Harry Reid: “I want to say, briefly, before he completes his statement on Prime Minister Blair, and other things, in the National…”

“I want to say, briefly, before he completes his statement on Prime Minister Blair, and other things, in the National Journal's Congress Daily today, it was brought to my attention that, among other things, it says--and if it is here I am sure it is true; we know all things written are true that the press puts out--GOP staffers continue to meet in an effort to flesh out a reworking of the bill's electricity provisions. A new proposal expected to be released some-time next week. The only reason I bring this to the leader's attention this evening is that the bill, as it is, is very difficult. We know there are problems with the electricity section. On both sides of the aisle, people are concerned about it. If there is going to be a new electricity section in this bill, we have to have it next week because there is tremendous concern, especially by the Senators from Washington. And as we discussed yesterday, there are more than 300 amendments on this matter. The two leaders are sponsors of one of the main amendments in the bill, and I know the two leaders want to get this bill finished. But having said the two leaders want to finish the bill, we still have 98 other Senators to worry about. I would hope there is some realization of the great difficulty of finishing this bill, especially if there is a new section to be written about electricity.”