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Resolved, That at any time after the adoption of this resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of the bill (H.R. 4733) making appropriations for energy and water development for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2001, and for other purposes. The first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. Points of order against consideration of the bill for failure to comply with clause 4 of rule XIII are waived. General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations. After general debate the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. Points of orders against provisions in the bill for failure to comply with clause 2 or clause 5(a) of rule XXI are waived. The amendment printed in the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution may be offered only by a Member designated in the report and only at the appropriate point in the reading of the bill, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole. All points of order against the amendment printed in the report are waived. During consideration of the bill for amendment, the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole may accord priority in recognition on the basis of whether the Member offering an amendment has caused it to be printed in the portion of the Congressional Record designated for that purpose in clause 8 of rule
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[Time: 14:45]
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. SIMPSON). The gentleman from Washington (Mr. HASTINGS) is recognized for 1 hour.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, for the purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. SLAUGHTER), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.
(Mr. HASTINGS of Washington asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 532 provides an open rule for consideration of H.R. 4733, the Energy and Water appropriations bill for fiscal year 2001. The resolution waives clause 4 of rule XIII, requiring a 3-day layover of the committee report and requiring a 3-day availability of printed hearings on a general appropriation bill against consideration of the bill.
The rule provides 1 hour of general debate to be equally divided between the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations. The rule waives clause 2 of Rule XXI, prohibiting unauthorized or legislative provisions in an appropriations bill, and clause 5(1) of rule XXI, prohibiting a tax or tariff provision in a bill not reported by a committee with jurisdiction over revenue measures, against provisions in the bill.
The bill further provides that the amendment printed in the Committee on Rules may be offered only by a Member designated in the report and only at the appropriate time in the reading of the bill, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report, equally divided and controlled by a proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for a division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole.
The rule also waives all points of order against the amendment printed in the report, and authorizes the Chair to accord priority in recognition to Members who have preprinted their amendments in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. The rule allows the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole to postpone votes during consideration of the bill and to reduce voting time to 5 minutes on a postponed question if the vote follows a 15-minute vote. Finally, the rule provides on a motion to recommit with or without instructions.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from California (Mr. PACKARD), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. VISCLOSKY), the ranking member of the subcommittee, are to be commended for their efforts on this legislation. H.R. 4733 appropriates funds for civil projects of the Corps of Engineers, the Department of Interior's Bureau of Reclamation, most of the Department of Energy, and several independent agencies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The bill appropriates $21.7 billion in new budget authority, which is $546 million more than fiscal year 2000, but $952 million less than the President's request. The vast majority of the bill's funding, $17.3 billion, goes to various programs run by the Department of Energy, such as cleanup of nuclear waste on a number of Federal facilities, including the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in my district.
The bill also allocates $4.1 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers and $770 million to the Department of the Interior. The funding in this bill is necessary to protect important investments in our Nation's water and energy infrastructure and to maintain and operate the wide range of facilities and programs within the subcommittee's jurisdiction.
As a Member of Congress from the West, I am particularly aware of the importance of these projects. Therefore, I commend the members of the Energy and Water subcommittee for their effort on this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support both the rule and the underlying bill, H.R. 4733.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. HASTINGS), my colleague, for yielding me the customary 1/2 hour, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
(Ms. SLAUGHTER asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the open rule, but have several concerns regarding the underlying bill. Despite the best efforts of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development chairman and members to put together a bipartisan bill, the fiscal year 2001 Energy and Water Development appropriations bill is yet another spending bill that misses the boat.
On the one hand, the bill funds numerous projects of critical importance to many of our districts. At the same time, however, it leaves serious spending gaps that fail to address real-world concerns that will have to be dealt with before the bill is signed into law.
For instance, gas prices have topped $2 per gallon in many places. While the Federal Government has launched an investigation through the Federal Trade Commission in hopes of uncovering the answer to what is behind the soaring prices, the bill fails to adequately address the roots of the gasoline price problem.
When oil prices plunged to $8 to $10 a barrel in March of 1999, the current leadership took little action to protect domestic oil producers, and when gas prices across the Nation stood at $1 per gallon, the majority party leadership pushed to eliminate the Energy Department entirely. They ignored efforts by Members to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with oil from struggling domestic producers. Had they acted, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve could have 115 million barrels more of oil, and we might have a healthier domestic oil industry.
Fortunately, the rule will protect efforts in committee by the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. KILPATRICK) to amend the bill to reauthorize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Were it not for the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. KILPATRICK) offering this amendment adopted in the committee, the floor amendment proposed today would not be germane to the bill. The full House will also have an opportunity in the amendment process to establish a new regional home heating oil reserve in the Northeast, a program of critical importance to my district in Rochester and one I have long supported.
Nevertheless, the underlying bill is $100 million short of the President's request for solar and renewable energy research, stifling hope for developing marketable solutions to what promises to be a perennial problem. This makes little sense. The majority continues to criticize the administration for failing to have an energy policy, yet has systematically shut down administration initiatives to fund energy research efforts that could help in finding a solution to this problem.
During consideration of this bill at full committee, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. KAPTUR) offered an amendment to restore the line for Solar and Renewable Energy Research to the level requested in the President's budget. The amendment was rejected by the committee on a party line vote.
This has been a continuing pattern throughout the appropriations process. The House has just passed the VA-HUD appropriations bill, which slashes the President's budget request for the National Science Foundation by half a billion dollars. Floor action on the Interior bill made a bad situation worse by leaving the bill $100 million below last year's level on energy efficiency.
