Herb Kohl: “Today, Madam President, I rise to offer an amendment with Senators Specter, Leahy, Grassley, Biden, Snowe, Feingold…”

“Today, Madam President, I rise to offer an amendment with Senators Specter, Leahy, Grassley, Biden, Snowe, Feingold, Coburn, Schumer, Durbin, Boxer, Lieberman, and Sanders, which will authorize our Government, for the first time, to take action against the illegal conduct of the OPEC oil cartel. It is time for the U.S. Government to fight back on the price of oil and to hold OPEC accountable when it does act illegally. Our amendment will hold OPEC member nations to account under U.S. antitrust law when they agree to limit supply or fix prices in violation of the most basic principles of free competition. Our amendment--identical to my NOPEC bill, S. 879; legislation that now has 14 cosponsors--will authorize the Attorney General to file suit against nations or other entities that participate in a conspiracy to limit the supply, or fix the price, of oil. In addition, it will specify that the doctrines of sovereign immunity and act of state do not exempt nations that participate in oil cartels from basic antitrust law.”