years ago, with congressman henry cuellar, my good democratic friend from laredo, we sponsored and passed the bill that led to the repeal of the ban on crude oil exports, mr. speaker. at the time people kind of poopooed that bill but as i stated -- as i stand here on the house floor this evening in this month of december, 2018, there are going to be day this is month that we export more crude oil than we import. and that is a huge, huge accomplishment. and we're doing it based on market principles, the u.s. is now the number one producer of crude oil in the world, surpassing saudi arabia, and ussia. we're producing in the neighborhood of 12 million barrels of oil a day, that number is going to go up, literally the sky is the limit. the lord has blessed the united states of america with great natural resources and with the energy legislation that i have helped to lead the fight on and to help get passed, we have human resources and capital resources and natural resources that the united states is going to be the leader in energy production and energy innovation for the foreseeable future. you know, next 40, 50, 60 years. and i'm very proud of that. mr. spe