 |
| Working into the wee hours.... |
July 18, 2001 |
| |
Dear Friends,
It`s late at night in Washington after a long day of work in the Energy and Commerce Committee. And tomorrow will be another long day finishing up work on the Energy and Conservation bill. We`re moving forward on a balanced, long-term energy plan that includes both conservation and increased supply.
Heather recently visited the Solar Test Facility at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque to talk about a balanced, long-term national energy policy
I don`t usually fly into Washington at night. But this time I arrived in the wee small hours Tuesday, caught a few hours sleep, went through the major issues and the amendments I would offer and headed to our Committee room.
The Energy and Commerce Committee is one of the most active committees in the House and one of the most powerful. Our "spaces" are in the imposing and, to me, sterile Rayburn House Office Building. It doesn`t have the warmth and character of the older House buildings, but the offices are larger there so all the "old bulls" -- the senior members of Congress -- tend to have their offices in Rayburn.
The Committee Room is large and cold, even in the heat of the Washington summer. Republicans sit on the Chairman`s right and the Democrats sit on the left. We sit in order of seniority, which, this year, gives me a very good perch on the right side of the curved dais where I can see just about every facial expression in the room, and catch the eye of almost everyone.
The audience was packed today as we began work on the Energy bill and some 50 proposed amendments. I take our committee work seriously and I enjoy the hard work of legislating and sometimes, crafting compromise.
We had an unusually complicated series of votes on nuclear energy, and some on clean coal. Tomorrow we will reconvene to take up the conservation section of the bill and there will be more important amendments to work through.
In the Energy and Commerce Committee, lines and coalitions form in unusual ways. Rural vs.urban. Rich vs. poor. States that have water, and those that don`t. Ideology and partisanship is present, and sometimes at the forefront, but not always.
It is through the messy process of amendment and debate and consensus and negotiation and division that the House works its will. Sometimes it is a marvel to watch it work; other times, it is a marvel that it works at all.
Tomorrow morning we`ll go back to finish the work on the bill. It will probably take all day and into the night. When we get to the end of it, I hope we will have a balanced, long-term national energy plan that will help New Mexico consumers. It won`t be perfect. No bill is. But I think it will be good. I`ll let you know how it turns out.
Wish you were here,
|
|
|
|