Senator Cochran, Ranking Republican of the Senate Appropriations Committee, took the Senate floor on Thursday, July 31, to highlight the failure of the Democrat-led Senate to fulfill its annual appropriations responsibilities or act on meaningful energy reform.

Last week the Senate halted action on the Fiscal Year 2009 Appropriations process because of hesitation from Democrats to vote on appropriations provisions regarding domestic oil production. 

For weeks, Republican Senators have been advocating for consideration of legislation, both in the Appropriations Committee and on the Senate Floor, that would allow for further domestic oil exploration as well as energy conservation.  However, the Senate adjourned last week without a vote on drilling.  The Democratic leadership in the Senate refused to allow the vote to take place on the pressing issue.  This vote was prevented for several reasons:

• The Democratic leadership opposes increasing domestic oil production, and they do not want to be against the 70 percent of Americans who are in favor of it. 80 percent of Mississippians are in favor of domestic drilling as well.  Who would want to be against those numbers?
• The Democratic leadership recognizes that several Democratic senators would vote alongside every GOP senator in support of the bill.  This would result in allowing the bill to pass.
• Also, they know that Senator Obama would vote against that bill, therefore, they don’t want to risk allowing Obama to cast the unpopular vote.

The full text of Cochran’s remarks on the U.S. Senate floor is provided below. 

“Mr. President, two weeks ago today, the Committee on Appropriations marked up three Fiscal Year 2009 appropriations bills.  Those bills would provide funding for programs ranging from agricultural research to veterans health care, and from foreign aid to the infrastructure that supports our men and women in the Armed Forces.  While some members of the Committee had concerns about the overall spending levels in those bills or individual provisions within them, the Committee reported the measures by broad, bipartisan votes.  Those votes reflect the Committee’s collective belief that it has a fundamental responsibility each year to draft, debate, and report to the Senate its spending recommendations for the day-to-day operations of our government.

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Senator Cochran spoke on the U.S. Senate floor again on Wednesday, July 30, urging the Senate to take action to provide meaningful energy reform before the Senate adjourned for August.  Read below Senator Cochran’s remarks on the U.S. Senate floor on Wednesday.

“Mr. President, We will soon be adjourning the current session of the Senate, and we have yet to consider any meaningful proposals to help relieve the pressure all of our constituents are feeling because of the high cost of energy. Before we return home, we should pass a bill that encourages increased production of energy here at home to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

America has responded to the jump in the price of gasoline by driving less and using less, and the price of oil has decreased significantly in the last two weeks because of this. There is a direct link between supply and demand and the price of oil. In order to pay less for oil, we must have more supply and we must have our own domestic supplies. We have been debating a bill that will not increase supply or decrease demand. The democrats continue to thwart our efforts on this subject, and we find ourselves in a logjam.

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GAS PRICE REDUCTION ACT OF 2008

Thursday, the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008 was introduced on the U.S. Senate floor by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and 42 Senate Republicans.  Senator Cochran is a cosponsor of this bill and is confident that the measures included will reduce the cost of gas for Americans and lessen the United States’ dependence on foreign oil.   

The proposed language includes several measures:  opening new areas for deep sea exploration and oil shale development in the Rocky Mountain West, expanding research for alternatively-powered vehicles, and enhancing the capabilities of the commodities futures market.

“FIND MORE, USE LESS”

Republican Senator Lamar Alexander says, “Our bill can be summed up in four words: Find more, use less.”

Republican.senate.gov says “To find more, the bill allows coastal states the option to explore for oil and natural gas offshore and lifts a federal moratorium on oil shale in western states.  To use less, the bill provides incentives for plug-in electric cars and trucks so that we no longer need to use as much gasoline to power our vehicles.”

Summary of provisions of Gas Price Reduction Act 2008:

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