The governor's main concern with the legislation as passed is the automatic indexing, ... It will only ratchet things up and will tie the government's hands and will deprive it of the flexibility to address changing economic conditions.

That's not the case, and everyone knows that. This governor has had good relations with Mexican governors. He hopes to meet with President (Vicente) Fox himself at some point in the future when their schedules are convenient. But there's nothing to mend here.

Our intent is to continue to seek ratification of the compact.

There's clearly some concern in the market that there's not much to stop the legislation there being changed retrospectively to perhaps more favorable terms for the government. It's a political situation of high risk and investors are going to be nervous.

There will be a continuous talk, but I think as far as passing legislation, I don't see it coming this year.

By significantly lowering the cost of capital for small, medium, and large businesses alike, the provisions in this legislation will spur business investment on the Gulf Coast, increase the supply of affordable housing, and put dislocated employees back to work.