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   (Mr. CHABOT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

   Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, the first summer of the new millennium is well under way. Americans have been looking forward to summer vacations with their families all year. Unfortunately, they are discovering that the temperature is not the only thing rising this summer. Across the Nation, gas prices are shooting through the roof; and American families are feeling the pinch in their wallets.

   But since the beginning of the gas crisis, the Clinton-Gore administration has been missing in action. In fact, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson even admitted that ``we were caught napping.'' The response of the President's spokesman, Joe Lockhart, to the high prices was, ``Prices tend to go up a bit this time of year.''

   Well, Mr. Speaker, it is high time that Secretary Richardson and the rest of the administration woke up. The Vice President, AL GORE, has long tried to increase gas prices and taxes on gas as a way to get us out of our cars and supposedly to clean up the environment. Well, he is getting his way.

   Let us face it, we are not being gouged at the gas pumps, we are being gored.

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