Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015--Continued

Floor Speech

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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I join my colleague from Alaska, the chair of the Senate Energy Committee, to urge my colleagues today to move forward on going to conference on the Energy bill.

My colleagues will remember we passed a bill 85 to 12, I think it was, and included a great deal of provisions on--my colleague just said--modernizing the electricity grid, building next-generation investments in energy, smart buildings, advanced composite materials, energy storage and improving cyber security, critical infrastructure, and the energy workforce for tomorrow.

This was a very worked-over process, both in committee and on the Senate floor, and it was a very collaborative effort among our colleagues on both sides of the aisle. It did take some discussion with our House colleagues because the package they passed was a very different product. I will say, it was a very less worked product on a bipartisan basis and certainly a product that had a lot of veto threats in it.

Our House colleagues have made some comments about that legislation that have made it helpful for us to move forward. We met with our colleagues, the Natural Resources and Energy Committee chairs, Mr. Bishop and Mr. Upton. They basically said: Look, they didn't want to waste time on things that would be vetoed by the President of the United States, so we took that as a good sign that they were willing to sit down and talk about legislation that could move forward in a positive fashion.

Senator Murkowski's staff, my staff, and we together have rolled up our sleeves and tried to look at ways in which we could talk about how we move forward from here so that all of our colleagues could have confidence that we are going to work on something that would be a final product that really would get to the President's desk. I thank my colleague from Alaska for her indulgence in that process. I know she had conversations with Senator Reid about no poison pills and wasn't going to sign off on those kinds of activities.

We are here to say to our colleagues: Let's continue the good bipartisan effort that existed in the Senate bill and work with our colleagues in the House to resolve these issues. As my colleagues know, there are many thorny issues that still need to be addressed. Even though the Senate worked out many of its issues, there are still several thorny issues that are in the House bill, such as water, fire, and a variety of other issues which will take some dialogue and give us an opportunity to talk. If we can reach a conclusion, great, but if we can't, I think we have all decided that moving forward on the basis of an energy policy we can agree to is a very important concept for all of us.

As my colleague from Alaska said, it is time to move forward on an energy policy, and I encourage my colleagues to vote yes on this motion. Let us continue to work to protect these key provisions and move forward so we can get a bill to the President's desk. Cloture Motion

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