CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
June 25, 2009 – 9:15 p.m.
Climate Bill Rides Last-Minute Blitz
By Coral Davenport and Avery Palmer, CQ Staff
After a day of intense lobbying that included personal intervention by President Obama, House Democratic leaders predict they have the votes to pass sweeping climate change legislation on Friday.
The scheduled vote is a test of Speaker Nancy Pelosi ’s ability to deliver on a cornerstone of Obama’s agenda.
Both critics and supporters agree that the legislation (
“It’s close, but right now we’re at the 218 mark,” said G.K. Butterfield , D-N.C., an Energy and Commerce Committee member who is working to rally support for the bill. “It was very close earlier today, but the president has been on the phone with some members. Folks are coming off the fence. Folks who have been procrastinating on this are realizing they will have to make up their minds. I predict we will have 230.”
The White House, which portrays the bill as a jobs-creation measure, spent the day trying to win over moderates who remain concerned that putting a price on carbon emissions would drive up utility costs and hurt consumers and manufacturers.
House Democrats met Thursday morning with senior White House adviser David Axelrod, whose message was direct.
“The message was: Pass the bill,” said House Rules Chairwoman Louise M. Slaughter , D-N.Y.
Throughout the day, senior White House officials, including energy and environment policy coordinator Carol M. Browner and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel , worked the phones to persuade undecided Democrats, such as Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey, Ron Kind of Wisconsin and Allen Boyd of Florida.
Tim Walz of Minnesota said he and six other second-term Democrats met on Thursday with Emanuel.
A few who said they had not made up their minds were “tapped on the shoulder” and taken in to speak to the president, Walz said. Other Democrats at that meeting included Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, Ron Klein of Florida, Baron P. Hill and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Yvette D. Clarke of New York and Betty Sutton of Ohio.
Luau at the White House
By early afternoon, the president himself had stepped in. Bowing to requests from bill supporters to throw his own popularity behind the legislation, Obama delivered a speech urging fence-sitters to support the bill.
“We cannot be afraid of the future, and we can’t be prisoners of the past,” Obama said. “We’ve been talking about this issue for decades, and now is the time to act.”
The president hosted a Hawaiian-style luau for lawmakers Thursday evening on the south lawn of the White House, providing an opportunity to cajole lingering undecideds over spit-roasted pork and pineapple.
Butterfield called the timing of the White House social event “very helpful.”
Former Vice President Al Gore, whose efforts to publicize the risks of global warming won him both an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize, had been scheduled to address a Democratic whip session on the bill Thursday afternoon. Pelosi, D-Calif., canceled the event, with Democratic aides explaining that Gore could be more effective calling lawmakers individually.
Opponents of the bill, however, speculated that Gore’s presence could evoke the unwelcome specter of the 1993 “BTU vote.” Then-Vice President Gore urged House members to support an energy tax that later died in the Senate, which was thought to have contributed to the 1994 defeat of several House Democrats who had voted for it.
Republicans and business groups opposed to the climate change bill continued to make the argument Thursday that it would drive up costs to consumers and businesses and would lose American jobs.
“Mark my words: The American people will remember this vote,” said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, who vowed to make the energy legislation a campaign issue. “The American people will remember this vote of this Congress.”
But efforts to portray the bill as an “energy tax” were blunted by a Congressional Budget Office report earlier this week that projected the annual per-household cost of the legislation would be $175 in 2020. That is far less than Republican projections of an annual cost of $3,000 per family.
Wooing Republican Moderates
While most Republicans remained opposed to the bill, Pelosi and Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman , D-Calif., intensified efforts to reach out a group of about 11 moderate Republicans.
Former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y. (1983-2007), who is now a renewable-energy lobbyist for the Accord Group, was also on Capitol Hill to press for votes.
“In the environmental world, you’ve heard of the dirty dozen?” Boehlert said. “These are the enlightened eleven.”
Boehlert said the target group of moderate Republicans includes Michael N. Castle of Delaware, Vernon J. Ehlers of Michigan, Mark Steven Kirk of Illinois, Leonard Lance of New Jersey, Frank A. LoBiondo of New Jersey, Tom Petri of Wisconsin and Dave Reichert of Washington.
Whips for the bill said Thursday that they still did not have a final vote count, though they were cautiously optimistic they would have enough votes to win.
“More and more of the undecideds are moving into one or the other column,” said Gerald E. Connolly , D-Va., who was rounding up votes for the measure. “We’re in the final stages of getting to a majority vote.”
But some of those undecided Democrats are moving into the “no” column. Jim Matheson , D-Utah, said he would vote against the bill because the bill’s distribution of emissions allowances would disadvantage his state.
Boehner said he thought Democrats were still short of a majority and that Pelosi was running out of options because almost every member had made up his or her mind on the bill.
Edward Epstein contributed to this story.
Comments
I support the energy bill before congress and I hope both democrats and republicans wake up and vote for this bill which will reduce carbon emissions and create a cap and trade system and make the electric compaines make the switch to renewable energy sources. Both political parties like they don't want to do anything regarding the future of our country as long as the oil compaines get richer and greeder. In the end it is all about the money and how much money can be ripped off the backs of the taxpayers. Both parties mostly republicans don't care about this country as long as the money keeps flowing in for them. I hope the democrats get a backbone and the republicans stop with their party of no ideas and come together and do something anything about this energy crisis so the electric compaines will be required to lower their rates so the poor and middle-class american does not have to pay a two hundred dollar electric bill instead of what it should be if they were not getting away with rasing people's electric bills it should be one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars a month. Again I hope they are serious about this cause I know I am and the american people are as well.
What we don't need is a solution to a problem that does not exist. The science is still out, with increasing evidence that the globe is cooling, not warming. We don't need the increases in energy costs, the brownouts and blackouts, the unemployment, the increases in all consumer prices and the exporting of jobs and industry overseas that this bill would cause.
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