madam speaker , i thank the gentleman from idaho ( mr. otter ) xz4003050 for his leadership to our committee . 
to mention a couple of things that the gentleman highlighted , and one is the amount of time that has gone into this bill . 
during the 107th congress that the gentleman from idaho ( mr. otter ) xz4003050 spoke about , that was 2001-2002 , the republican-led committee on energy and commerce held 28 hearings related to a comprehensive energy bill . 
in 2002 , the committee spent 21 hours marking up an energy bill and considering 79 amendments . 
in 2003 , there were 22 hours and 80 amendments . 
in 3 years the republicans in the house have held 80 public hearings with 12 committee markups and 279 amendments . 
that is the amount of work and energy that has gone into what the gentleman so appropriately describes as a total-concept bill . 
another point was about the permitting . 
one of the things that we have all learned so well in our public service is if you want less of something , pile on the taxes , pile on the regulation because you are going to get less of it . 
if you want more of something , you have lighter regulation , lower taxes ; and you are going to see that flourish . 
those are certainly points that we take to heart as we look at the energy bill . 
i thank the gentleman from idaho ( mr. otter ) xz4003050 for his good work on this effort . 
a gentleman who has been a leader on the issue of small business and taxation and regulation and how that affects our economy is the gentleman from iowa ( mr. king ) xz4002201 . 
i certainly welcome him to our debate tonight . 
i appreciate the leadership that the gentleman shows in the committee on the budget and in the republican study committee as we work to lower taxes and spending and address appropriate regulation . 
