Political Quotes

“I am here on the floor this afternoon because we will very shortly have a vote on the motion to proceed to S. 2657. This is the vehicle for our bipartisan American Energy Innovation Act. I am here today to kick things off and just let colleagues know some of the highlights of this measure that my colleague and ranking member on the Energy Committee, Senator Manchin, and I have been working on for some time. When I say ``some time,'' I think those here in the Senate know that when you take up substantive energy bills, whether they are focused on energy or whether they are focused on lands, we spend a lot of time giving good committee process to bring these matters to the floor. The measure that we have in front of us is the American Energy Innovation Act. You will hear it referred to by its acronym, AEIA, which makes you want to do a joke about the vowels--a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. I can give you that, but I am not going to do that today. The reality is that we have been working on energy reform now for almost a dozen years. Twelve years is a long time, since we have last refreshed and updated our energy policies. This act contains priorities from more than 60 Members of the Senate. So to suggest that it is a bipartisan bill--it is more than bipartisan. It has Republican priorities and Democratic priorities and priorities from urban and rural areas.…”