Senate Democrats Stall House-Passed Bills to Address Gas Prices, Create Jobs...

April 2, 2012 | Posted by Speaker Boehner's Press Office

With gas prices at $4 or higher throughout much of the country, Speaker Boehner challenged President Obama to push Senate Democrats to act quickly on several of the bipartisan energy bills already passed by the House. Watch Boehner in the Weekly Republican Address here: MORE FROM THE SPEAKER BLOG: Bipartisan energy bills to create jobs and address high gas prices aren’t the only ones being blocked. Nearly 30 House-passed jobs and energy bills are awaiting a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and it’s been 1,069 days since Senate Democrats offered a budget. The House passed the Path to Prosperity budget, a pro-growth blueprint that will cut government spending, help create jobs, protect seniors, and promote an “all of the above” energy strategy to address high gas prices. Read more about the budget here. Speaker Boehner called the House-passed budget “the only responsible budget in town.” The Energy & Commerce Committee began considering two new “all of the above” American Energy Initiative bills - the Gasoline Regulations Act and Strategic Energy Production Act. President Obama likes to say he’s for the Republicans’ “all of the above” energy strategy, but his actions have only rarely backed up his words. CNN highlighted this “Obama Gap” here. Here’s another example where the Obama administration is pushing new energy regulations that would increase electricity rates and cost thousands of jobs. The Obama administration ignored a Thursday deadline to provide the Energy & Commerce Committee with information about the “stimulus”-funded Section 1603 grant program. The president’s widely unpopular health care law hits American college students and families with “triple whammy”: higher tuitions, higher student loan costs, and fewer jobs. The House has voted 27 times to repeal, defund, or dismantle parts of the president’s health care law, and – as Speaker Boehner said – “there can be no letup until it’s fully repealed. The House Ways & Means Committee approved the Small Business Tax Cut Act, Pledge to America legislation that gives small businesses a one-year, 20 percent tax cut.