[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 20818]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             ENERGY POLICY

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, let me speak very briefly in regard to 
the Energy bill that we passed here last night. As I just did 
personally, let me congratulate the majority leader on the decision he 
and the minority leader, Senator Daschle, made to move ahead and take 
the bill that was developed and had strong bipartisan support in the 
previous Congress and send that to the conference with the House as the 
democratically passed bill.
  I think that was the right decision. That bill, as many have said, 
had a strong majority in the previous Congress. I think there were 88 
Senators voting for it. There were nearly that many voting for it last 
night when it, once again, passed the Senate. I think that does allow 
us to move to the next stage of the process of actually writing a 
comprehensive Energy bill.
  I, like many of my colleagues on the Democratic side, strongly 
support enacting a comprehensive bill. We have worked very hard to do 
that in the previous Congress. We worked hard to do that in this 
Congress, and to assist the majority in the development of the bill.
  I believe strongly that the amendments that were offered to the bill 
that my colleague, Senator Domenici, brought to the floor were 
constructive amendments, were intended to improve the bill, were 
intended to get us in a better position to serve the needs of the 
country as far as energy is concerned over the next years and decades.
  I think this result is a good one. Like all successful results in 
Congress, nobody won everything; nobody lost everything. There were 
wins and losses on both sides. I think that is the nature of 
compromise. But the end result is the American people will win. We will 
be able to go to conference now and hopefully develop an Energy bill 
that will continue to enjoy strong bipartisan support.
  That is a challenge, as I see it. We have come a long way in a 
bipartisan way. We have had disagreements about particular provisions 
of the bill, but by and large we have been willing to resolve those 
differences and come up with something that makes good sense for the 
country. That same process needs to continue in the conference. I am 
confident it will.
  Again, my colleague Senator Domenici will chair that conference. We 
had some disagreement in the previous Congress as to whether the Senate 
or House chairman should be the chair of the conference. We concluded 
that, based on precedent and all, in the 107th Congress the House was 
entitled to that position. But it is obvious now that in this Congress 
the Senate is entitled to that position. Senator Domenici will chair 
the conference. I hope to be on the conference once the conferees are 
named, and I look forward to working with him and with all the other 
members on the conference to try to ensure that we come up with a good 
bill that meets our long-term energy needs.
  Let me, before I yield the floor, just take a moment to thank the 
staff, the Energy Committee staff, the cloakroom staff, and Senator 
Daschle's staff, for the hard work they put in getting us to this point 
on the energy legislation: On the Democratic committee staff of the 
Energy Committee: Bob Simon, Sam Fowler, Vicki Thorne, Patty Beneke, 
Mike Connor, Leon Lowery, Deborah Estes, Jennifer Michael, Bill Wicker, 
Jonathan Black, Jonathan Epstein, Malini Sekhar, Poonum Agrawal, Amanda 
Goldman, Shelley Brown, and Rosemarie Calabro.
  The Democratic cloakroom staff, of course, is essential to all the 
progress we make here in the Senate. I want to acknowledge them: Marty 
Paone, Lula Davis, Nancy Iacomini, Tim Mitchell, Tricia Engle, Bret 
Wincup, Eric Pederson, Joe Lapia, Ben Vaughan.
  I thank all of them and also Senator Daschle's excellent staff that 
is essential to all progress, as well, here in the Senate: Mark 
Childress, Jonathan Lehman, Peter Umhofer, Mark Patterson, and Michele 
Ballentine.
  I think the result we achieved regarding energy was a good one. We 
now have a lot of work to do this fall when we return on the 
conference. I look forward to that. I am confident we can succeed in 
passing a good, bipartisan bill. I hope that will be the result.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sununu). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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