mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i rise to speak in opposition to the menendez proposal which would raise taxes on a handful of our nation's energy producers. mr. president, this bill makes the assumption that raising taxes on the five major oil companies will somehow reduce the deficit and lower the price at the pump. this is misguided, and it will also have the opposite effect. raising taxes on our domestic oil industry will drive up gasoline prices, and who in america that is driving a truck or a car doesn't realize that gasoline prices are already very high? secondly, it will threaten the jobs, nine million jobs depend on drilling exploration and operating in america. if we drive these countries overseas, it will increase foreign imports and it will stop the jobs that are being created in america. those who threaten to repeal these deductions fail to recognize the tremendous costs and risks that go into exploring for the energy needed to drive our country forward. mr. president, our oil and gas industr

mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i rise to speak in opposition to the menendez proposal which would raise taxes on a handful of our nation's energy producers. mr. president, this bill makes the assumption that raising taxes on the five major oil companies will somehow reduce the deficit and lower the price at the pump. this is misguided, and it will also have the opposite effect. raising taxes on our domestic oil industry will drive up gasoline prices, and who in america that is driving a truck or a car doesn't realize that gasoline prices are already very high? secondly, it will threaten the jobs, nine million jobs depend on drilling exploration and operating in america. if we drive these countries overseas, it will increase foreign imports and it will stop the jobs that are being created in america. those who threaten to repeal these deductions fail to recognize the tremendous costs and risks that go into exploring for the energy needed to drive our country forward. mr. president, our oil and gas industr

mrs. hutchison: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mrs. hutchison: i rise to speak in favor of senator mcconnell's production bill. the bill might be too much for some, too little for some. maybe it's not perfect. but we must take a step in the direction of adding production of our nation's natural resources if we are going to bring down the cost of gasoline, bring down the cost of fuel, bring down the cost of all of the elements that we have that are -- excuse me -- providing for our electricity, natural gas and other forms of -- of our electricity and climate control. so, mr. president, i hope that we can pass senator mcconnell's bill. oil is today slightly under $100 per barrel, and with the summer driving season approaching, we know that this could even go up. it's graduation season and people are driving to their graduation procedures, their graduation ceremonies, and they are having to pay these enormous prices of gasoline at the pump. over $4 in many places in our country. i recently read a story about a constituent going to college

hutchison's fine testimony. the actual numbers of permits mr. chairman because it is quite alarming that to date not one single new deep water well permit further drilling in the gulf has been issued. the shallow water is off by 50% and as senator hutchinson says, it wasn't under technically it wasn't under the moratorium, but it found itself under a moratorium, want to submit that for the record and then finally to also said that for the record the billions of dollars that are outstanding today in bonuses and annual rental payments on leases that are not usable as we speak, and i don't know if people realize how significant the in the numbers are, mr. chairman. but for instance in one of the sales a few years ago, $3.8 billion was paid in bonuses to secure leases that are going unused. the numbers will range from the low of 48 million to the high of 3.8 billion. the annual payments by these -- this industry can go from the low of a few hundred thousand to it looks like 28 to $32 million a year. so there's a tremendous amount of money, mr. chair

hutchison. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate that very much. we tried to make the balance right within that budget constraint of a flexible way for it, that does support private innovation but also keeps the pace of our expertise and what has already been proven also as an ongoing effort, and we hope we got the balance right. but here we are. the german and nine -- the chairman and i and senator boozman are all concerned about the delay. the in decision, the seeming on motivated approach to modifying contracts so that you keep the industrial base. from 14,000 contractors and civil servants that had been in the space shuttle work force, we are now down to about 7000. we have cut our expertise and work force in half, but what we were trying to do in the authorization bill was create any vehicle where these people could be transferred in keep their expertise rather than have them leave and not be able to get them back. . our country. that me get a special thanks to each of the participants who are here as part of this forum and panel. they will ea

hutchison. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate that very much. we tried to make the balance right within our budget constraints. a flexible way for word that does support private innovation but also keeps our expertise and what has already been proven also as an ongoing effort. we hope we got the balance right. the chairman and i are all concerned about the delays. the decision, the seemingly unmotivated approach to modify contract so that you keep the industrial base. from 14,000 contractors that have been in the space shuttle work force, we're down to about 7000. we have cut our expertise and work force in half. what we were trying to do was create a new vehicle where these people could be transferred and keep their expertise rather than have them leave and not be able to get them back. i would ask mr. slazer and either of you as well, maybe the captain as well, what can we do to motivate real movement in nasa? so that we keep the basic work force, the goals that we are -- all have, everything you said today. and yet have the private sector con

