Analysis: Political Maneuvering Hurting Chances of Climate Bill Passage in Senate
(image: washingtonindependent.com)
The biggest obstacles to the most important legislative issues of our day? Political maneuvering, says David Roberts at Grist.com.
Roberts writes that in the House, the climate bill’s legislative process was orderly and progressed smoothly through committees en route to final approval. Henry Waxman and Edward Markey introduced their bill in a special committee and made some necessary concessions, but never lost control of the process. Their goal was to negotiate the bulk of the issues behind closed doors so that when the resulting bill was brought up on the floor, it could pass uneventfully. And that’s what happened.
Unfortunately, the Senate has a different playbook. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairman of the Energy & Public Works (EPW) Committee, wanted to replicate the House’s orderly process with the Senate version, the Kerry-Boxer climate bill. She tried, says Roberts, repeatedly expressing her desire to work with others and welcoming feedback and an open dialogue. But it’s not working because politics is getting in the way. Boxer is not particularly popular, partly because of her very liberal stances. Various Democratic committee members within the Senate began marking up the Boxer bill, and two Republicans, James Inhofe of Oklahoma and George Voinovich of Ohio, called for stalling committee debate on the bill.
This prompted a boycott of the EPW committee vote by all Republican members that led to a bill passed out of committee without any GOP involvement.
According to the Associated Press, Boxer said that advancing the bill is a necessary step on the road to garnering the needed 60 votes, and she was pleased that despite the Republican boycott, the Democrats have had the will to move this bill forward.
But Boxer’s influence is waning, says Roberts. Between the Senate Democrats’ predilection for not going along with all Democratic initiatives—as opposed to the strong party discipline found in the House—and the fact that an extremely liberal and combative female Senator was shepherding the bill, it is bound to fail.
As a result, some of the Senate’s centrists came in to open a “dual track” of negotiations. John Kerry (D-MA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) rebuked their colleagues on the EPW Committee for not participating. But on the other hand, Graham also asked EPA Chief Lisa Jackson for more time – five more weeks of study, which an EPA official testifying to the EPW said would be expensive, time-consuming, and unnecessary.
In their need to purge the bill of anything Boxer-ish, Kerry and Graham felt they had to draft another one. The final bill will, like most important legislature in Washington, be hashed out in the White House, behind closed doors.
Despite winning committee passage for her bill, Boxer’s attempts to build some bipartisan support have failed, whether fairly or not. According to Roberts, in the Senate it’s every man (or woman) for himself.
Passage of a climate bill in the near future? Don’t hold your breath.
[...] and unwilling to play party ball. Adding to that, Boxer is not a particularly popular Senator; as Heatingoil.com’s Carol Sonenklar wrote, her strongly liberal views and combative attitude do not endear her to many of her colleagues. By [...]