Joe Barton

Well, Mr. Speaker, let me just simply say in closing that with regards to the last speaker's comment about the futures market, I tend to agree there may be something that we need to look at. That's why I'm on a bill with Mr. Stupak and Mr…

I rise in support of H.R. 5669, the ``Poison Center Support, Enhancement, and Awareness Act of 2008.'' ... I am confident that we can make a great program even better.

I think you begin to get the point we are trying to put across this evening. America has got great energy resources. We are not using those resources right now. For various political reasons, we have put them off limits. We are not…

most Americans think that Members of Congress are somehow privileged and above the ordinary everyday concerns of the constituencies that we represent. I think all 434 of my House colleagues know that that's not true. By normal standards…

We have a demand-driven price because we do not have on the world markets enough cushion to dampen the speculation, so the American consumers are having to pay right now on average right at $4 a gallon. I don't know about you, Mr. Speaker…

I do not oppose suspension of oil shipments into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But to say that that, by itself, is going to lower prices 25 cents a gallon in an 85-million-barrel-a-day oil market is ludicrous. I sure hope that there is…

I am going to offer a unanimous consent request that at the end of the bill, insert the following new section: Section 3. Use of Funds. The Secretary of the Interior shall transfer to the Secretary of Energy an amount equal to the value of…

let me say at the beginning that I speak for myself, I don't necessarily speak for the House Republican leadership. I have asked if we had a minority position on the bill, and as of 30 minutes ago we did not. So I am speaking for myself as…

My next question is, if this bill were to become law, does the Secretary of Energy or the Secretary of the Interior have any discretion about accepting royalty in kind to oil or the cash equivalent, or is it a flat suspension with no…

To the extent we have an historical record on what this would do, on April 25, 2006, President Bush announced suspension of 67,000-barrels-a-day acquisition for the SPR for the summer driving season. The day before he made that…

I want to just comment on what I think is the goal of the legislation, and that would be to lower prices for the American consumer. At least I think that is what I think the goal is. Having said that, 62,000 barrels a day in an…

My question, Mr. Speaker, and this is on my time, if either of those three gentlemen would like to respond. I'm not trying to be cute. I'm way too old to be cute. The bill is silent on whether or not the money that is the equivalent cash…

I simply want to reiterate that as the ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Committee, I strongly support this piece of legislation. It did receive the votes of every Republican on the committee. It passed 46-0. I had wished it would…

I do believe the bill before us is a good bill. It does have a pay-for. It is, on a net basis, a slight revenue increase to the Federal Treasury, so it is paid for. And if we spend the next year working together, if we implement some of…

I, along with every Member of this body, am very concerned about the almost invisible illness which we call mental illness. There is absolutely no question that it is real. There is no question that we need to do more to alleviate it and…

I want to recapitulate why we are here this evening taking this Special Order. As I pointed out earlier, Medicare is a mandatory program for senior citizens over age 65. It was established in 1965, which is 43 years ago. I don't exactly…

In 1965 the hot car on the American market was a Ford Mustang, which cost less than $2,000. The President of the United States was Lyndon Johnson. The entire Federal budget was less than $100 billion. The war that was on the front pages…

here we are again. For the ninth time, we are here on the floor of the House to vote on some form of consideration of the latest version of the Democratic leadership's SCHIP and Medicaid expansion bill. And if you count the votes on the…

I want to compliment Congresswoman Lowey of New York for working to include the 60 percent fix for the rehabilitation hospitals. I wasn't aware that that was in the bill. I'm very pleased that that is. I would like to, I guess, compliment…

I have known Trent Lott for the 23 years that I have been in the House of Representatives. When I first got elected, he was the minority whip here in the House. He is one of the wisest, in terms of political knowledge, men that I have ever…

I already complimented the majority on their process. I also want to compliment the majority and the minority on both sides on the policy. This bill has the toughest lead standards in the world for children's products. Let me repeat that…

Suffice it to say that all is well that ends well, and today we have a bill before us that is going to temporarily fix the physician reimbursement issue. It is going to extend the SCHIP program through March of 2009. It is going to extend…

It's interesting how different people can see the same set of circumstances and come to totally different conclusions. In the last Congress, we passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 on a bipartisan basis. There were open markups in the…

Mr. Speaker, we don't get elected to come to Congress and be against things. As the chairman of the Energy Committee in the last Congress, I was honored to chair the conference committee which passed the most comprehensive energy bill to…

there's a great movie from the sixties or maybe the seventies called ``Cool Hand Luke.'' Paul Newman is Cool Hand Luke, and he gets imprisoned for some minor infraction and he just doesn't conform with the regulations of the prison. And…