By Avery Palmer, CQ Staff

Bill:S 3036

Status: The Senate spent a week debating a bill to limit emissions that contribute to climate change. Lawmakers abandoned the bill, without considering any amendments, after failing to secure enough votes to limit debate.

Synopsis: The bill aimed to set a comprehensive national policy to address global warming. It included a cap on greenhouse gas emissions and a market-based trading program for companies to meet the cap. Its chief supporters were Sens. Barbara Boxer , D-Calif., Joseph I. Lieberman , I-Conn., and John W. Warner , R-Va. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which Boxer chairs, approved the bill late in 2007.

While the environmental community pushed hard for the bill, even supporters acknowledged it would be an uphill battle to secure Senate passage. The scope of the bill was vast, and opponents argued it would raise the price of energy during a summer of record-high gas prices. However, sponsors at least wanted to set the stage for a more serious debate in 2009.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., brought up the bill in early June. Almost immediately, the floor debate was caught up in procedural disputes. Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., could not reach an agreement over how many amendments to allow on the floor. McConnell then objected to a routine motion to dispense with reading the measure, forcing the Senate clerk to read the entire 500-page amendment aloud. The reason, McConnell said, was to protest the majority party’s handling of the unrelated confirmation process for appellate court nominees.

An attempt to invoke cloture and limit debate on the bill fell 12 short of the 60 votes needed. Boxer said absent senators who had declared their intentions to vote yes would have brought the total to 54.

Under the bill, the federal government would have collected trillions of dollars in fees from polluters over the coming decades to help pay for various clean-energy programs that would aid consumers. The bill also would have promoted renewables, encouraged efficiency and helped adapt to the impact of global warming.

The outlook in the House changed significantly at the end of the year, when Democrats voted to install Henry A. Waxman , D-Calif., as head of the Energy and Commerce Committee in the 111th Congress in place of John D. Dingell , D-Mich., who had promised to take up a bill but ended up moving slowly. Dingell held hearings on global warming legislation and released several policy papers for comment but did not mark up any legislation. In October 2008, Dingell released a draft bill as a starting point for debate in the next Congress.

Waxman is a strong ally of environmental groups, which can be expected to push hard to advance a global warming bill in 2009. He may struggle, however, to bring along moderate Democrats who worry about how a climate change bill will affect coal or manufacturing industries in their districts.

Legislative Action:

Senate rejected cloture motion to proceed to amendment on S 3036, 48-36, on June 6 (60 votes required).

Related stories: Waxman-Dingell fight, CQ Weekly, p. 3148; Senate bill stalls, p. 1544.