Herb Kohl: “I rise to offer, with Senator DeWine, an amendment which will authorize our Government, for the first time, to take…”

“I rise to offer, with Senator DeWine, an amendment which will authorize our Government, for the first time, to take action against the illegal conduct of the OPEC oil cartel. Indeed, it is time for the U.S. Government to fight back on the price of oil and hold OPEC accountable when it acts illegally. This amendment, identical to our NOPEC bill, which passed the Judiciary Committee unanimously three times over the past 5 years, most recently this past April, will enable our Government to hold OPEC member nations to account under U.S. antitrust law for illegal conduct in limiting supply and fixing prices in violation of the most basic prices of free competition. Let me tell you what our amendment does and what it does not do. What it does is it simply authorizes our Government to take legal action against OPEC member nations to participate in a conspiracy to limit the supply or fix the price of oil. But this amendment will not require the Government to bring legal action against OPEC member nations. This decision will remain entirely in the discretion of the executive branch. Private suits are not authorized. All our amendment will do is give our law enforcement agencies a tool to employ against the OPEC oil cartel. The decision whether to use this tool will be entirely up to the administration.…”