President George W. Bush criticized Congress during a press briefing on Tuesday, saying the legislative branch has failed to pass legislation that would help combat escalating energy prices, record home foreclosures and soaring food expenses across the nation.
On the issue of housing, President Bush reprimanded Congress for not sending a bill to his desk with a provision for modernizing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and government-sponsored enterprises, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“Last year, I called on Congress to pass legislation that would help address problems in the housing market,” President Bush said. “This includes critical legislation that would modernize the Federal Housing Administration, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and allow state housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance subprime loans. Yet they failed to send a single one of these proposal to my desk.”
Bush elaborated on the economy by blaming soaring energy prices on Congress’s refusal to deal with the out of balance-supply and demand paradigm by exploring for oil within U.S.-owned territories and supporting oil refining initiatives.
“One of the main reasons for high gas prices is that global oil production is not keeping up with growing demand,” Bush said. “Members of Congress have been vocal about foreign governments increasing their oil production; yet Congress has been just as vocal in opposition to efforts to expand our production here at home. They repeatedly blocked environmentally-safe exploration in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). The Department of Energy estimates that ANWR could allow America to produce about a million additional barrels of oil every day, which translates to about 27 millions of gallons of gasoline and diesel every day. That would be a 20-percent increase of oil—crude oil production over U.S. levels, and it would likely mean lower gas prices.”