Douglas Alexander: “I want to describe how this bill got to the floor because it has been suggested it might not have come through…”

“I want to describe how this bill got to the floor because it has been suggested it might not have come through committee. The energy parts of this bill were fully considered by the Energy Committee when it was chaired by Senator Domenici last year, and it was then reported to the Senate in March. The Commerce Committee parts of it were fully considered by the Commerce Committee in May or June and reported to the full Senate then. The only parts of the legislation that didn't go through the regular committee process were from the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. That was the decision of that committee to do that. They had a series of roundtables and a series of meetings and made recommendations to the working group. The working group then had meetings with the administration officials, and Senator Domenici presided over most of them--we called them homework sessions--and then Senator Frist and Senator Reid introduced this legislation last October. It has been public all that time. Then Senator Reid and Senator McConnell introduced the legislation in January of this year, and it has been public all that time. I wanted to make sure it was known that this is legislation that has been fully exposed to the light of day, whatever the merits.”