Frank Pallone: “I am prepared to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I find myself compelled to point out…”

“I am prepared to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I find myself compelled to point out that listening to Republican arguments today, you would think that they have been sacred stewards of the SPR, and that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, when Republicans had the majority in both the House and the Senate from 2015 to 2019, they passed six bills, none of which had anything to do with energy, that raided the SPR for a total of 260 million barrels of crude. Now the Republicans stand here criticizing President Biden's usage of the SPR, and it is laughable. President Biden's usage of the SPR has helped lower gas prices by nearly $1.80 per gallon since their peak. While the Republicans want to pretend they are tough on China, it is really the opposite that is true. Last year, the Biden administration was forced to sell 20 million barrels from the SPR under one of those laws that I mentioned earlier that passed a Republican-controlled Congress. The Republicans didn't include any restrictions, no restrictions or stipulations on that sale, and as a result, the administration was forced to sell to the highest bidders, including a firm owned by the People's Republic of China. Again, I am going to stress in closing, the Republicans caused China to have a huge petroleum reserve by lifting the ban on crude oil in 2015 when they were in the majority.…”