aid of gasoline consumers by aggressively lobbying OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, to increase the production of oil or, as President Bush suggested last year, ``open up their spigots'' to help alleviate this problem, this crisis. 
   Just last March, OPEC decided arbitrarily to cut oil production by 4 percent in the countries that our men and women in uniform went to serve in Desert Storm. That is one million barrels a day. 
   Mr. Speaker, it is time for OPEC to do right by the American consumers. It is time for OPEC to do right by the consumers of south Arkansas. Increase production, increase production now. 
   In addition to pressuring OPEC to increase production, we must also work with U.S. oil producers to increase their dangerously low levels of oil inventories. Our nation lacks the refinery capacity to keep up with current demand for oil and gas. We should work to streamline regulatory requirements to facilitate investment in new refineries and other improvements to our energy infrastructure, and I urge the Administration to work with our current domestic refineries to increase their inventories of refined gasoline. 
   But we cannot stop there. We need a balanced, proactive national energy policy--one that serves as an energy plan for the future that not only increases energy production, but also decreases energy demand. We must work to decrease our dependence on foreign oil through conservation, renewable energy, and energy efficiency programs. 
   In the short term, we should look at ways to guard our consumers against potential price gouging by the big oil companies. For our home heating oil consumers, we should also look at incentives to encourage consumers to make energy efficient improvements to their homes, and we must make sure that we fully fund the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The money we invest in this program will be put right back into the economy through lower heating and fuel bills. 
   In May, President Bush announced his Administration's plan to address our nation's current energy crisis, a plan for that calls for major increases in oil and gas production in the United States. I agree with the Administration that we need to increase production, but I believe their proposal is a plan for the past that seems to cater to the big oil companies. 
   I am disappointed that their plan does not do more to support programs to increase research and development in new energy technologies that increase conservation and alternative and renewable fuel sources to reduce our oil dependence. This may not be an immediate answer, but it is certainly important for the long-term as fossil fuel sources diminish. Surely, if we can create the technology to send a man to the moon, we can develop a crop that our farmers can grow that can provide an efficient and affordable alternative source for fuel. 
   Our current energy situation is a complicated problem with no easy answers, but it is of critical importance to the people of south Arkansas and across America. The sooner we take action, the sooner we can see results at the pump. I urge my colleagues to support a balanced, proactive, and bipartisan solution to this crisis so that we can bring relief to our hard working families. 

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