Joe Barton: “It is not complicated if you are an elected member of Congress and all of a sudden Medicare recipients start showing up…”

I don't want to speak for the Department of Energy, but the draft legislation allows, without going through the appropriation process, funds generated by using this facility for private purposes to be used for maintenance of the facility.

But I also think I speak for the majority and the minority that we hope that this is something that can move reasonably expeditiously and that means actually end up in a bill the President signs in this Congress.

It is always good to have hearings like this to try to, through bipartisan basis, get facts on the table.

I helped lead the fight, and a lot of Members on the committee did, to repeal the ban on crude oil exports 3 or 4 years ago.