Pete Domenici: “I know there are many Senators who have plenty to do besides being concerned about this Energy bill on the floor of the…”

“I know there are many Senators who have plenty to do besides being concerned about this Energy bill on the floor of the Senate. But I want to say for some of us that the Energy Policy Act is a very important subject. The committee has worked very hard. We don't claim to have a perfect bill, but we claim to have a bill that deserves the consideration of the Senate. For all those Senators who want to review the bill and haven't, I hope they will start. For those who have amendments and haven't reduced them to writing, I hope they get going. For those who have questions about the bill, we are going to be here working on it--both the minority whip and Senator Bingaman. His staff is adequate in numbers and capacity and will be available, as will mine. With that in mind, we are back to the point where we have set aside the LIHEAP issue that came about yesterday--the issue with reference to the jurisdiction of the different LIHEAP provisions that we wanted to have in this bill where the chairman of the Committee on Health and Human Resources desires that it not be on the bill but rather be returned to his committee for jurisdictional consideration. That will be taken up later. We are now back to ethanol. Yesterday we had two votes. They were very heavily debated for a long period of time. In each instance both failed. In each instance 60 votes or more were obtained on the side of supporting the bill, which is not just a Republican or Democrat bill.…”