Confirming earlier indications, at about 3 pm EDT today, Chairman Tauzin 
convened the committee to issue a joint statement with Rep. Waxman and then 
recessed the committee subject to the call of the chair following the 
Memorial Day Week Recess.  Congress will not return until the week of June 4, 
but staff level discussions will likely occur after the three-day weekend.

Chairman Tauzin said that the committee is receiving conflicting information 
on the facts in California.  He said it is better to take a little longer to 
get the facts straight and evaluate various options, rather than act quickly 
but in the wrong way.  He did say he expects that the committee will come to 
a bipartisan agreement after the recess.

Behind the scenes, we hear that Democrats appear not to want to reach an 
agreement, instead preferring to keep the issue alive.  Republicans, on the 
other hand, want to spare their vulnerable West Coast Members another 
recorded vote against price caps.  Thankfully, following our collective 
efforts yesterday, the discussion has moved off of the 80/20 long term 
contract requirement.  Republicans are poised to offer the Ose bill as an 
alternative for discussion and amendment if an agreement is not reached.  The 
Ose bill would extend FERC's pricing formula to 24/7 and throughout the West.

Staff report that Members were far from agreement and that no one concept was 
embraced for further refinement.  It does appear, however, that some Members, 
such as Rep. Mary Bono (R-CA) are pushing for some type of price mitigation 
that they can vote for.  With Republicans increasingly worried about the 
political impact of the energy issue, we will need to continue our work next 
Tuesday, starting with an in-depth analysis of the Ose bill.