On the recordFebruary 16, 2012
This amendment has been defeated so many times on the House floor, it's like one of those bad ``American Idol'' tryouts. And there is good reason for it. It is as Chairman Hastings said. In the 1990s, we wanted to encourage more American-made energy, not importing it from the Middle East. So we encouraged companies to explore in deepwater. They did. American companies invested hundreds of millions of dollars in leases paid to the American Government in new investment, in new equipment, and it worked. They found oil and gas. They pumped it, and they paid billions of dollars in revenue in royalties to us based on how much they pumped. The more they pumped, the more they paid to the American taxpayer. This outraged our Democrat friends. They've tried to break those American contracts, force the government to go back on its word. Four times the courts have said, including the Supreme Court, No, the American Government's word means something. Today, they want to break that word on the House floor, extort our American companies into breaking those contracts. We're going to say no. The American Government's contract and the words mean something, and we're going to create the jobs that come from American-made energy. The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
