Thursday, April 15, 2010

Creative Senate Procedure Developed on Climate Legislation

A deal has been structured to give Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., control of the Senate climate bill when it is unveiled by its three sponsors next week, Environment and Energy Daily reported. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, ID-Conn., said he and Sens. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., want to put it into Reid's hands to manage its progress through the Senate. Lieberman said that strategy will let Reid "work with it and bring it out onto the floor as a leader whenever he's ready."

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., a member of the Senate Budget Committee, quickly criticized the run-around as a "new concept in the legislative flow chart." Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., added that her alternative climate bill was available for review already, while "the other thing is something that's still out there still being massaged."

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said: "I would say to those who have been working on climate change and blocking our ability to bring an energy bill to the floor of the Senate, I hope perhaps we could find a way to work together to bring the energy bill to the floor. That's the way the Senate works. The Senate works by running things through a committee."

- Related stories also appeared in the National Journal and the Washington Examiner.