hutchison? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate that very much because we tried to make the balance right within our budget constraints of a flexible way forward that does support private innovation but also keeps the base of our expertise and what has already been proven also as an ongoing effort. we hope we got the balance right. but here we are. the chairman and our and senator boozman our concern is about the delay, the unmotivated approach to modifying contracts to keep the industrial base. from 14,000 contractors and civil servants that have been in the space shuttle work force we are now down to 7,000. so we have cut our expertise and workforce in half. but what we were trying to do in the operation bill was create a new vehicle where these people could be transferred and keep their expertise rather than have them leave and not be able to get them back. i would ask mr. slazer and any of you, what can we do to motivate real movement and decisiveness in nasa that does keep the basic work force, the goals we all ha

i do want to submit for the record to bolster senator hutchison's fine testimony the actual numbers of permits, mr. chairman, because it's quite alarming that to date not one single new deepwater well permit for drilling in the gulf has been issued. the shallow water is off by 50%. and as senator hutchison said, it shouldn't have been -- it wasn't under, technically it wasn't under the moratorium, but it found itself under a moratorium. i want to submit that for the record. then finally, to also submit for the record the billions of dollars that are outstanding today in bonuses and annual rental payments on leases that are unusable as we speak. i don't know if people realize how significant these numbers are, mr. chairman, but, for instance, in one of the lease sales, a few years ago, 3.8 billion -- $3.8 billion was paid in bonuses to secure leases that are going unused. now, those numbers will range from a low of 48 million to a high of 3.8 billion. the annual payments by these -- this industry can go from a low of a few hundred thousand to it looks like $28 million to $32 million a year. so ther

mr. chairman. >> thank you. i call on senator hutchison i just wanted to introduce the witness that i invited. dr. dawson is a professor for the institut of computational engineering and sciences at the university of texas at austin. we are also the of water --

mr. chairman. and the ranking member of the full committee, senator hutchison? >> well, thank you, madam chairman. i think you certainly stated the case very well. i want to welcome you as the chairman and john thune as the new ranking member of the subcommittee and look forward to working with you especially on faa reauthorization which has just been hotlined for the 19th time to be extended. and i hope that we can come together in the next month and pass a bill that all of us worked very hard to get across the floor of the senate, and be it's now in conference. so this'll be a major mission for your subcommittee. and your topic today, of course, is very timely, and i appreciate all of your being here. i want to say i do think that we have had such a safe aviation safety performance, and in general the air traffic controllers have done a superb job. we pass 790 million people per year through our system, and there are 29-30,000 safe flights every day. that is a mark in our favor. however, of course, in the last five months we have had alarming lapses, and the -

mr. unger spoke and took questions for about an hour. >> there is nothing so easy is to persuade people that they are badly governed. those words were spoken by the 18th century massachusetts governor thomas hutchison and i look to you more about him later. let me tell you what else he said because his words hold true today as much as they did then in 1774. governor hutchinson said you can take the happiest and most comfortable people and use malicious, rhetorical skills to arouse popular discontent with their government, with their rulers, everything around them, even themselves. this is one of the weaknesses he said. these are his words. this is one of the weaknesses of human nature which ambitious politician make use to serve their purposes. a year before he uttered those words, a group of boston rabble-rousers had convinced americans they were mr. bowles and those who think they are miserable arseneau. despite all real evidence to the contrary. now i doubt if there is a single one of today's so-called tea party patriots who knows with the original tea party and tea party about. far from being patriots, those original tea partiers were mostly smugglers. some of them among the wealthiest man in a

hutchison, and vitter. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. i have also come to the floor today to speak about the proposal to raise taxes on the five largest domestic energy producers, and i think it is important that we remember that we are speaking about five energy producers, five oil companies. we're not talking about a tax proposal that is broad and wide and encompassing. we're talking about a proposal to raise taxes on the five largest domestic energy producers. and i have to admit that i have some hesitation about even engaging in this floor debate at all because i think we recognize that the words in the statements that we're delivering here are just that. they're just talk. they're just words. this proposal is designed to fail, but in failing it is designed to score some political points, and it seems like that's where we are today. but as a senator who represents a state like alaska, an oil and gas-producing state, a state that would clearly be hurt by this proposal, i am obliged, obligated to outline why i feel this is

mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection, the senator from texas is recognized. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i'd like to ask unanimous consent that jessie becher be granted floor privileges. he is currently my military fellow. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, as jessie becher is coming to the floor and before i speak, i want to say that he has served in the army special operations command for the past 16 years. jessie, a special forces sergeant major, has deployed to iraq and afghanistan numerous times over the past decade, and he has added tremendously to our office's military and overall productivity. mr. president, i'd like to take a few minutes to acknowledge the steady efforts of our armed forces and our intelligence community to eliminate the leader of al qaeda and to help bring some peace and relief to our nation and to those who lost loved ones in the tragedy on 9/11. y