Pelosi: 'New Direction Congress Has Made a Down Payment on the Future, But Much More...

Pelosi: 'New Direction Congress Has Made a Down Payment on the Future, But
Much More Needs to Be Done'

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, and other Senate and House Democratic Leaders held
a news conference in the Capitol today to discuss the progress made by
Democrats in the first year of the 110th Congress. Following the Speaker's
remarks is a fact sheet of accomplishments of the New Direction Congress,
including a look ahead to 2008.

"It's very fitting that we should end this first session of Congress on the
day that we signed into law historic energy legislation. It signals change.

"The American people gave us the majority last year. They asked for a New
Direction.

"We have made a down payment on the future, but much more needs to be done.
And we hope to do it, as we have this year, with strong bipartisan majorities
in both the House and the Senate, with strict fiscal discipline, living up to
the highest ethical standard.

"The energy bill is about our national security. Admiral McGinn said our
dependence on foreign oil presents a clear and present danger to the American
people.

"It's about our environmental health. The emissions that will be prevented
because of this bill are important to the environment and preserving this
planet and through the health and well-being of our children and indeed all in
the world -- all in the world will be affected by it.

"It's about energy, about conserving it, about reducing our dependence on
foreign oil and what that means economically. Because it's about our economy
as well.

"As the American people go into the Christmas holidays, facing record prices
at the pump, this legislation is a sign of hope. It's about change, about
going into the future.

"It will save American consumers $700 to $1,000 per year at the pump, not
counting the savings in home heating oil.

"We were pleased to join the President at the signing ceremony today of the
historic energy bill and to signal a change for the future.

"This is a ship that has left the port, reaching out to a whole new horizon.
Every time we reach a horizon, we see another one taking us to a new world --
a new world of energy efficiency, of environmental safety, of a moral
responsibility to preserve this planet, God's gift to us, and to honor our
responsibility to future generations.

"So I'm very pleased about what happened today because it has kicked open the
door to the future, leaving the past behind.

"In making that progress, we made history in many respects, but much more
needs to be done."

SOURCE Office of the Speaker of the House

Brendan Daly, or Nadeam Elshami, +1-202-226-7616