[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4667]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          ENERGY AND FAA BILLS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am happy to be here and have the 
Republican leader talk about the things he has been able to accomplish, 
but I would note--just to make sure the record is clear--the reason 
these things are happening is because we have a minority that is 
willing to work with the majority.
  The record should also be corrected to the effect that we have had 
over the last 7\1/2\ years lots of debates on energy--lots of them. The 
problem is that they have gone no place because of the obstruction of 
my Republican colleagues, with filibuster after filibuster on the bill 
that we are going to soon dispose of.
  I am glad. It is a really important piece of legislation. It was 
worked on for 5 years, led by Senator Shaheen, but it is really 
difficult to determine how many different times it was stopped because 
of obstruction--seven or eight times, that I can come up with. So we 
are glad to be able to get it done. Why? Because we wanted to get it 
done for years, and finally we are able to get it done.
  So we want to be here and work with the Republican leader and friends 
on the other side of the aisle to get things done. That is why we have 
been no obstacle to the FAA bill. It is too bad it is such a narrow 
version of what we wanted to do, but the Republican leader said we will 
finish the things that we wanted to do to deal with section 48(c) 
before the end of the year.

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