The Senate's global warming debate suffered a meltdown today after Republicans protested fresh changes to the measure offered by chief sponsors, in what may be the beginning of the end for the bill without anything other than procedural votes cast. Leading backers of the bill -- Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer and Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va. -- offered a new 492-page version today that Democratic aides said makes only minor modifications after the latest Congressional Budget Office analysis. But when it was offered on the floor, Republicans objected to Democrats' request for the clerk to dispense with the full reading of it, a common request done by unanimous consent. "I think this is an opportunity for us to learn what is actually in this legislation," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said after Boxer interrupted the clerk's reading with a second request to move on. "Right now they're just stalling this bill, stalling this important debate," Boxer told reporters as the reading by the clerk continued on the floor. A spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader McConnell said the move is also in protest to an impasse on judicial nominees. "The Democratic majority has refused to honor its commitments," McConnell said in a statement today. "It apparently believes that commitments do not matter in the United States Senate, and that actions do not have consequences."
The full reading of the bill may take at least four hours, a spokesman for Majority Leader Reid said. Reid will then offer a handful of unanimous-consent motions that include going to a couple of amendments, including one offered by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joe Biden and ranking member Richard Lugar regarding international involvement in any U.S. greenhouse gas emission reduction plan. "Harry Reid is going to put forward a number of ways to move forward," Boxer said. "And then we will see what the intent is here. ... It's a slow walk; it's a dilatory act on an issue that is most pressing."
Reid's spokesman said there may be an announcement today on whether Democratic and Republican leaders will be able to reach an accord on limiting amendments to the bill. Reid Tuesday suggested that Republicans and Democrats could agree to offer a handful or so of amendments for each side, although Republicans have rejected that idea so far. "I think that's an outrage," Cornyn said before the floor protest. There have been no illusions even by leading supporters that the Senate bill -- which aims to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by about 70 percent by midcentury through an emissions cap-and-trade program -- would become law this year or has the support to get past a Senate filibuster. But the Senate debate was sought to perhaps work out some kinks heading into renewed discussion next year. "Next year, we're going to have a different Senate," Boxer said. But on the third day of the debate, the only vote cast was a successful initial procedural move Monday to limit further debate before officially bringing the bill up. A lobbyist closely following the talks said Reid today will "fill the amendment tree," or limit amendments to a select few that he signs off on, which would surely rile Republicans.
This article appeared in the Saturday, June 7, 2008 edition of National Journal Daily.
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