What Is Going On With Congress This Week? – More coming later today….

"We’ve gone from the majority leader scheduling two weeks to do energy legislation to one week to two days to one day to a couple of hours – for a process that can take months to do properly," says Dillon. "And now, in what seems to be a declaration of irrelevancy, Democrats on the Energy Committee are trying to schedule a committee markup to talk about a bunch of miscellaneous energy and federal land acquisition bills. Shouldn’t they be managing the floor debate on the energy bill instead of getting ready for a markup?"

 

Dillon said he believes the majority leader does not expect the energy bill to move forward and that this is simply an exercise in political messaging. It also calls into question who really wrote the bill introduced by Majority Leader Reid.

 

"…let’s not forget that the Senate is supposed to consider the nomination of Elena Kagan this week for the U.S. Supreme Court," he said. "The majority leader might want to allow a couple of days to debate the qualifications of a woman who is nominated to serve a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land."

 

Dillon said that the majority leader can, "try to blame Republicans for his failures all he wants," but that Republicans have offered a "better spill bill that is more responsible and far less costly than the messaging bill proposed by Reid."

 

According to Dillon, "It starts by addressing the root of the problem – the failures within our offshore regulatory system. It includes the OCS Reform Act reported unanimously by the Senate Energy Committee. Permitting and best available commercial technology requirements are strengthened to enhance the safety and integrity of offshore operations. Our bill would also codify a complete reorganization of the MMS by separating its revenue collection, permit approval and oversight staffs to ensure that organizational missions are clear and conflicts are avoided."

 

"The Republican bill ensures a safe and timely end to the administration’s economically-devastating offshore moratorium. Once new safety regulations have been met, we will stop the flow of lost jobs, lost wages, lost tax revenues and lost energy production that is threatening the Gulf Coast.

 

"The Republican proposal increases the strict liability cap for offshore projects through an assessment based on risk factors such as water depth and the operator’s safety record. It establishes an industry-funded risk pool, which will force industry to police itself and pay for any costs that exceed the ability of an individual company. This system will guarantee that taxpayers never pay a dime in the event of a future spill.

 

"Our bill would strengthen the Coast Guard’s ability to respond to spills, clarify the President’s responsibilities for responding to national disasters under the National Contingency Plan, create a truly balanced and bipartisan commission to investigate what went wrong aboard the Deepwater Horizon and right a long-standing wrong by providing states that risk their coastlines to produce energy for America with a fair share of the federal revenues from production.

 

Finally, he urged that, "Instead of turning a tragic disaster into a messaging strategy, the majority leader should be focusing on passing a bill to help restore balance to the Gulf and the offshore drilling industry. He, however, has chosen to once again play partisan games and not allow a full debate and open amendment process on either of the proposed bills."