David Thomas: “Mr. Chairman, I certainly do want to thank the chairman of the Committee on National Security and the ranking member…”

“Mr. Chairman, I certainly do want to thank the chairman of the Committee on National Security and the ranking member, respectively the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spence) and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), first of all for their courtesy in allowing me to discuss the amendment at this time. Actually, I have to go back. The original genesis of this amendment is once again thanking them; only at that time they were known as the Armed Services Committee and the subcommittee that consists of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bateman) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Sisisky). It involved the sale of the naval petroleum reserve known as Elk Hills. In 1974 President Ford ordered oil produced at this naval petroleum reserve at its maximum efficient rate. For more than two decades, oil was produced commercially, but it was a government-held property. We always wanted to try to sell it if it was going to be used to simply produce oil to sell. But as I was wont to say at one time, you can shear a sheep every year, and you can slaughter it only once. It was producing more than $1 billion a year of revenue for more than a decade. But the gentleman from Virginia put together a sale and bidding procedure which not only succeeded in reaching the CBO's estimate of a $2.6 billion sale, but, in fact, sold for $3.65 billion.”