Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., are planning a strategy to obtain a filibuster-proof majority for the climate change bill, Environment and Energy Daily reported. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will begin three days of hearings today into the chairman's mark of the climate change bill proposed by Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., ranking member on Boxer's committee, said Republicans may use "the quorum leverage" to obstruct bill markup "if we get stonewalled" by committee Democrats. Meanwhile, Kerry said the six committees reviewing the bill needed to have deadlines in order "to get anything done" and complete work on the bill by Thanksgiving.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., resisted the prospect of a deadline for the six committees. Lincoln was quoted as saying: "We've got a lot on our plate. If they expect to get it all done and done correctly, deadlines are not a good way to get there."
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