Political Quotes

“I think this nontraditional alliance clearly illustrates the sizable and diverse demand for this energy efficiency jobs bill and, simply put, the time is now for the Senate to take up and pass this bipartisan, commonsense proposal to grow our economy and create good-paying jobs for decades. We cannot let our extraneous debates about amendments or nonamendments, what amendments to include, which amendments not to include, to get in the way of getting this legislation done, because this creates jobs, it saves consumers money, and it saves on pollution. One of the great things about the bill, which I hope we are going to take up in a few minutes, is it includes 10 additional bipartisan amendments. Since our bill was taken up and pulled back from the floor in September, Senator Portman and I have worked closely with Senators from both sides of the aisle to add 10 new bipartisan provisions that expand current sections of our bill. The new bill has a section that puts in place commonsense and consensus-reached regulatory relief provisions that maintain the underlying principle of advancing energy efficiency in the private sector. As a result of these provisions, the legislation has more energy savings, more job creation, and more carbon dioxide reductions than the previous version of the bill. I want to briefly talk a little bit about some of the bipartisan amendments, because I think they point out the improvements in the legislation.…”