William H. Frist: “this morning we will resume consideration of the Energy bill. We will be spending all of this week and, in all…”

“this morning we will resume consideration of the Energy bill. We will be spending all of this week and, in all likelihood, all of next week on the bill. We plan on completing the bill by the end of next week. Yesterday, the chairman offered a first- degree amendment relating to ethanol. Last night, we were able to consider and table a second-degree amendment relating to safe harbor. Today, we will be considering another second-degree amendment which was offered by Senator Schumer. It is our expectation to have a vote in relation to that amendment very shortly this morning, hopefully within the next 30 minutes. Senators, therefore, should be on notice and their offices should notify them that we might be voting around 10 o'clock, or shortly thereafter. If we are able to table that amendment, we would like to vote on the underlying first-degree amendment as well. We expect to make further progress on the bill following those votes. So it will be a very busy day. We may go into the early evening tonight. I know there are a number of events planned tonight. I say that only to encourage people to come and offer their amendments and debate their amendments over the course of the day. We will be finishing the bill by the end of next week. The Democratic leader and I have been consistent with that regard. So we want people to come to the floor and offer those amendments. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Democratic leader.”