[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 19996]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               RECOGNITION OF THE ACTING MINORITY LEADER

  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The acting minority leader is recognized.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, let the Record be spread with the fact that 
every Democrat in the Senate supports an Energy bill. There is not a 
single Senator who opposes an Energy bill.
  I know that the distinguished majority leader has talked about our 
having been on this for 16 days--and we have been. But many of them 
have been extremely short days--Thursday afternoons and Friday 
mornings; a few days here and a few days there.
  I think what we have to be concerned about is not how many days we 
have spent on it but the question is, Is this bill as good as it should 
be? I think the answer is a glaring no at this stage.
  We have been willing to work with the majority to find consensus on a 
host of issues. There is not a single Senator on the other side of the 
aisle who I have worked more closely with than the chairman of the 
Energy Committee, the distinguished senior Senator from New Mexico. Not 
only have I worked with him on the Energy bill but I have worked with 
him on the Appropriations Committee. He and I have done energy and 
water bills for years. I have great respect for him. I know how badly 
he wants an Energy bill. He tells me once or twice a day. I know how 
important it is for him to move this bill through the Senate. But we 
can't move a bill through the Senate that doesn't have debate on 
important issues such as climate change, CAFE, electricity, renewable 
portfolio standards, and the tax title.
  We on this side of the aisle are concerned about jobs. When we look 
at the last administration and 8 years, President Clinton created 25 
million jobs. This administration and this President--as long as we 
have kept records where we have lost jobs--lost 3 million jobs in the 
private sector. I think that says it all.
  On the Alaskan pipeline issue, I offered that amendment on the floor. 
That amendment passed. I am glad it did pass. We support that. It is 
good for the economy. It is good for the security of this Nation to 
bring that gas from Alaska. We want to do that.
  We talked about Medicare legislation and doing that more quickly. Of 
course, that was bipartisan legislation. It makes it a little easier.
  We have a number of northwestern Senators who are desperate to work 
out something on the electricity title. They could not get a copy of--
it is a major title to this legislation--until late Friday night. Some 
got it but most didn't get it until yesterday; then to be asked, as we 
were yesterday, to go right to the electricity title.
  There are three amendments pending. I think without any question we 
can have a vote on CAFE by 10:45 or 11 o'clock, according to how much 
time the opposition takes on it. I think we can do that quickly. We 
have discussed it with Senators Levin and Stabenow. Of course, there 
are others on the majority side who joined with these Senators on 
another CAFE amendment. That should take a very short period of time--I 
would say an hour or something like that, I would estimate.
  Then we have to figure out some way as to what will be done with the 
Campbell amendment. Then there is nothing to stop us from going to the 
electricity title. There will be some debate on that. It is an 
extremely important issue for us.
  As I said, I have the highest respect and regard for my friend from 
New Mexico, the senior Senator.
  I don't see how we can do this bill this week. We are going to try. 
It is not as if this is some guerrilla attack. We have been saying all 
along that we need more time than this to complete the bill.
  But on this side of the aisle, we recognize the importance of this 
legislation. We want to do what we can but there are certain issues 
that require debate and deliberation. We are going to make sure it 
takes place. If we have to stay in through next week, we have to stay 
in through next week. But there are issues that are so important to 
this country that we have to make sure that whatever bill comes out is 
the best bill we can get.

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