Reid: Clean energy on Democrats' agenda after recess

Clean energy will be part of a broader jobs agenda that Senate Democrats will pursue when lawmakers return from their August recess, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday.

“Clean energy jobs, they are changing the face of this nation. We need to do that,” Reid said Tuesday in a floor speech after the Senate passed the long-sought debt compromise, adding that Congress “must now return to its most important job, creating jobs.”

Top Senate Democrats outlined a broad plan later Tuesday to focus on job creation.

“It's now time for Congress to get back to our regularly scheduled programming, and that means jobs,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters.

“It's time for jobs to be moved back to the front burner,” he said. “With this debt-reduction package completed, the decks are now cleared for a single-minded focus on jobs in September.”

Reid said staff will work during recess to flesh out the specifics of the jobs package, mentioning energy as one of several issues on Democrats’ agenda.

“So there are many things we can do. And we also, of course, are concerned about the new energy jobs that are out there, and we have a lot of other things that we — we don't have them finalized yet, but we will,” Reid said.

Democrats have long talked about moving major energy legislation through Congress, but have struggled to gain broad support for such a package.

It’s unclear what an energy bill would look like or whether there would be a stand-alone bill at all, as Democrats could fold energy provisions into a broader jobs package.