Bob Menendez: “I rise with a series of colleagues to offer an amendment that provides much needed, immediate relief for America's…”

“I rise with a series of colleagues to offer an amendment that provides much needed, immediate relief for America's drivers. My amendment suspends the 18-cent Federal gas tax for 60 days and makes up for the lost revenue by getting rid of unnecessary tax giveaways to oil and gas companies. In 2005, the oil and gas industry made nearly $140 billion in profits. The five largest oil companies made over $106 billion. ExxonMobil alone made a staggering $36 billion. Put another way, ExxonMobil's profit alone last year is more than the Federal Government spent on unemployment insurance, more than it spent on medical research, and more than it spent on the Nation's highways. Their CEO just got a $350 million retirement package. That is about $144,000 a day for every day he worked at the company. These record profits and gilded bonuses are occurring while the American people struggle to get to work, to get home, to pick up their kids from school, to take them to a soccer match, or to go to a doctor, all because of record gas prices. Last year, the big oil companies hiked gas prices and blamed an act of God. But it is crystal clear that the current spike in gas prices is at least partly due to an act of greed--greed that has been enabled and even encouraged by the administration, greed that has been aided by an energy bill that put the oil and gas companies first and the American people second.…”