In a conference call this afternoon, House Republicans seemed to
be enjoying the
Democratic turf war over the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade
bill. The bill was approved by the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, chaired by Henry Waxman, but other committees have
been balking. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie
Rangel has objected to a quick floor vote; Agriculture Committee
Chairman Collin Peterson has threatened to vote the bill down in
committee. All this caused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to set a
June 19 deadline for moving the bill, unless the committees want
to risk losing their jurisdiction.
All parties have since cooled. Pelosi has said June 19 isn't a
"hard deadline." Rangel has said he'll try to stay on Pelosi's
schedule. And Peterson says he wants to make the bill "workable"
rather than defeat it outright. But only Waxman has embraced
Pelosi's deadline.
Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Lee Terry (R-Neb.), and Bob
Latta (R-Ohio) chortled over the Democratic divisions but also
continued to pound away at the substance of the "cap-and-tax"
bill. McCarthy zinged Waxman for having "admitted he has no idea
what's in the bill." Terry described the "misinformation put out
by the two authors of the bill," though he described them as
"good people, I like to chat with them." Latta focused on the
impact on manufacturing. "My district lives and dies by energy,"
he said.
All three of them concentrated on the cap-and-trade price tag of
at least $1,600 per household, rising in the out years. Latta
complained cap-and-trade was "more about raising money than
reducing CO2. They've gotta have money for all the things they
want to do." They were also unanimous in believing that
cap-and-trade was now Nancy Pelosi's top legislative priority.
