mr. speaker , one of the things that bothered me at the time of katrina and then rita was when you saw on the television long lines of cars at gas stations that were charging $ 5 or $ 6 for gas that you knew they did not pay that much to get in there .  i do not believe that disasters should be a windfall for opportunists , and i appreciate the chairman and his staff working with us over the last week to strengthen the price-gouging provisions in this bill .  currently , under current law , most price-gouging statutes are at the state level , and only 23 states in the nation have price-gouging statutes .  the only authority at the federal level is through antitrust laws .  you have to have two companies colluding in order to investigate it .  with this bill , that will change for the first time .  for the first time , there will be federal authority under the federal trade commission to investigate price gouging after a disaster area has been declared .  we have worked to strengthen this bill from the committee .  the fines will be up to $ 11 , 000 per instance .  it will apply in a disaster area and also beyond that disaster area if the president expands the area of coverage .  it covers any person or company , not just the retailers , but up and down the supply chain , and it applies to gasoline , crude oil , home heating oil and natural gas .  it is quite a broad provision compared to what we had coming out of the committee .  i want to thank the chairman for his leadership and his staff for really strengthening the price-gouging provisions in this bill and , for the first time in this country , giving the federal government the tools they need to combat people who are taking advantage of terrible situations and take care of this problem of windfalls .  