ms. cantwell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: mr. president, reserving the right to object, i won't object. i just want to thank my colleague from alaska for her hard work in working on both sides of the aisle today on these amendments, the barrasso amendment about energy, the indian energy bill that was reported out of the indian affairs committee, the baldwin amendment about water treatment, wyden amendment on u.s. geothermal and capito on ethane storage facilities, daines on hydrolicense issue and hirono on removing offensive language in the d.o.e. organization act. members have worked very hard throughout the day on these issues, and i just want to make this point as my colleague and i try to finish working through the rest of this week and into next week to wrap up this bill, and to thank all our colleagues for helping us on this, but i will not object. i am glad we have gotten to this point. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i know of no further debate on these amendments. the p

ms. cantwell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: mr.ing -- or i guess almost afternoon to talk about the energy policy modernization act of 2016. and, yes, sometimes you can be cynical about this place and what you can get done, and then all of a sudden you have a great opportunity to move something forward. and the senator from alaska said it correctly, this is a milestone for the senate. the fact that we are considering energy policy legislation on the senate floor on a bipartisan bill or any bill for the first time since 2007. so a tremendous milestone, and i thank her for her leadership and for her time and efforts to put this legislation together in such a bipartisan fashion, to show the kind of process that we went through with that chart, hearings, listening sessions, discussions, amendments. i think it's appropriate at this time to thank our staffs. usually that's done at the end of a process, but when used a bill on the -- you've had a bill on the floor for the first time since 2007 you should herald them in advance. eric mcdon

ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. at this time, we will resume the consideration of senate bill 2020 -- 2012, which is the energy policy modernization act. senator cantwell and i have had an opportunity to speak as well as the senator from texas, and now the senator from wyoming has joined us. he has been a leader on these issues. he sits right next to me on the energy committee, has worked on so many of the issues that we have contained with in this good bill. but the piece that he has probably been most aggressive and shown his leadership on is what we have done to help facilitate the export of our resources with regards to liquefied natural gas, and i would be pleased to turn to my colleague from wyoming. mr. barrasso: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: i thank the distinguished chairman of the energy committee. she does a remarkable job, has brought many people together on this bipartisan piece of legislation, passed the committee 18-4, and people are energetic about this energy bill because it is such a critical, important thing for our communities and our economy. so i come to the floor today as the senate

ms. cantwell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: mr. president, reserving the right to object, i will not object, but i just want to point out to my colleagues the chair has worked with us today to get a number of these pending amendments. i know she has probably expressed this, but it is our intent hopefully we will have some votes on these other amendments, either by voice or additional votes, so i hope that colleagues will -- who are interested in other amendments will come down. but i think that this process gets us going on the voting and could be on some of these pending amendments as well. so i do not object. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. ms. murkowski: mr. president, senators should be aware that we may add additional roll call votes on amendments to both stacks of votes tomorrow, as the ranking member has said. it would certainly be our intent that again we work to process as much as we can during the time that we have. mr. president, i would now ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of mo