ms. murkowski: thank you. i appreciate the comments of my colleague and friend from pennsylvania and the discussion of why the we're here today on a late thursday afternoon. we started off the week, i think, with an air of optimism that with the energy efficiency bill before us we could get to that place where we could be debating substantive issues of the day. and as my colleague has noted, we haven't seen a real energy bill on this floor now for seven years. and when you think about the landscape, the energy landscape in this country and what has happened in seven years' time, you know, seven years ago we were looking to build import terminals to receive l.n.g. now we're debating -- or hoping to debate the export of our l.n.g. i have kind of put a target on my back, if you will, and said, let's talk about what's happening with our oil potential in this country and our opportunity as a nation to export our oil, given that next year we will actually be producing more oil in this country, than the country of ru

ms. murkowski: i ask the proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: as we are here today to discuss the energy efficiency bill and what may or may not be status on any given amendments, i wanted to take a few minutes this afternoon to speak about the issue of liquefied natural gas exports. senator barrasso has proposed a bill that would provide for fast track status for d.o.e. licensing to l.n.g. projects to export to members of w.t.o. countries. as we -- as we focus on our opportunities that we have, mr. president, when it comes to our -- our natural gas, our l.n.g. and the opportunities for -- for federal support for energy projects overseas, i think it's important to recognize we have got a little inconsistency going on with this administration slow walking of infrastructure and hydrocarbon development here in this country. give you a couple of examples here. the export-import bank has supported a slew of l.n.g.-related transactions over the past couple decades. these are structured and proje

ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. we are on the measure again, the shaheen-portman energy efficiency, also known as energy savings and industrial competitiveness act. an efficiency bill, mr. president. this shouldn't be this difficult for us. when we talk about the benefits of an all-of-the-above energy policy, the benefits that can come to us as a nation when we are more resilient with our energy sources, when we're able to access our domestic energy sources, whether they be our fossil fuels, whether they be our renewables, whether they be nuclear, we all talk about it in good, strong terms because, quite honestly, energy makes us a stronger nation. abg stows our energy resource -- access to our energy resources. i've defined a good, strong energy policy as one that allows energy to be more abundant, affordable, clean, diverse and secure. an energy policy is also about the energy that we don't consume. it's about the energy that we save because we are more efficient. it seems that we've gotten to a point, at least wi

murkowski. especially on the e-cigarette issue. you're right on target on that one. thank you. senator baldwin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, msburwell for your time here today and talking about your vision for the department. i appreciate the opportunity we've had to speak in advance of this hearing. i wanted to talk about a couple of different topic. but including the fact that the health care system has been plagued forever with a lack of transparency. and gathering data, dissimulating and sharing data is incredibly key to helping physicians understand where they lie with regard to other physicians' practices, helping understand where hospitals, how they go about pricing things, what their costs are, and helping patients make wise decisions about choosing providers, particularly if they need an operation or a specific treatment. this is an issue where we've seen some variation from state to state. i'm proud to tell you that in the state of wu wii i think we've within a real leader with an organization called the wisconsin health information organization. it intends to be an all payers claim database that does some further a