Speech By: Rear Adm. Barry Black

Rear Adm. Barry Black:the senate will recess for party caucus meetings from about 12:30 until 2:15 today. now, live senate cerage on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry

Rear Adm. Barry Black:black, will lead the senate in prayer. what the chaplain: let us pray. all mighty and ever lasting god who made humanity to be one, we bow in reverence before your glorious presence. praying that

Rear Adm. Barry Black:heaven's unity may fill our lives. lord, use justice, understanding, and cooperation to empower our lawmakers to make bipartisan progress. enabling our nation to meet the challenges of our times. bring to

Rear Adm. Barry Black:fulfillment the ancient prophet's dream, how good and pleasant it is for people who dwell together in unity. lord, make our senators vividly conscious that beyond the appraisals of constituents, there

Rear Adm. Barry Black:falls upon their decisions and actions the searching light for judgment. save them from weak and expedient choices as you use them to heal and bind, to build, and bless. we pray in the redeemer's name. amen.

Rear Adm. Barry Black:the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under

Harry Reid:god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, july 15, 2008. to the senate: under the

Speech By: Harry Reid

Harry Reid:provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable ben nelson, a senator from the state of nebraska, to perform the duties of the chair. signed:

Harry Reid:robert c. byrd, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks there will be a period of morning business up to one hour, senators allowed to

Harry Reid:speak thereon for for up to 10 minutes. following morning business the senate will resume consideration of s. 2731, the global aids bill, there will be a motion to table demint amendment, 5728. senators

Harry Reid:should expect a roll call vote shortly after 11:00 this morning. the senator will recess from 12:30 until 2:15 prim 2:15 p.m. there will be roll call votes with relation to the global aids bill throughout

Mitch McConnell:the day. this is an event from 6:30 until 8:30 p.m. quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that

Speech By: Mitch McConnell

Mitch McConnell:further proceedings on the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without fi objection. mr. mcconnell: as we stand here, americans are suffering from the most dramatic oil shock in memory.

Mitch McConnell:a single barrel of crude oil costs almost three times what it did a year and a half ago. this is a crisis that demands our full attention. yet until now democrats on capitol hill have responded as if high

Mitch McConnell:gas prices were a mere distraction. and their proposals have been the legislative equivalent of a fly swatter when the american people are clamoring for heavy artillery. part of the reason for the 10-minute

Mitch McConnell:approach from the people on the other side is the upcoming election. they made no secret of the fact that they don't want to consider real consideration until inauguration day. we need to realize that

Mitch McConnell:americans are more concerned at the moment with paying grocery than the political calendar. americans are not thinking about next january. they're thinking about today. they expect their elected representatives

Mitch McConnell:in washington to take serious steps now to lower the price of gas. the proposal as the democratic leader outlined on gas prices last week falls laughingly short. it has all the marks of a political

Mitch McConnell:exercise nervously cobled together in the face of constituent pressure and none of the elements of a serious plan that would actually lower the price of gas or reduce our dependence on the mile east. the

Mitch McConnell:democrats will have to do better than this if americans want to see their gas prices go down. here's their plan: first, they propose curbing speculation. democrats want us to forget that no reputable

Mitch McConnell:economist thinks that speculators are the reason for the spike in gas prices or that a recent report by the 27-nation international energy agency collided politicians for blaming speculators as searching

Mitch McConnell:for a scapegoat than looking for answers. blaming speculators is not a proposal for lowering the price of gas. we do need more cops on the beat at the cftc. if democrats think that the answer to $4

Mitch McConnell:plus gallon gasoline is curbing speculation alone, they're obviously asking the wrong question. second, the plans call on the president to release 10% of the oil contained in the strategic petolium reserve.

Mitch McConnell:it's encouraging t see our friends on the other side acknowledging that increasing supply has an effect on price. but at best this is a polite nod in the direction of supply. it's nibbling around

Mitch McConnell:the edges, again, it's very timid. even if we were to tap 10% of the strategic petolium reserve as they suggest, that would only allow for the release of 70 million barrels at a time when americans

Mitch McConnell:are using more than 20 million barrels of oil a day. let me say that again. even if we were to tap 10% of the strategic petolium reserve as is suggested by our friends on the other side of the

Mitch McConnell:aisle, that would only allow the release of 70 million barrels and we use 20 million barrels a day now. in other words, this is a three-day solution. and it should go without saying that a three-day supply

Mitch McConnell:of oil is not a serious proposal for lowering the price of gas. next, the democratic plan for high gas prices calls for increasing production on 68 million acres already leased to oil companies.

