- Barbara Boxer will proceed with a markup even though all seven Republicans on the committee say they'll boycott. Photo: John Shinkle
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is engaged in public partisan warfare over a climate bill, a battle that foreshadows the deep struggle the Obama administration will face as Democrats attempt to push a version of the sweeping legislation through the Senate.
Chairwoman Barbara Boxer of California announced last week that she will proceed with a markup of the bill beginning Tuesday, even though all seven Republicans on the committee say they plan to boycott the proceedings.
Republicans say that EPW rules prohibit Boxer from holding a markup without two Republicans present, but Boxer aides indicated on Sunday that they still planned to attempt the hearing.
“Sen. Boxer has said that she will use all the tools at her disposal to move forward,” said a Boxer aide.
The boycott, led by the committee’s two most moderate Republicans, Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, illustrates the difficulty for Democrats in getting significant bipartisan backing for their climate bill — even among GOP lawmakers who support taking action to combat climate change.
“I’m willing to work with the people on the other side of the aisle. But if you jam this thing through here, it’s not going to be good,” Voinovich said on Thursday.
The Obama administration has so far been unable to attract significant Republican backing for major initiatives like health care and the economic stimulus package.
On climate, the two parties are battling over a handful of Republicans who might support a bill, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Dick Lugar of Indiana and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine.
Republican leaders see cap and trade as an issue that could severely hurt Democratic chances in the midterm elections, and they’re pressuring their members to vote against the bill to keep their caucus as united as possible.
Democrats may need Republican votes to pass a bill to offset possible losses within their own party. Prominent moderate Democrats such as Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota have raised a long list of concerns about the bill. And at least some Democratic supporters expect to lose the votes of Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
Nelson said on Friday that a cap-and-trade bill could not pass the Senate this Congress.
“I haven’t been able to sell that argument to my farmers, and I don’t think they’re going to buy it from anybody else,” Nelson told CNBC.
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry is working with South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham to build GOP support for the legislation by dangling provisions like increased domestic oil exploration and expanded use of nuclear power.
But so far, other Republicans have yet to voice strong support for a climate bill.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has co-sponsored several versions of his 2003 climate bill, has made clear that it will be difficult for him to support the Kerry-Boxer proposal without significantly greater commitments on nuclear power.
McCain told POLITICO that he’s spoken with Kerry about his requirements, and the Democrat is “not ready to do that.”
Alexander has vocally opposed Boxer’s legislation — a stance some Democratic aides attribute to his position in the Republican leadership. Although he is pushing hard for electric cars, expanded nuclear power and renewable energy, Alexander believes the Kerry-Boxer bill will hurt economic growth.
Voinovich has spent months requesting additional analysis of the bill. His reputation for bipartisan deal making and concerns about climate change had raised hopes that the retiring senator could be in play. But his aides say it is unlikely that he’ll be able to support this legislation, blaming his opposition on a fast-tracked committee procedure.
“These guys wanted to engage in the process,” said a Voinovich aide. “That’s the big folly on Boxer’s part. She had an opportunity to reach across the aisle to compromise and deal with guys like Voinovich. That could have brought them along.”
But Boxer says that she spoke with both Alexander and Voinovich several months ago, and they were unwilling to work with her on the bill. She dismissed the Republican opposition as political maneuvering used to delay Senate action.
Last year, she partnered with Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, who has since retired, to pass climate legislation through the committee.
“I had a partner in John Warner, but I have nobody else,” said Boxer. “These Republicans on this committee are really more of the party of no. They are not interested in tackling this problem at all.”
The seven Republicans on the committee met late Thursday night on the Senate floor and agreed to boycott the markup hearing. They want a more thorough analysis of the legislation to be completed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Voinovich first requested an EPA analysis of the House climate bill after it passed in late June, but he says he was turned down because the agency wanted to wait until the Senate bill was released.
To put pressure on the agency, Voinovich placed a hold on the nomination of Robert Perciasepe, the White House’s nominee for the No. 2 position at the EPA.
The agency released a short analysis of the bill last week and has agreed to run a fuller study, a process that Administrator Lisa Jackson said in committee hearings on Tuesday will take at least five weeks.
Voinovich and the other Republicans would like Boxer to wait at least that long.
Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the committee, cited the two years of negotiations over former President George W. Bush’s Clear Skies initiative, when he says Republicans postponed the markup several times as Democrats pushed for more information. Inhofe also struggled to get enough support for the legislation during that period, as Republicans then held a very narrow margin on the committee.
“That was a very deliberative process, and I think we need to be somewhat deliberative,” he said.
But Boxer noted that the EPA conducted a more thorough analysis of the House bill and her legislation borrows heavily from that legislation.
“Their objections don’t pass the smell test,” she said. “It seems to me they just want to delay this and delay it so we don’t make progress.”
Voinovich has spent months requesting additional analysis of the bill. His reputation for bipartisan deal making and concerns about climate change had raised hopes that the retiring senator could be in play. But his aides say it is unlikely that he’ll be able to support this legislation, blaming his opposition on a fast-tracked committee procedure.
“These guys wanted to engage in the process,” said a Voinovich aide. “That’s the big folly on Boxer’s part. She had an opportunity to reach across the aisle to compromise and deal with guys like Voinovich. That could have brought them along.”
But Boxer says that she spoke with both Alexander and Voinovich several months ago, and they were unwilling to work with her on the bill. She dismissed the Republican opposition as political maneuvering used to delay Senate action.
Last year, she partnered with Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, who has since retired, to pass climate legislation through the committee.
“I had a partner in John Warner, but I have nobody else,” said Boxer. “These Republicans on this committee are really more of the party of no. They are not interested in tackling this problem at all.”
The seven Republicans on the committee met late Thursday night on the Senate floor and agreed to boycott the markup hearing. They want a more thorough analysis of the legislation to be completed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Voinovich first requested an EPA analysis of the House climate bill after it passed in late June, but he says he was turned down because the agency wanted to wait until the Senate bill was released.
To put pressure on the agency, Voinovich placed a hold on the nomination of Robert Perciasepe, the White House’s nominee for the No. 2 position at the EPA.
The agency released a short analysis of the bill last week and has agreed to run a fuller study, a process that Administrator Lisa Jackson said in committee hearings on Tuesday will take at least five weeks.
Voinovich and the other Republicans would like Boxer to wait at least that long.
Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the committee, cited the two years of negotiations over former President George W. Bush’s Clear Skies initiative, when he says Republicans postponed the markup several times as Democrats pushed for more information. Inhofe also struggled to get enough support for the legislation during that period, as Republicans then held a very narrow margin on the committee.
“That was a very deliberative process, and I think we need to be somewhat deliberative,” he said.
But Boxer noted that the EPA conducted a more thorough analysis of the House bill and her legislation borrows heavily from that legislation.
“Their objections don’t pass the smell test,” she said. “It seems to me they just want to delay this and delay it so we don’t make progress.”
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