Today is one of my favorite days in Washington D.C. – the annual Capitol Hill Ice Cream Party! This has been a tradition in Congress for 25 years now and I certainly haven’t missed too many of them.

This week in the Senate we have been continuing debate on the energy bill.

Yesterday, we fought off several amendments promoted by Big Oil. And, earlier this week Senator Baucus and I advanced a tax incentives package out of the Finance Committee that was a big boost for renewable fuels like ethanol, biodiesel, biomass and wind energy. Unfortunately, Big Oil reared its ugly head and worked to defeat the package on the Senate floor.

I'll keep working with Senator Baucus to get the Finance Committee package to conference negotiations.

We will also be bringing back the immigration reform bill. Majority Leader Reid has said that he wants to bring debate back to the Senate floor before the July 4 recess. My position has not changed however. There are a lot of good parts to this bill, but as long as there is amnesty, I cannot vote for it.