He repeated his strong support for the U.S. role in Iraq. “It’s easy to get out. It’s tough to stay,” he said. Bunning predicted chaos if the U.S. withdrew and predicted that a drawdown of U.S. troops will start in about nine months.

“The Islamic threat to your kids and grandkids, and to my kids and grandkids is dead serious,” he said, calling the situation more severe than the threat posed by Nazi Germany during World War II.

McConnell’s and Bunning’s bill, titled Access to the Competitive Power Act of 2007, calls for establishing equal access and treatment with respect to federal power resources. A provision of the bill calls for a study into the privatization of TVA.

If the bill becomes law, TVA would be forced to allow other power distributors to use its transmission lines to sell electricity to customers within the Tennessee Valley.

Bunning calls it a way to bring cheaper power to Kentucky because it would allow customers served by TVA to secure less expensive power from other sources.

“All Kentuckians deserve to choose where they buy their power,” Bunning said in a prepared statement. “This bill will not only give them that choice, but it will also create a more competitive environment among Kentucky distributors and allow our business and residential consumers to keep more money in their pocket.”

Instead of reducing the cost of electricity, Richard Morrissey, manager of the Florence Electricity Department, said the legislation would drive up power bills in the Tennessee Valley.

Morrissey said the legislation would allow outside utilities to cherry pick the most lucrative customers in the Tennessee Valley, leaving TVA with those who use little electricity or live in rural areas where it is more costly to deliver power.