The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s accelerated energy bill schedule is beginning to take shape, with plans for a combination budget and policy hearing with Energy Secretary-designate Samuel Bodman on Feb. 9 and a markup of a bill based on last session’s H.R. 6 the following week, energy industry sources said yesterday.
House and Senate energy committees traditionally bring in top Energy Department officials to discuss their budgets and plans for the year shortly after the budgets are announced. This year, the federal budget is expected to be announced Feb. 7. Bodman is expected to win Senate confirmation as Energy secretary on Monday.
But under pressure from House leaders and the White House, Energy Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) also is working to get an energy bill to the House floor before Congress adjourns for the Presidents Day recess.
Nevertheless, committee Democrats are trying to push the electricity issue with the announcement yesterday that the Government Accountability Office will investigate the Securities and Exchange Commission’s administration and enforcement of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA). Committee ranking member John Dingell (Mich.) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) have been trying since last spring to get GAO to look into the matter in light of the collapse of Enron and the power market manipulation in the West in 2000 and 2001.
“Two years after Enron went bankrupt and well after that company had taken advantage of improper exempt status, the SEC in December 2003 issued an opinion denying Enron’s application for an exemption from PUHCA,” Dingell said.
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