Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise in strong opposition to this amendment. And what is not being pointed out here is, while the gentleman from Massachusetts is talking about companies and royalties, he fails to mention, first of all, that the second largest source of Federal revenue next to income taxes is royalties that are paid by oil companies. They are paying billions of dollars in royalties. They are hiring tens of thousands and, in some cases, probably in the millions of Americans to work in the energy industry. But that, right now, is at jeopardy by this administration's policies. In fact, as my other colleague from Louisiana just pointed out, just last week another company filed for bankruptcy because of this administration's policies shutting off the ability to issue permits and allow people to go back to work. And so what does this amendment do? Well, my colleague talks about royalties. Let's actually read what his amendment does as opposed to what he says about his amendment. The amendment by Mr. Markey says: None of the funds made available by this act may be used to issue any new lease that authorizes production of oil or natural gas under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. This is about closing off more domestic sources of energy production at a time when the Middle East has never been more volatile.…”