Ranking Member Kaptur Delivers Energy & Water Appropriations Opening Statement On U.S. House Floor

WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 30, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Ranking Member on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, delivered remarks to open debate for Energy and Water appropriations legislation on the House floor. Her full statement:

“I want to thank Chairman Simpson for his bipartisan approach to putting this bill together.

Thank you also to our staff—Donna Shahbaz and Taunja Berquam, the Republican and Democratic Clerks, as well as the rest of the Committee Staff Matt Anderson, Angie Giancarlo, Loraine Heckenberg, and Perry Yates, and in the personal offices, Sarah Cannon and Ryan Steyer. Their countless long hours, late nights, and thoughtful insight are so critical to helping us prepare this legislation.

Thirty-seven years ago, President Jimmy Carter, after the first Arab oil embargo and gasoline prices exploded and the U.S. fell into deep recession, championed the creation of the U.S. Department of Energy. He equated the struggle for America’s energy independence as the moral equivalent of war, and he was right. He set a goal to steer the U.S. toward energy independence by 1985.

Today, America still struggles to meet that challenge, set out nearly four decades ago—reducing our imported energy dependence, curbing our voracious appetite for foreign oil, and growing a diverse domestic energy portfolio that invests in America and job creation here at home.

Containing our growing consumption topped the President Carter’s agenda, but while he successfully reduced consumption during his presidency, his successor lost focus. Demand for gasoline increased by 40 percent in the 25 years after he left office—a troubling reality as every economic recession since World War II has come on the heels of a sharp spike in gasoline prices.

Under the current Administration, partnerships between the DOE Labs and automotive companies have finally helped level out demand for gasoline with increasing fuel efficiency.

President Carter also envisioned a new energy horizon for our nation including renewable energy and conservation. Solar electric capacity currently operating in our country is enough to power more than 3.5 million average American homes. Today, 90 percent of homes in our country are insulated. These are important milestones for our country and America must push onward.

On the critical issue of reducing foreign oil dependence, President Carter’s initiative strikingly reduced imports below the target of six million barrels a day—a cut of nearly 1/3—but after his Presidency imports again went on the rise in subsequent decades.

Vast energy imports continue to represent the single largest component of our trade deficit. That translates into millions of forfeited jobs here at home. Still, at $47 billion last year, crude oil imports were roughly equal to the next four largest trade categories combined. (Pharmaceuticals, Telecommunications Equipment, Cell Phones, and Computers)

Around the world, the war over energy rages on—look only to Europe’s compromised position toward Ukraine and, of course, oil rich but unstable Iraq. We must position our own nation to a secure energy future.

Our bill’s priority is to strengthen our nation’s energy foundation. This bill does responsibly invest in that effort, as well as in our nuclear security and water infrastructure. But, I must ask: at what cost does our bill do this?

Because our bill is among the first two to be considered, there are 10 bills that follow and, put simply, they were raided to pay for ours.

This Republican budget will mean that additional funding for this bill comes at the expense of other vital national needs that will be shortchanged as subsequent appropriations bills are brought forward, 12 of them in total.

For example, this bill funds incredible advanced scientific research. But it does so at the expense of the Health and Human Services bill that shorts our students and our next generation of scientists, who should be building their foundations now.

We provide for the Department of Energy labs, whose new technologies will power our future. But why are the National Institutes of Health shortchanged in the HHS bill? Its discoveries will save and improve millions of lives.

In our bill, nuclear weapons funding will increase by half a billion dollars. Meanwhile, crumbling cities will lose even more resources, elderly housing will remain unfunded, and our poorest families will continue struggling to put food on the table.

Nuclear nonproliferation and environmental cleanup efforts will make our world safer. But, on America’s streets, police and fire departments will remain understaffed, insufficiently trained, and under equipped because the commerce Justice State Department Bill is shorted.

In our bill there are no new starts for Army Corps of Engineers infrastructure, whose $60 billion backlog is astounding. But, America’s roads will be shortchanged and remain pothole-ridden, the rail lines clogged, with more bridges on the brink of collapse because the Transportation bill has been shortchanged too.

The Bureau of Reclamation will continue to help our 17 Western states cope with record drought. Yet, severe underfunding of the Clean Water and Drinking Water Funds will further threaten the freshwater supply of thousands more communities across the country—no amount of duct tape can fix all the leaking pipes.

This bill sacrifices the long term strength of our nation, short changes other bills that are essential appropriations responsibilities. Cutting-edge research, energy independence, nuclear weapons, and the Corps of Engineers don’t need to come at the expense of critical infrastructure, community first responders, and a world class STEM education for America’s students.

But that is the game plan the Republican budget has handed us. It is not a prescription for an American success story.

The Appropriations Committee’s discretionary programs are too thin a reed on which to balance our nation’s accounts. Last time I looked, our contribution to GDP was 6.8 percent.

The Ways and Means Committee must put its cards on the table and open its vast jurisdiction to scrutiny. Mandatory programs must be put on the table. Then the preparation of America’s budget will have an engine in which all pistons are firing and engaged.

We want to produce an appropriations bill here tonight, but I find myself feeling guilty for the resources that were taken from so many other bills. Though our Energy and Water bill is regrettable, it is only one oar in the water pushing our ship of state forward. We can’t reach our destination without the other oars in the water too.

For that reason, I urge my colleagues to vote no on this measure in hopes that a message will be sent. The American people deserve all hands on deck.”