David Thomas: “I urge that we move back as soon as possible--I understand we will at 2 o'clock--to our energy bill. Certainly, there is…”

“I urge that we move back as soon as possible--I understand we will at 2 o'clock--to our energy bill. Certainly, there is nothing more important before us now than the completion of that bill and being able to send it on to the President. Certainly, it is not going to have everything in it that everybody wanted. That is not a new idea. This is a bill that has been on the floor for 5 weeks. But it does have some good things in it. It has some basic energy policy materials that we have not had for a very long time. It has some of the things the President and Vice President had put forth. Unfortunately, some of those it does not. I was and am a supporter of ANWR. I think that could be done as a multiple-use project. I certainly agree with protecting the environment, as the Senator from Nevada was talking about, but I am also a great promoter of multiple use. Since 50 percent of my State belongs to the Federal Government, we have to be very certain that we have a chance to use it. So I hope we move forward with that. Upon its completion, I hope we take a look at trade promotion authority. There is probably nothing more important to us in terms of our economy and us being part of world trade.”