WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today called out national Democrats for their political posturing on soaring gas prices.

Wicker’s comments came at a hearing to consider pending legislation, including a bill titled the Transportation Fuel Market Transparency Act that would purportedly direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to identify price gouging and manipulation in oil and gas markets. Wicker has been critical of Democrats’ allegations of price gouging, writing a letter in March to the FTC asking the agency to produce evidence of oil market manipulation.

“For decades, when gas prices have spiked, the Federal Trade Commission has been asked to identify price gouging or manipulation in the oil and gas market. And each time, the FTC has found nothing,” Wicker said in his opening statement at the hearing.

Wicker called the bill nothing more than an attempt to find a scapegoat for soaring gas prices.

“Today, with gas prices hitting record highs, instead of reckoning with how the President’s own anti-domestic energy policies are contributing to this crisis, the President is looking for a scapegoat,” Wicker said. “This bill would do just that…[it] would empower the FTC to harass more small businesses and individuals, but it would do nothing to provide relief to the American people.”

Watch Senator Wicker’s opening remarks here. Read more about Wicker’s work on energy issues here.