Lynn A. Westmoreland: “It's good to be here this morning and to be back to work on a good Tuesday morning, Madam Speaker, to let the American…”

“It's good to be here this morning and to be back to work on a good Tuesday morning, Madam Speaker, to let the American people know that we are on the job and that we're here to, hopefully, this week work on the price at the pump. We are here to work on America's independence. As we're coming up on Independence Day, on the Fourth of July, we're working on America's independence from foreign oil. About 2 weeks ago, I started getting calls from constituents about signing a petition that was on americansolutions.com, and then there were other petitions I was called about--Internet petitions--where Americans were telling Congress this is what we want you to do: Drill here. Drill now. Lower prices. I was at a gas station in my district, and I went in, and there was a petition there. It said, ``We want to lower gas prices.'' I guess the attendant there was doing that to keep people busy so they wouldn't be hollering at him. So I came up with an idea. The American people are telling us how they feel. Let's have an opportunity. Let's have our own petition within this House, Madam Speaker, to tell the American people how we feel. So I've come up with a petition. There is no legislation. There is no discharge petition. It's just something that each Member of this body can state to their constituents. Basically, it says American energy solutions for lower gas prices. Bring onshore oil on line. Bring deepwater oil on line. Bring new refineries on line.”