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A weekly update on bills that CQ's editors are tracking.
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Previous Stories
| Partisan Battle Threatens to Derail Climate Bill |
November 3, 2009 |
by Congressional Quarterly
Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works panel tried Tuesday morning to overcome a partisan standoff that could derail a major climate bill even before the committee votes.
But despite tentative overtures by each side, the feud appears to be continuing.
Committee Republicans followed through on a threat to boycott Tuesday morning’s session, saying they won’t begin work on the bill until they see a full cost analysis of the measure, which would cap greenhouse gas emissions and establish a market for trading government-issued pollution allowances.
Chairwoman Barbara Boxer , D-Calif., appears ready to carry through on a threat to break with normal procedures and move the bill through committee without them – a move the panel’s ranking Republican, Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, called a “nuclear option.”
One Republican, George V. Voinovich of Ohio, did appear at the committee meeting, offering a lengthy plea to Boxer to delay the markup until the EPA completes a complete cost analysis that it says would take about five weeks. “This is not a stalling tactic,” he said. “It is not a ruse to delay marking up a climate bill. This is an attempt to get the best information about a bill that will affect the entire country.”
But Boxer and other committee Democrats were unmoved, arguing they have already provided more than enough analysis of the legislation. The EPA, Congressional Budget Office and Energy Information Administration have all produced lengthy cost analyses of the House-passed climate bill, which Boxer called “90 percent the same” as the Senate bill.
Sheldon Whitehouse , D-R.I., said, “we are very close to a completely accurate estimate. People might say, ‘Why not wait?’ Because as soon as you amend it, you change it again. What are they going to do, wait five weeks to analyze each amendment?”
Boxer told the committee that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., has promised a full, detailed cost analysis of the final climate change bill that he will assemble from versions approved by the Environment committee and other Senate panels.
| GOP Sticks to Plans of Boycott as Boxer Preps Climate Bill for Markup |
November 2, 2009 |
by Congressional Quarterly
Partisan politics threaten to derail progress on a Senate climate change bill, even before the first committee markup.
Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee say they will carry through on threats to boycott markups on the bill, which panel Chairwoman Barbara Boxer had wanted to begin Tuesday.
The Republicans — led by Oklahoma’s James Inhofe, the Environment panel’s ranking GOP member and the Senate’s most vocal climate change skeptic — say they will not be present at the Tuesday session.
Because two members of the minority party must attend in order for a markup to proceed, Boxer has scheduled a “committee business meeting” — an apparent procedural gambit designed to allow work without a GOP quorum.
“The committee Republicans should rethink their approach. As long as they refuse to come to work, they are not participating in one of the most important issues facing our generation,” Boxer said in a statement Monday.
“We urge ranking member Inhofe, with the utmost respect, to bring the committee Republicans back to work on this issue. We will give them the opportunity, as we proceed this week, to reconsider their decision. We look forward to working with them if they decide to participate, but if they do not, we will move forward in accordance with the rules of the Senate and of this committee.”
The panel has a 12-7 Democratic majority and can easily approve a bill without any Republican support. But observers say the development of a partisan rift so early in the legislative process could threaten the bill’s prospects on the Senate floor, where it is unlikely to pass without some Republican support.
“It’s not the best gesture,” said Chelsea Maxwell, a partner at the Clark Group LLC, an environmental lobbying firm, and a senior climate adviser to former Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va. (1979-2009), last year’s lead Republican cosponsor of a Senate climate change bill. “It’s going to make it very difficult to convince the fence-sitting Republicans that they will be treated with respect if they come to the table,” she said.
“It’s going to hurt things,” said Robert Dillon, a spokesman for Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski , a moderate Democrats are likely to court. “What’s needed is a serious debate and a look at all the issues. Sen. Boxer’s way of going about this is not winning any converts.”
| Democratic Split on Abortion is Obstacle to Health Bill |
October 30, 2009 |
by Congressional Quarterly
A showdown is shaping up among Democrats as abortion foes press House leaders to change the health care bill to explicitly ban abortion funding, or at least permit a floor vote on the issue.
The effort led by Bart Stupak of Michigan and Daniel Lipinski of Illinois could have far-reaching implications for the fate of the legislation when the House takes up the health care overhaul late next week.
Stupak, who has been at the forefront of a group of several dozen anti-abortion Democratic dissidents, said he would likely vote against a rule providing for floor action on the health care overhaul bill if party leaders do not come his way.
