Political Quotes

“I am here with Senator Portman of Ohio to try--I think for about the sixth time--to get energy efficiency legislation passed. Senator Portman and I have been working on legislation called the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act for 4 years now. We have tried to bring it to the floor, and it has been objected to not because of provisions in the bill but because of extraneous provisions that have people holding it up. Tonight we are again trying to pass a smaller version of that bill. It is H.R. 2126, the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act, which was passed out of the House with a strong bipartisan vote of 375 to just 36. It was sponsored in the House by Representative McKinley from West Virginia and Representative Welch from Vermont. Senator Portman and I introduced the same bill here in the Senate a couple of weeks ago. I am going to be asking for unanimous consent that the Senate consider passage of this legislation. Before I do that, it is my understanding it is going to be objected to again and that Senator Toomey is here to do that. But I wonder if I could get an answer to a question from Senator Toomey about what his specific objections are to the legislation. I understand the Tenant Star provision in the bill is what he is objecting to. Yet this would establish best practices, and it would set up a voluntary certification system for efficiency and commercial tenant spaces.…”