Political Quotes

“I want to say a few words in support of this bipartisan bill. This is a Cruz-Manchin-Ernst-Fetterman bill, which demonstrates the breadth of agreement we can have in this body. This amendment would prevent the sale of our Nation's emergency crude oil stockpile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to four countries that are unequivocally U.S. adversaries. We know that China has been amassing the largest stockpile of crude in the world. At the same time, our own reserves have fallen to only 347 million barrels--the lowest since 1983. Last year, the United States sold off part of our reserves to China. One would think that existing law would prevent this, but that isn't yet the case. For some time now, Senator Manchin and I have been working together to try to fix this issue. Our amendment prevents the Federal Government from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China, to Russia, to Iran, or to North Korea and their related entities, while giving the Department of Energy flexibility to waive these restrictions in the event doing so serves our national security interests. I want to thank Senator Manchin for working closely with me on this amendment and also Senators Ernst and Fetterman. I also want to note briefly--I know there are some Members of this body who believe we should ban all oil sales overseas. I would note that doing so would be spectacularly harmful not only to U.S. interests, but it would also hurt our friends and allies.…”