On the recordJuly 29, 2010
Instead of directly addressing the gulf oil spill tragedy, Congress is voting this week on legislation, the CLEAR Act, that is stuffed full of unrelated items, legislation that will kill American jobs and raise energy prices. Simply put, Democrats are using the oil spill as an excuse to raise taxes and increase spending. The bill imposes a new $22 billion energy tax and has over $30 billion of new unrelated mandatory spending. What the Democrats are doing, Madam Speaker, is rushing ahead of the facts and writing laws before investigations into the spill are finished. Reforms are needed to make American offshore drilling the safest in the world, but that doesn't require tax increases or billions of dollars of unrelated spending and inflicting greater economic pain and lost jobs on Americans. I urge my colleagues to oppose the CLEAR Act.
