mr. chairman , i rise in opposition to this amendment . 
you could classify this amendment as the darn-the-people amendment , and we are going to tell them what they want to do , not what they really want to do . 
we are going to tell them that they have to do something whether they want to or not . 
i would list as exhibit a the parking garage of the cannon office building or the rayburn office building or the longworth office building . 
there are cars and trucks on the market today that meet the standards that would have to be met if this amendment were to become law . 
i doubt that the congressional fleet meets that standard , because we , like everybody else , want some convenience and want some power under the hood . 
but if you want a car or truck that gets 35 or 36 miles a gallon or 40 miles a gallon or more , you can buy it today . 
how many of us do that ? 
i have had one vehicle that my son actually bought ; it was a nissan sentra . 
it probably got 35 miles to the gallon on the highway . 
when he got through with it and bought himself a little bit bigger , more fancy vehicle , he let me drive it , and i brought it up here , used it as my car for a while . 
my staff was so embarrassed : it did not have an air conditioner ; it was a standard transmission . 
i could hardly get them to get in the car . 
but i did have one vehicle in my life that would have met the standard that is in this bill . 
i represent an assembly plant in arlington , texas , a uaw plant . 
i doubt very many of those folks actually vote for me because i am a republican and most of them are not , but they have a right to make the chevrolet tahoes and the cadillac escalades , because a lot of americans want to drive that vehicle . 
i am not going to go down and tell them , you can not make that vehicle because it does not meet these fuel-efficiency standards . 
let the market decide . 
if america wants more fuel-efficient vehicles , they are available in the marketplace today . 
we do not need a government fiat telling them that that is the only vehicle that they can purchase . 
vote against this amendment . 
