Douglas Alexander: “the matter of giving the President an up-or-down vote on his judicial nominees or, more accurately, giving the country…”

“the matter of giving the President an up-or-down vote on his judicial nominees or, more accurately, giving the country an opportunity for any President to have what every President has always had, a chance for the full Senate to have an up- or-down vote on his nominees, is a matter of great importance to our country. It is not the only business before the Senate. I would like to speak for a few minutes about natural gas prices and prices at the pump and how, at a time when China and India are buying up oil reserves around the world, we make sure that we have plenty of energy. We spend, in this country, about $2,500 per person on energy per year. We are about to have a big debate and discussion in the Senate about how much we spend on energy in the future. The Senator from Louisiana was here a few minutes ago. She made an excellent address. She summed up some of what happened today in the Senate Energy Committee. It was a very good meeting. At one time, virtually every member of the Senate Energy Committee was present, even though the purpose of the meeting was simply for us to make opening statements and to take initial action on a few relatively noncontroversial matters. That is because all of us understand how important it is. It is also because Chairman Domenici and Ranking Member Bingaman, who are from New Mexico, have worked unusually hard in creating a framework so that we could have a significant piece of legislation.…”