Boehner: If Speaker Pelosi Is Sincere About Allowing a Vote on Offshore Drilling, She Should Call Congress Back Immediately
After Speaker Pelosi Tells CNN’s Larry King “We Can Have a Vote” on Increased Energy Production Offshore, Boehner Challenges Speaker to Reconvene Congress and Schedule a Vote on the American Energy Act
Washington,
Aug 12, 2008 -
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today urged Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to call Congress back into session after she said last night on CNN’s Larry King Live that the House “can have a vote” on expanded drilling for oil and gas. Increased American energy production is a cornerstone of House Republicans’ American Energy Act (H.R. 6566), an “all of the above” plan to lower gas prices by encouraging more conservation and efficiency, promoting the use of more alterative and renewable fuels, and expanding drilling on remote lands and far off American shores in an environmentally-safe way. Speaker Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues adjourned Congress on August 1 for a five-week recess without allowing a vote on the GOP plan to lower gas prices.
Boehner issued the following statement:
“If Speaker Pelosi is truly sincere about having a vote on deep ocean oil and gas drilling to help bring down fuel costs, she should use her power as Speaker to call Congress back into session immediately and schedule a vote on the American Energy Act. Ever since Speaker Pelosi adjourned Congress for a five-week break while Americans are left to suffer at the pump, House Republicans have taken our message of more American-made energy and lower gas prices directly to the American people – on the floor of the House and in communities across the country. Based on the Speaker’s comments last night, it is clear our unprecedented nationwide effort is having an impact.
“Our message to Speaker Pelosi is very simple: we are ready to vote on more energy production and lower gas prices right now, and we should not wait one more day to begin giving the American people the relief they expect and deserve. If you meant what you said last night, we welcome you and your Democratic colleagues to join us in our historic call to action on American energy. End your five-week break early and call Congress back into session now so we can vote for more American-made energy and lower gas prices without any further delay.”
NOTE: When asked by CNN host Larry King last night if she would call Congress back into session, Speaker Pelosi said, in part, “[T]hey have this thing that says, drill offshore in the protected areas. Well we can do that. We can have a vote on that.” Expanded drilling in deep ocean energy zones is a key element of the American Energy Act (H.R. 6566), the House GOP’s “all of the above” energy plan to lower gas prices.
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