Mitch McConnell:this is the so-called use it or lose it provision that says scolding energy companies for not producing fast enough will magically cause gas prices to go down. let me remind my friends that this is why

Mitch McConnell:we call it exploration. and those who do it should be encouraged, not threatened. the fact is the secretary of the interior already has the authority to revoke a lease if it's not being used according

Mitch McConnell:to the original terms of that lease. democrats don't mention this at their press conferences nor do they mention that many of these leases are simply unproductive. nor do they mention that the federal

Mitch McConnell:government has declared 85% of offshore land and 62% of known offshore oil reserves completely off limits to new exploration. nor do the democrats mention that because of them 100% of western oil shale

Mitch McConnell:is off limits despite the fact that experts estimate that the western states that have oil shale deposits are floating, literally floating on a sea of oil roughly three times the size of saudi arabian oil

Mitch McConnell:reserves. in other words, use it or lose it is already the law of our land. and use it or lose is is not a serious proposal for lowing the price of gas. finally, the democratic plan says we should stop

Mitch McConnell:exporting oil that's produced domestically. well, that's an interesting idea. last year america exported only 10 million barrels of crude oil overseas. 10 million in a whole year. that's half of what we

Mitch McConnell:use in a day. including sales to puerto rico. today alone america will use more than 20 million barrels of oil. this is a half day solution to a year-long problem. it is, in other words, a joke.

Mitch McConnell:the crisis, mr. president, is real. americans are really suffering from high gas prices. and they deserve better from their elected leaders in washington than a half day or three-day solution and

Mitch McConnell:bad jokes. they deserve a year-round solution. americans deserve a solution that says if prices are going to go down, supply needs to go up. they deserve a plan that lifts the ban on offshore exploration

Mitch McConnell:and oil shale development even as we continue to promote conservation. americans know this crisis is not only a demand problem, it's a supply demand problem. until more of our friends on the other side

Mitch McConnell:acknowledge this, record high prices will persist. some of our friends are beginning to acknowledge the undeniable. 10 democrats have expressed some level of willingness to explore offshore. they're acknowledging

Mitch McConnell:a ground swell of public opinion even among self-described liberals in favor of more -- more domestic supply. and republicans have a proposal that was designed specifically to attract their support

Mitch McConnell:and the support of any other member of the senate who actually is interested in achieving a result. it promotes energy efficient vehicles like plug-in electric cars an trucks and addresses supply and demand

Mitch McConnell:by lifting the ban on western oil development and opening up exploration far from the shores of the states that want it. ours is a serious proposal that directly affects the price of gas at the pump. it

Mitch McConnell:is not a gimmick. it is in the a half-day band-aid on a year-round problem. it is a solution. and it's what the american people are demanding of us. high gas prices are a serious problem and demands

Mitch McConnell:to be taken seriously. it's time our friends on the other side put partisan differences and timid peripheral half measures aside and get serious about this urgent situation. the american peep expect

Mitch McConnell:and -- people expect and deserve. it mr. president, i yield -- it. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order the leadership time is reserved. the senate will

Mitch McConnell:proceed to a period of morning business up to one hour with the time equally divided between the two leaders or designees and the senators permitted to speak therein up to 10 minutes each and with

Johnny Isakson:the republicans controlling the first 30 minutes. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. a senator: i ask unanimous consent to be recognized for 10 minutes. the presiding

Speech By: Johnny Isakson

Johnny Isakson:officer: without objection. a senator: thank you, mr. president, i want to commend the republican leader on his remarks and i want to follow up on the remarks on what is the crisis of the day in

Johnny Isakson:the united states of america. mr. isakson: that is the congress of the united states has chosen all of us, i'm not pointing fingers, to argue about partisan politics over energy while american people

Johnny Isakson:are paying numbers they've never paid before in their lives an future of oil is only looking higher and higher and higher. mr. president, quite frankly, in the united states of america, the congress of

Johnny Isakson:the united states is sitting on a ham sandwich starving to death. this is a problem that we have solutions for. if we will put our partisan differences aside and develop a comprehensive mandatory

Johnny Isakson:plan to address the supply and the demand on petroleum. yesterday the president of the united states removed the executive ord er prohibiting offshore drilling. that is absolutely something that

Johnny Isakson:we ought to. we need to be exploring our domestic resources to reduce our dependence on foreign imports. it is good for america, not because it is our energy and not theirs. it is good because it is in the

Johnny Isakson:geopolitical interest of the united states. every barrel of oil that we're dependent on from the middle east is a geopolitical problem, not just an arithmetic problem for the united states of america

Johnny Isakson:or a cost of oil problem. we should be exploring every resource that we have. now, members of the congress, members of this senate, some members have come together to realize that there are things

Johnny Isakson:that we can do and things we cannot. we should focus on the things that we can do. for the purpose of my remarks, i want to outline all of those things doable today. number one is offshore exploration

Johnny Isakson:with the states and their general assemblies an their governor having the authority to authorize them.

Johnny Isakson:ought to r