U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

Type of Committee:

The United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources ( the panel of which is generally a constituent-oriented committee) deals with legislative activity in the following major areas: energy resources and development, including regulation, conservation, strategic petroleum reserves and appliance standards; nuclear energy; Indian affairs; public lands and their renewable resources; surface mining, Federal coal, oil, and gas, other mineral leasing; territories and insular possessions; and water resources.

Duties of the Committee:

The jurisdiction of the Full Committee includes the oversight and legislative responsibilities for: National Energy Policy, including international energy affairs and emergency preparedness; nuclear waste policy; privatization of federal assets; territorial policy (including changes in status and issues affecting Antartica); Native Hawaiian matters; and Ad Hoc issues.

Subcommittees:

Subcommittee on Energy - Jurisdiction of the Subcommittee includes oversight and legislative responsibilities for: nuclear, coal and synthetic fuels research and development; nuclear and non-nuclear energy commercialization projects; nuclear fuel cycle policy; DOE National Laboratories; global climate change; new technologies research and development; nuclear facilities siting and insurance program; commercialization of new technologies including, solar energy systems; Federal energy conservation programs; energy information; liquefied natural gas projects; oil and natural gas regulation; refinery policy; coal conversion; utility policy; strategic petroleum reserves; regulation of Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and other oil and gas pipeline transportation systems within Alaska Artic research and energy development; and oil, gas and coal production and distribution.

Subcommittee on National Parks - Jurisdiction of the Subcommittee includes oversight and legislative responsibilities for: National Park System; Wild and Scenic Rivers System; National Trails System; national recreation areas; national monuments; historic sites; military parks and battlefields; Land and Water Conservation Fund; historic preservation; outdoor recreation resources; and preservation of prehistoric ruins and objects of interest on the public domain.

Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests - Jurisdiction of the Subcommittee includes oversight and legislative responsibilities for: public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service including farming and grazing thereon, and wilderness areas; establishment of wildlife refuges on public lands and wilderness designation therein; military land withdrawals; reserved water rights; Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act; territorial affairs; national mining and minerals policy and general mining laws; surface mining, reclamation and enforcement; mining education and research; Federal mineral leasing; Outer Continental Shelf leasing; Naval oil shale reserves; National Petroleum reserve -- Alaska; and deep seabed mining.

Subcommittee on Water and Power - Jurisdiction of the Subcommittee includes oversight and legislative responsibilities for: irrigation; reclamation projects, including related flood control purposes; power marketing administrations (e.g., Bonneville Power, Southwestern Power, Western Area Power, Southeastern Power); energy development impacts on water resources; groundwater resources and management; hydroelectric power; low head hydro; and energy related aspects of deepwater ports.

Example of Pigeonholing:

[108th] H.R.142: To amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Prado Basin Natural Treatment System Project, to authorize the Secretary to carry out a program to assist agencies in projects to construct regional brine lines in California, and to authorize the Secretary to participate in the Lower Chino Dairy Area desalination demonstration and reclamation project.

Bill That Became a Law:

[108th] H.R.265: To provide for an adjustment of the boundaries of Mount Rainier National Park, and for other purposes.

Federal Agencies For Which the Committee Has Oversight Authority:

Department of Energy ; related news article - U.S. Energy Department Solicits Onboard Vehicle Hydrogen Storage Applications

Department of the Interior; related news article - Bush Announces Choice For Interior Department

Energy Information Administration; related news article - Ethanol shortage could up gas prices

National Park Service; related news article - National Park Service approves Smokies' plan to fight adelgids

8 Steps of Legislative Lawmaking for the DMCA

Outline of the 8 Legislative Lawmaking Steps:

- 1- member of congress sponsors a bill (could get it from White House, lobbyists or constituents); Link
- 2- sent to a committee; Link
- 2a – if House, Rules Committee decides how long bill can be debated and if it can be amended, and can bring immediate floor vote; Link
- 3- committee debates and approves, rejects actively or passively, or sends to the floor without recommendation; Link
- 3a – committee can add ‘killer amendments’ to bill to make it impassable; Link
- 4- open debate and vote; Link
-Filibuster possible in Senate, cloture needed;
- 4a – pet projects, aka pork barrel projects can be added in committee or on the floor; Link
- 5 – same process in other chamber; Link
- 6- conference committee resolves differences in House and Senate versions, returns new version for a vote; Link
- 7 – President signs, vetoes or pocket vetoes; Link
- 8 – if veto, Congress can start over OR override with 2/3 vote in each chamber.

With Regard to William E. Odom's 'Iraq Through the Prism of Vietnam'

William E. Odom's 'Iraq Through the Prism of Vietnam' (found on Talking Points Memo, by Josh Marshall) offers close comparisons between the war in Iraq and the Vietnam War. Odom divides both wars into three phases, after which he attempts to draw similarities and comparisons between the events of the Vietnam War in a certain phase and the events surrounding the war in Iraq in the corresponding phase. Although his essay describes three parts to the Vietnam War, he states that the war in Iraq is still immersed in the second part, but Odom does go on, after firmly comparing stage one and what could be compared using stage two, to extrapolate the future events that will occur involving the Iraq conflict, corresponding these predicted events to the events that occured in the stages of the final part of Odom's intrepretation of the Vietnam War.
Considering Odom's credentials (retired lieutenant of the U.S. Army, professor at Yale University, Senior Fellow with the Hudson Institute, Director of the National Security Agency from 1985-1988, Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence from 1981-1985, and Military Assistant to the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs from 1977-1981), he would seem to have enough military and political experience and expertise to analyze this situation with a certain amount of pragmatic thought that would lead to a logically sound conclusion. His points, argued with a sense of prudence, certainly show a correlation between the events of Vietnam War and of the war in Iraq, steeling the ambient dictum that history repeats itself. Odom shows that, in points one and two, the political and militaristic interests and interpretations are very similar between the two wars, and in point three Odom parallelizes the actual results of the Vietnam War to that which he proposes as a theory as to what shall occur as the war in Iraq as it approaches the final stage. Thus, due to the well-developed and logically ordered set of arguments given for the parallelism between the two wars, Odom does profound job of expressing and substantiating his beliefs.

Florida Candidates Running for the U.S. Senate

Candidates/Requirements	Gender	Age	Race	Professional Status	Money Raised	Money Donators
(Eligibility Requirements)	No Requirement	30+	No Requirement, but must have at least 9 years of citizenship, and be a resident of representative state	No Requirement	N/A	N/A
Katherine Harris (R)	Female	49	White, Presbyterian	Commercial Real Estate Broker	$2,637,247	Primarily from individuals and other candidates
Mel Martinez (R)	Male	60	Hispanic, Catholic	Attorney, Public Official	$13,671,725	Primarily from individuals and PACs
Belinda Noah (R)	Female	47	African American	Attorney/Professor	$10,575,256	Primarily from individuals and PACs