SENATOR HUTCHISON DISCUSSES DOMESTIC ENERGY PRODUCTION

I wonder if the Republican leader, the Senator from Kentucky, is aware that we actually have a vehicle that would increase production, and the process could be done immediately, and that is through the appropriations bills that have been steadily marked up by the Appropriations Committee. But is the leader aware that the markup for Thursday was canceled?

It was canceled because the Interior appropriations bill, which has the moratorium against offshore drilling and shale production, is in that bill, and there was going to be an amendment offered by myself and Senators DOMENICI and BOND to take that moratorium off so that we could do something for the American people to bring the price down and start production and use our own resources. But that markup was canceled. I wanted to see if the leader was aware of that and what possible reasons could there be for not having the opportunity, again, to address this issue of production.

Mr. President, I would just say that the Appropriations Committee and this Senate have had a tradition of bipartisan participation, and there is a great bipartisan bill for the Interior to be able to go forward, and we have the chance to address the issues of the congressional moratorium in a bipartisan way. There is no other bar to being able to let the States explore on the Outer Continental Shelf, and the States that have oil shale reserves, to be able to open those, and that bipartisan spirit has been in the Appropriations Committee.

So I just saw that we have this opportunity on the Senate floor right now to work all weekend, with amendments, deciding what the majority of the Senate wants to do. We have something that is an opportunity that I hope we will take, and that is to let the American people see the debate and let the American people decide if we have some proposals that would increase production, and would that in fact bring down the price of oil and gasoline at the pump right now.

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