Jeff Bingaman: “I want to just make a few brief points regarding an announcement I made last evening about how we would try to proceed…”

“I want to just make a few brief points regarding an announcement I made last evening about how we would try to proceed through the remainder of the session to get consideration of an energy bill. I indicated in that announcement that the majority leader had asked me to work with other Senators on the Energy Committee, as well as Senators on other committees, to put together a proposal that could be brought to the floor by the leadership for consideration, and that in light of that, we would not proceed to try to mark up a bill in the Energy Committee, as I expect probably there will not be markups of other portions of a proposed energy bill in some of other committees that would have jurisdiction. First, as I understand it, the majority leader's assignment was clear. He wants the Senate to be in a position to move to consideration of an energy bill in a timely fashion. And it was his view that this process of putting a bill together, and hopefully on a consensus basis, involving input from all Senators--Democrats and Republicans--was the best way to do that.”