The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Wednesday not to expect a comprehensive energy bill going to the president’s desk before the November elections.
Lawmakers probably will not be able to hash out a deal between the Senate and the House on energy legislation until after the November elections, said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.
“Let’s face it, that will be hard to do, knowing that it took so long,” Upton said Wednesday. “So it will be pretty hard to get done before the end of September, but we’ll see. I don’t know.”
The Senate voted Tuesday to move ahead with a House-Senate conference committee to work out differences between the two chambers on the energy bill. The bill has been stalled for weeks in the Senate over controversial policy riders in the House version of the bill.
But Upton was confident that the differences will be worked out.
“We know it’s going to change,” Upton said. “It’s going to change; we’re open-minded, we don’t have any red lines in the sand. Clearly there are some things we think we can agree on.”