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The Congress does not have the ability or the desire to set fuel prices, but we should have the good sense to support research into ways to avoid the kinds of shocks high fuel prices can deliver to our economy and encourage the development of alternative energy sources and domestic energy production.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I would advise the gentlewoman from New York that I have no requests for time, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. VISCLOSKY).
Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to set the record straight as far as the rule that is before us. The Energy and Water bill, as reported out of subcommittee, includes only the language offered in committee by the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. KILPATRICK) that would deal with the critical issue of rising gasoline prices, and I want to make that very clear today.
Why is this the case? Perhaps it is because the appropriations bill that should have been dealt with on this issue was the Interior bill. That bill passed the House on June 15 after the House rejected a proposal by the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. SANDERS) to include funding for the Northeast home heating oil reserve, as requested by the President of the United States.
The majority's interior appropriation bill did nothing to address the rising gasoline prices in this country. After their refusal to do anything in the full Committee on Appropriations, the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. KILPATRICK) did seek a vehicle, that is this bill, the Energy and Water bill, to address the issue. I would also parenthetically add that she follows on other initiatives taken by many Members on our side of the aisle from New England, the State of Pennsylvania, and other areas, pursuant to negotiations and meetings with the President in January, in February, and other legislative initiatives.
The gentlewoman from Michigan did take the lead in full committee to add a simple reauthorization for the short-term extension of the strategic petroleum reserve. If it was not for her efforts in full committee and the efforts of her Democratic cosponsors, the amendment in order by this rule would not have been germane, and it would not have been allowed to be offered today in this Chamber. In fact, the Chairman of the authorizing committee, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. BLILEY), wrote to the Committee on Rules asking that the Kilpatrick language not be protected from a point of order since it was authorizing in an appropriations bill. If the chairman of the Committee on Commerce objected so strongly to the Kilpatrick language, a simple 1-year reauthorization of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve just to get the process moving, then surely he must have even more vehemently objected to the language made in order by this rule, which goes much further.
Mr. Speaker, this rule makes in order an amendment by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. SHERWOOD) that basically duplicates language that was in the bill passed by the House a few weeks ago, the same language of the majority of the other body. So I do want to make one thing clear. We are today considering a bill with language put into it at full committee by the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. KILPATRICK).
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. FROST).
Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, not only has there been a failure of leadership on the part of the Republican majority when it comes to energy independence, there has been a concerted effort to undercut the efforts of the administration to address energy issues. In fact, members of the Republican leadership have jeopardized our abilities to address our energy needs by attempting to abolish the Department of Energy, slashing energy efficiency programs, and selling off the strategic petroleum reserve.
In the past few weeks, as the price of gasoline has soared, the Republican majority has offered not one solution to America's consumers.
[Time: 15:00]
Instead, where American families see an energy crisis that jeopardizes their summer vacations, Republican leaders see an opportunity to score political points and cover up their 6-year record of negligence on energy independence.
The Republicans have cut crucial energy supply programs by 23 percent below the President's request, including $106 million less than requested for solar and renewable energy programs. They have even cut these programs by $61 million below the current appropriation.
The Republican bill also cuts research by $320 million, or 10 percent below the President's request.
Mr. Speaker, today the Congress is rightly taking action to reauthorize the President's ability to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, establish a Northeast Home Heating Reserve, and authorize the Department of Energy to purchase oil from stripper wells when the price drops below $15 a barrel, all measures Democrats have long been advocating, as indicated by the previous speaker, the ranking member on the subcommittee.
But the Republican budget continues to ignore many of the crucial long-term investments that are vital to America's future energy independence. I call on the Republican leadership to call a halt to the photo ops and press releases and stop attempting to abolish the Department of Energy, and finally work with Democrats to make investments in research and renewable energy sources that are vital to America's energy independence.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 1/2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. UDALL).
(Mr. UDALL of Colorado asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. SLAUGHTER), for yielding time to me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule and in general support of the bill. The rule appropriately provides an opportunity for the House to consider germane amendments to this important appropriations measure.
On the bill, I am sure each of us might want it to be different one way or another. For example, I do not think it does enough for solar and renewable energy programs. That is why I will be joining many others in trying to improve that part of the bill. Overall, I think the committee has done a good job, especially considering the limits imposed by the budget resolution.
In particular, I want to express my appreciation for the fact the committee has included all the money that was requested for the nuclear facilities closure projects, an increase of more than $21.8 million over this year's amount for that purpose. This is crucial for my district because the Rocky Flats facility, located in my congressional district, is just a few miles from the center of our State's major population areas. Safe, effective, and timely clean-up and closure of the flats is a matter of highest priority for all Coloradans. I greatly appreciate the committee's inclusion of the requested funding for this purpose.
I also want to join the committee in urging the DOE to ensure that the complex-wide funding issues are addressed as they relate to closure for Rocky Flats. As the committee has correctly noted, if DOE is to keep on its timetable for closing Rocky Flats, important tasks must be completed at other sites, as well.
I urge support for the rule so the House can begin to consider this very important measure.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN), a member of the subcommittee.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the rule, to make brief comments in support of the energy and water bill, and to make a few comments on security issues and the current oil crisis.
Mr. Speaker, our committee, under the leadership of the gentleman from California (Chairman PACKARD), rightly has addressed the critical issues of security at our Nation's nuclear labs by providing an additional $331 million
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