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Politico...
Lights out
for GOP energy agenda?
By Darren Samuelsohn
7/10/11
House
Republicans will bow to their
tea party base on Monday by bringing up legislation to save the
incandescent
light bulb.
But
for those keeping score at home,
the proposal that reflects the catcalls of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck
and
Michele Bachmann is likely to land in the same dustbin now home to many
other
GOP energy proposals.
Republicans
say Senate gridlock is the
primary reason none of their big energy ideas has reached President
Barack
Obama’s desk.
But
the symbolic posturing behind much
of the GOP agenda has left the majority with few accomplishments beyond
bringing Styrofoam cups back to House cafeterias.
“After
six months, you’d hope you get down
to legislating,” said Rep. Gene Green, a Texas Democrat who has tried
to work
with Republicans on several energy bills.
California
Democratic Rep. Henry
Waxman poked at the Republicans last month by noting that out of the
417 bills
and resolutions referred to the Energy and Commerce Committee, the
GOP-led
panel approved just 12. And none has made it to the president.
“The
fact of the matter is that this
committee has accomplished virtually nothing since January,” said
Waxman,
former chairman of the panel who co-authored cap-and-trade and health
care
bills during the past Congress.
Citing
a controversial House-passed
bill that would negate the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific
declaration that global warming poses threats to public health and
welfare,
Waxman added, “This committee room has become an alternative universe
where the
laws of nature cease to exist.”
Republicans
have their own
frustrations with the lack of big accomplishments. But they say they
intend to
keep pushing bills that fly in the face of the Obama administration’s
environmental agenda, even if their proposals stand little chance of
passing in
the narrowly divided Senate or getting the president’s signature.
One
of the top GOP lieutenants on
Energy and Commerce, Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, also warned that
Senate
inaction on the bills could become a problem for Democrats in 2012.
“We’re
going to pass bills to try to
slow them down, to try to stop them and make it an issue in the 2012
elections,
and the mere fact the Senate isn’t moving is not going to stop us,”
Whitfield
said.
The
light bulb legislation — set to
come up under a suspension-of-the-rules procedure that requires
two-thirds
support and allows for no amendments — is the latest example of
Republicans
pushing a measure that addresses conservative demands but stands little
chance
of winning support from both the Democrat-led Senate and Obama.
Read
the rest of the story at Politico
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