María Elvira Salazar: “I rise today to discuss S. 3711, the Gulf of Mexico energy bill which is before the Senate. At the outset of my remarks…”

“I rise today to discuss S. 3711, the Gulf of Mexico energy bill which is before the Senate. At the outset of my remarks, I say I come to the Senate today to speak about this particular bill with a heavy heart. It is a heavy heart because the approach which the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has taken over the last year and a half has been a good template for how we ought to do the business of our country; that is, bringing Republicans and Democrats together to try to work out an agenda in the best interests of America. In this particular circumstance with this bill, with the opening of the gulf coast of Mexico, we did have a bipartisan bill that emerged from the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Unfortunately, from the time it came out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee until today, it has been changed in some significant ways. The concerns that have been raised by ranking members are legitimate concerns for several reasons. One is a reason related to the relationships in this Senate and how we get along with each other to try to come up with solutions to face the common problems we face in America today. We were able last year in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to put together the kind of broad bipartisan coalition that emerged in a good bill. It was not a perfect bill, but it was a good bill.…”