[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 19162-19163]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    CONSIDERATION OF AN ENERGY BILL

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I want to just make a few brief points 
regarding an announcement I made last evening about how we would try to 
proceed through the remainder of the session to get consideration of an 
energy bill. I indicated in that announcement that the majority leader 
had asked me to work with other Senators on the Energy Committee, as 
well as Senators on other committees, to put together a proposal that 
could be brought to the floor by the leadership for consideration, and 
that in light of that, we would not proceed to try to mark up a bill in 
the Energy Committee, as I expect probably there will not be markups of 
other portions of a proposed energy bill in some of other committees 
that would have jurisdiction.
  First, as I understand it, the majority leader's assignment was 
clear. He wants the Senate to be in a position to move to consideration 
of an energy bill in a timely fashion. And it was his view that this 
process of putting a bill together, and hopefully on a consensus basis, 
involving input from all Senators--Democrats and Republicans--was the 
best way to do that.
  We will now have an opportunity to deal with some of the energy 
issues that cross committee jurisdictional lines; and there are many of 
those. I think it is clear to people that many of the energy issues 
also involved the Environment and Public Works Committee. There are 
clearly issues involving the Finance Committee regarding energy-related 
tax incentives or incentives for use of particular types of energy. All 
of that, of course, would be expected to be part of a larger piece of 
legislation with which the Senate would deal.

[[Page 19163]]

  Second, I want to respond to a couple of the comments that were made 
earlier in this Chamber by some of my colleagues, particularly on the 
Republican side of the aisle, indicating that they believed this was 
partisan and this would make the consideration of energy in the Senate 
a partisan issue.
  I see it as just the opposite. I am interested in the input from all 
Senators. I think those on the committee know I have invested a 
substantial amount of time, in the past several months, seeking and 
having individual meetings with Senators on both sides of the aisle to 
discuss some of these difficult issues.
  My hope is that we can put together a piece of legislation that will 
reflect the provisions around which we can form a consensus; and some 
of those will come from the Republican side of the aisle and, 
certainly, some will come from the Democratic side of the aisle.
  My colleagues on the committee are aware we have made that effort to 
work in a bipartisan way. I see no disadvantage to any member of the 
committee from the procedure the majority leader has proposed. If there 
are good ideas related to energy policy, of course, the first choice 
would be to try to have them included in the bill the majority leader 
brings up for consideration. If those ideas are not included in that 
package, for whatever reason, any Senator, whether Democrat or 
Republican, would be in a position to offer those as an amendment.
  I don't see anyone being disadvantaged by the procedure the majority 
leader has proposed. I was disappointed to hear in one of the 
statements this morning a somewhat colorful account of how this 
decision was supposed to have been made. That purported account was not 
accurate in any respect, as far as I know. The decision was simply made 
by the majority leader that if we proceeded in this way, in his view, 
this process would hold out the best chance for us to get an energy 
bill considered by the Senate and passed in a timely fashion. On that 
basis, it is advisable for all Senators to support the decision of the 
majority leader to try to move ahead on a bipartisan basis. That will 
certainly be my best effort in the committee.
  I look forward to working with all colleagues, both on the Energy 
Committee and with other committees that claim jurisdiction and have 
jurisdiction on different aspects of a comprehensive energy bill.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. TORRICELLI. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to address 
the Senate for 10 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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