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CLIMATE: Rep. Hoyer not expecting House floor vote on global warming resolution

Submitted by Bill Becker on 17/May/2006

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by Darren Samuelsohn, E&E Daily senior reporter.

The second-ranking House Democrat yesterday downplayed chances of an unprecedented floor vote on global warming later this week and pre-emptively blamed Republicans leaders for squelching debate on the politically touchy subject.

"If they knock it out, it will be very unfortunate," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters in response to a question about a "Sense of the Congress" resolution on climate change added last week to the fiscal year 2007 spending bill for U.S. EPA and the Interior Department, H.R. 5386.

"Obviously, there is a faction of the Republican Party that is in denial about global warming," said Hoyer, adding that he expects the Rules Committee to leave the resolution vulnerable to procedural objections once it comes up for debate on the House floor.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), a staunch opponent of regulating heat-trapping greenhouse gases, has said he will oppose the resolution on procedural grounds when it comes up before the Rules Committee today. Barton will ask the panel to leave the language unprotected and subject to a point of order during tomorrow's floor debate.

While the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee will ask for the resolution to remain in the bill, there is little doubt the Rules panel will uphold Barton's objection. Jurisdiction is a key factor in such fights, especially when a request comes from the chairman of an authorizing committee, one House Republican aide said.

Advocates for the resolution are weighing whether to challenge Barton in a way that the debate would be about global warming rather than House procedure. While they have not settled on a strategy, one House Democratic aide said a resolution supporter could choose to debate Barton or other opponents on the floor. Proponents also could try to force a vote on Barton's procedural move.

"I would think that it would prevail," Hoyer said of a possible vote to keep the resolution in the spending bill. "I think that is why they didn't want to have a roll call vote in committee on it. That is why they don't want a vote on the floor, which is why they will try to not protect it."

The House Democratic aide also said a proponent could try to reject the House-approved rule for the bill on grounds that it dropped a resolution supported by the House Appropriations Committee. That move is unlikely to be successful, though, as rules are seldom defeated.

Environmentalists have added fuel to the issue by billing the House measure as a "Moment of Truth" on global warming. A spokesman for the global warming resolution's chief sponsor, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), said yesterday that posturing by environmental interest groups may not be helping their side of the debate.

"We're seeing the rhetoric get ramped up a bit," said George Behan, Dicks' spokesman. "I don't know if it's the wisest thing to do."

Behan said he was not sure if Dicks would ask for a vote once Barton or another member requests the measure's removal on the House floor. But he added, "Someone might. It's hard to imagine we wouldn't on an issue like this."

In the event there is a debate, Behan said the resolution's proponents would be justified in arguing that authorization measures often make it into annual spending bills. Also, he explained the resolution does not change U.S. policy.

The resolution is a nonbinding measure that acknowledges the threat of record levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. It also suggests the country enact a new policy that will not harm the U.S. economy and involves international trading partners. The Senate adopted a similar measure last summer by voice vote during debate on energy legislation.

Click here for the bill, H.R. 5386.


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