Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman plans to introduce new oil spill-response legislation this Congress.

The New Mexico Democrat announced his plans this morning during the first congressional hearing with the leaders of the presidential panel that investigated the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer.

"We must ensure that we have systems in place in our government and in the industry so that this cannot happen again," Bingaman said. "I ... intend to introduce bipartisan legislation again in this Congress as is the effort here in this committee."

Last June, the committee reported a measure from Bingaman and ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would codify organizational changes made at the Interior Department last summer, increase the safety requirements for drilling wells, establish new research programs, create an independent advisory board for the department, create a fee on companies to pay for inspections, increase the penalties on bad operators and increase the time the department has to carry out reviews before approving exploration plans.

Some of those items were later incorporated into a Democratic energy bill that stalled in August amid election-year politics and concerns about oil spill liability language in the bill.

Bingaman said he plans to incorporate language from the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling report, as well as the other reports and information that has emerged in the wake of the spill.

"Since we prepared the legislation that we proposed last summer, this new information will help us make improvements to our bill," Bingaman said this morning.

In the House, where an oil spill response bill passed last summer, Democrats plan today to float a new measure that would incorporate the suggestions made by the presidential commission. But it remains uncertain how much political will exists on Capitol Hill to pass legislation in response to the oil spill. President Obama last night in his State of the Union address made no mention of the BP PLC spill.

Still, Murkowski said she was also interested in working on legislation and had been in discussions with Bingaman about how to proceed.

"Well, I do hope that there is bipartisan legislation that comes as a consequence of the Deepwater Horizon," Murkowski said after today's hearing. "Obviously we've heard the commission's report today. I noted in my opening that there are several other reports out there that we need to look to. I think it's important to take into account some of the findings that either the commission is finding or that we see presented in some of these other reports.

"I am hopeful that we will see a product moving forward," she added.

Both Bingaman and Murkowski said they will likely wait until new members have been appointed to the committee -- a decision that could come as early as later today -- before moving forward on any spill-response legislation.