The Ag Minute
The Ag Minute: National Energy Tax Could Be on the Agenda for Lame-Duck Session
Washington, DC,
August 3, 2010
MEDIA CONTACT: This week during The Ag Minute, Ranking Member Frank Lucas discusses how the Democratic leadership could use the lame-duck session of Congress - the time between the election in November and the swearing-in of the 112th Congress - to pass a national energy tax. Ranking Member Lucas calls on his Democratic colleagues to refrain from using the lame-duck session to pass legislation, such as a cap and tax bill, that would be devastating to our rural economies. Click here to listen to The Ag Minute. The transcript is below. "Although it appears that a cap and tax bill may have stalled in the Senate, I am not convinced that the issue is dead. "I have concerns that the Democratic leadership will use the lame-duck session to pass a national energy tax – when the votes on legislation won’t matter because the election will be over and the political landscape will look dramatically different. "Even Senator Kerry, by his own admission, has said it may be easier to pass cap and tax after the election. "So far the Democratic leadership in this Congress has passed an expensive stimulus package that hasn’t created jobs, an expensive, government takeover of our health care system that won’t result in lower health care costs, and a permanent bailout fund for Wall Street banks at the expense of Main Street small businesses. "Now consider the fact that a national energy tax is one remaining piece of the Obama administration’s liberal agenda yet to be passed into law. "I call on my Democratic colleagues to pledge they will not use the lame-duck session to pass a job-killing national energy tax that we cannot afford." The Ag Minute is Ranking Member Lucas's weekly radio address that is released each Tuesday from the House Agriculture Committee Republicans. ###
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