Weekly Political Roundup – Pin the Tail on the Climate Bill
Posted September 25, 2009 at 9:26 am 
Filed in: This week ended with two back-to-back announcements that highlighted the ongoing guessing game of if and when a climate change bill might pass this year. On the House side, Representative Ed Markey, co-author of the Waxman-Markey house climate change bill, vocalized the possibility that the climate bill will not be finished this year. Many here in Washington have thought that all along and many have doubted a timeline that envisioned a bill on the President’s desk before Copenhagen. With one of the champions of the legislation finally conceding as much, the writing seems to be on the wall regarding how this will all play out.
On the Senate side, Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry seem prepared to introduce the Senate version of the climate bill on September 30 with committee hearings in October. However, with the Senate Finance Committee being so focused on Healthcare, it is hard to imagine that they will be ready to take up another large, controversial bill in the next three weeks. As one K Street insider said, “they are introducing a bill … so what?”
As the Senate continues plodding through the FY2010 Appropriations Bills (there are six remaining, including time consuming bills like the Labor-Health-Education bill), the window of opportunity to take up climate in the timeline now laid out is shrinking (remember, Majority Leader Harry Reid set a deadline of September 28 for committees to be done with their portions of the bill, which was a push-back from earlier timelines he had established). In terms of sheer numbers, there are only 47 calendar business days until the start of the Copenhagen conference. Subtract Columbus Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving, and any recess time off during those weeks and the already-packed calendar of six appropriations bills, continuing resolution(s), because the spending measures will not all be done by the end of the fiscal year next week and healthcare, and there’s just little time to address climate this year.
Inside sources indicate that the House will move on healthcare in the next two weeks, which will occupy that entire side of the Hill for several weeks. While they have passed all of their appropriations bills, they will still have floor time eaten up when the conference reports for those bills are ready.
The bottom line is that, while December seems a long way off, in congressional terms, it is a little over a month away. If they want to make a statement to the international community that the United States is willing to make a commitment to addressing global climate change, the Senate should take up the Energy and Natural Resources bipartisan energy bill. There is time to get that bill done and for the world to see the United States at least taking the steps necessary to get to a bill next year — a “down payment.” Passing the energy bill while climate works its way through the committee process is a win-win and should be done before the calendar clicks down and we have nothing to show in December.
Tags: climate, House, Legislation, Senate
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