Maria Cantwell: “I wish to make one final point. I thank the Senator from Illinois for continuing his talk about this issue as it impacts…”

“I wish to make one final point. I thank the Senator from Illinois for continuing his talk about this issue as it impacts his State and national policy which we are all trying to fight. But many of my colleagues know that on one provision in the Energy bill relating to Enron, we really tried to make a point. In fact, 57 Members of this body passed an amendment, albeit on the Agriculture appropriations bill because we couldn't get it on the Energy bill when we recessed in August, which basically said we think market manipulation has taken place and something needs to be done about it. In fact, at that time I argued that in this legislation we ought to have a prohibition on the types of market manipulation that actually happened with Enron and include that in the Energy bill. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle drafted language that basically prohibited one of the Enron abuses but not all of the Enron abuses. But in a separate piece of legislation, we got 57 of my colleagues--a majority of Senators--to say, Let's say that market manipulation on contracts was wrong. That language still exists in a conference committee on Agriculture appropriations. That language is sitting there hoping we will get it out of conference, even though the industry is lobbying against it. Yes, that is right. The remnants of Enron are lobbying against it.”