Political Quotes

“Well, as the Senator from Massachusetts knows, the leadership has seen fit to basically go around the committee process because the Energy and Natural Resources Committee has not met in a markup since October. We had no opportunity to address amendments and bring in debate and develop a consensus. That is why I think it is unfortunate that so much of the process we are going through now is a matter of educating Members. Because it did not occur in the Commerce Committee, it did not occur in the Finance Committee, and it certainly did not occur in the committee of jurisdiction, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee because the majority leader saw fit to pull it from the committee in October. I think the Senator from Massachusetts is well aware of why it was pulled. It was pulled because we had the votes to vote out an ANWR amendment, which would have put us in a position, as we debate the energy bill, of not having to come up with 60 votes, as the Senator from Massachusetts has threatened in his filibuster statement that he is going to filibuster the ANWR amendment. But from the standpoint of equity and fairness, what we have not had an opportunity to do within the Energy Committee is to have amendments come up, develop a bill, and vote it out. And it was done for one specific reason. And it was done very early. This was done back in October.”