Jeff Bingaman: “I will go ahead with my statement at this point and urge people not to support the Thomas amendment. Let me, once again…”

“I will go ahead with my statement at this point and urge people not to support the Thomas amendment. Let me, once again, make the large points that need to be made. I will put up the map of the country again. These are the electricity regions that are all over the country. This largest one, by far, of course, is in the western part of the country and contains 14 States. The amendment before us, which Senator Thomas offered, is an amendment that the Western Governors' Association has put together, which, as I see it, does several things. First, it dramatically complicates the process by which we try to ensure that the system for transmitting power around this country is reliable.”