“I’ve got to have somewhere to responsibly express my opinion and that of my district,” Stupak said.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland points to the abortion disagreement as perhaps the most important unresolved issue as he prepares to move the measure to the floor.
Stupak said he would look for ways to work with Republicans, if necessary, and moderate senators including Bob Casey of Pennsylvania to override the decision by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., to omit an outright ban on abortion funding from the legislation she unveiled Thursday.
The anti-abortion Democrats want to win language that would essentially extend the existing abortion funding ban known as the “Hyde amendment” to the new and expanded programs that would be created by the health care overhaul. The language for the current abortion funding ban was developed by the late Rep. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois (1975-2007).
Mindful that abortion is a politically divisive issue within her caucus, Pelosi and her leadership team have sought to promote a compromise, but the anti-abortion Democrats consider it to be too weak.
The compromise language is similar to current restrictions on the use of federal Medicaid funds. The provision would ensure that federal dollars are kept in separate accounts when they flow into health insurance plans, and that federal accounts could not be used to fund an abortion.
| House Democrats Rally Around Health Care Package |
October 29, 2009 |
by Congressional Quarterly
House Democratic leaders on Thursday introduced their long-awaited health care overhaul package, as rank-and-file party members appeared to be rallying behind the proposal.
The nearly 2,000-page legislation aims to extend health coverage to 96 percent of all Americans once it is fully implemented.
It contains a public insurance option that would have the government negotiate rates with health care providers, along with a mandate that individuals obtain coverage and that businesses offer it. It would be financed in part by a surtax on the wealthiest Americans.
Early indications were that Democrats across the ideological spectrum were lining up behind the main health care measure, which was assembled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., and her team.
Republicans, as expected, uniformly denounced the legislation. Not a single GOP member is expected to vote for it.
Earl Pomeroy , D-N.D., a centrist who had been wary of any public option that would link health care provider payments to Medicare rates, said he will support the current bill and predicted it will pass the House.
Liberals who had wanted the “robust” public plan opposed by Pomeroy and his allies also appeared ready to fall in line. President Obama invited dozens of them to the White House this afternoon to urge them to support the bill.
“Our people in this country need health care reform,” said Mary Jo Kilroy , D-Ohio. “I prefer the plan that costs less and covers more people, but we need to get a bill done.”
The final bill is estimated to cost about $894 billion over 10 years, meeting Obama’s demand for a price tag or no more than $900 billion.
The legislation would be paid for largely by a surtax on the adjusted gross income of individuals making more than $500,000 and married couples making more than $1 million. The bill contains new revenue-raisers that would impose tax-compliance requirements on businesses and create a 2.5 percent excise tax on certain medical devices.
The legislation is likely to be on the House floor late next week.
| Senate Stalls Over Amendments to Jobless Benefits Bill |
October 28, 2009 |
by Congressional Quarterly
Senate leaders remained at an impasse Wednesday over adding tax provisions to a bill that would extend unemployment insurance benefits to millions of jobless workers.
The measure would provide 14 additional weeks of unemployment aid in all 50 states. People in states with jobless rates exceeding 8.5 percent would get an additional six weeks of benefits. Currently, 27 states, along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, would qualify as high-unemployment states.
A bipartisan group of senators has basically agreed on the substance of amendments to extend and expand the first-time homebuyer tax credit and to provide tax breaks to money-losing businesses.
But Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., remained at loggerheads on what other amendments the chamber might consider. Republicans have been pushing for amendments on the community group ACORN and on the E-Verify system that checks potential employees’ immigration status.
Reid called those amendments “vexatious,” “argumentative,” and “not relevant.”
Over the past few days, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus , D-Mont., has been working with Republicans to craft a consensus amendment covering the home-buying credit and an expansion of the net operating loss carryback break for businesses. Both are strongly backed by industry groups.
The current first-time homebuyer credit of up to $8,000 was created in the stimulus law enacted early this year and is set to expire Nov. 30. A compromise version is expected to reduce the maximum tax credit to about $7200, boost income eligibility limits for taxpayers hoping to claim the credit and make it available to existing home owners who’ve owned their homes at least five years.
The stimulus law also contained a net operating-loss carryback provision, but limited it to small businesses. Money-losing companies of all sizes have been pressing for an expansion of that measure all year. Under current law, qualifying businesses can apply this year’s losses to two prior years of taxable profits, obtaining immediate refunds. Businesses want to be able to apply current losses to five years’ prior profits.
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