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gressional initiatives, this may be something. So you caught my at- 

 tention. Anybody else have a comment on that? 



Mr. PiLON. Congressman LaRocco, our group may favor a one- 

 time access by Bonneville to the private debt market to buy out the 

 old debt — one-time access. 



Mr. LaRocco. One time. 



Mr. PiLON. One time access. We do not believe Bonneville should 

 have an ongoing access. We are concerned about who they check 

 with before they go to the market. We also do not believe that the 

 debt cap ought to be raised. We believe that Bonneville needs to 

 be more aggressive in funding its needs through third-party financ- 

 ing. There are systems in place to do that if Bonneville would make 

 wider use of them. I am thinking primarily of the billing credits. 

 Of course, if we have tiered rates, I am not sure billing credits 

 makes any sense. 



Mr. DeFazio. Just if I could add, my position has always been 

 that if we can establish either a rate neutral purchase, which gives 

 us future certainty, or refinancing of the debt and/or perhaps ideal- 

 ly some slight advantage, I am interested. I am not willing to ac- 

 cept some major new cost, and I think I heard Mr. Reiten tell us 

 we were at the bottom of the market on interest rates and there 

 was never a better time, so we are all going to go out and lock in 

 now, but I know what you are sajdng. It does look like a good time 

 and I am seriously interested. In fact, coincidentally I ran into 

 Leon Panetta, head of the Office of Management & Budget, and we 

 had a significant discussion of this in the San Francisco airport last 

 Sunday night at ten o'clock, for whatever that is worth. And maybe 

 I will see him on the plane again tomorrow night and we can con- 

 tinue the discussion. But this is a very serious proposal, more so 

 than in the past. It is not being put forward in a punitive manner 

 by this Administration, as past Administrations have put it for- 

 ward, and there is a potential slight advantage to the Federal Gov- 

 ernment in doing this, but not so much. You know, if we get rate 

 neutrality, it will not be a big windfall for them, but it will still 

 be something they can count against their obligations. 



Mr. LaRocco. And it is my understanding that there is going to 

 be a hearing on this subject in late October or early November. 



Mr. DeFazio. Yes, we will do a hearing in Washington on this 

 as soon as they have crunched the numbers at 0MB and they can 

 give us a proposal, and I think that is going to happen. 



Mr. LaRocco. If I may yield back to me, Mr, Chairman. 



Mr. DeFazio. Yes. 



Mr. LaRocco. Mr. CJolden, you brought up a point that I had 

 asked Administrator Hardy about, how the public is going to be in- 

 volved in reinventing BPA and the Competitiveness Project. And 

 you had expressed some concerns that you were not on the mailing 

 list. And quite frankly, I do not know if I was. That concerns me. 

 I think all the public should be involved in this. I do not see Mr. 

 Hardy here right now or his staff" — oh, no, Steve is here. I am sure 

 you heard that and would you like to comment further on that? 



Mr. Golden. I do not need to be on another BPA mailing list; 

 I am on thousands of BPA mailing lists. 



Mr. LaRocco. Thousands? 



