Climate Change

Senate Budget “Vote-a-Rama” Includes Several Key Climate Amendments

By

April 1, 2013

After a marathon voting session, the Senate narrowly (50-49) passed the budget resolution for fiscal year 2014 ( S.Con.Res.8 ) in the early hours of Saturday, March 23 – the first budget to pass the chamber in four years. Nearly 500 amendments were filed and a few dozen were voted on, with a handful of the votes offered perspective as to current opinion on federal climate change policies.

Amendments on the Keystone XL pipeline and climate change revealed divisions within the Democratic Party. An amendment offered by Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) to acknowledge the positive economic and employment benefits of the Keystone XL pipeline ( S.Amdt.494 ) won a symbolic victory when it passed 62 to 37. Seventeen Democrats split with their party to vote in favor of the Hoeven amendment.

Some from this group, including Senators Max Baucus (D-MT), Mark Begich (D-AK), Mark Warner (D-VA), Kay Hagan (D-NC), and Mark Pryor (D-AR), face potentially difficult reelection campaigns in 2014. However, several other Democrats not facing the same circumstances, such as Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Tom Carper (D-DE), also voted in favor of Sen. Hoeven’s amendment. An amendment offered by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to mandate further review of the Keystone XL pipeline ( S.Amdt.622 ) was defeated with a vote of 33 to 66, and prompted several of the same Democratic Senators to split with their party.

The Senate also rejected an amendment ( S.Amdt.646 ) offered by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to ensure that all revenue from a fee on carbon was returned to American citizens in the form of reduced tax rates or deficit reduction. Again, many of the nay votes included Democrats facing reelection in 2014, such as Senators Pryor, Baucus, Warner, Hagan, and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA). A total of 13 Democrats voted against Sen. Whitehouse’s amendment. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) offered an anti-carbon tax amendment to require any future carbon tax legislation to have a majority of 60 votes in order to pass ( S.Amdt.261 ). A procedural maneuver by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) required the amendment to garner 60 votes to be approved. The amendment only received 53 yea votes, but drew votes from eight Democrats.

An amendment introduced by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) to prohibit federal greenhouse gas emissions regulations ( S.Amdt.359 ) was also rejected by a vote of 47 to 52. Forty-four Republicans and three Democrats, including Senators Landrieu, Pryor, and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), voted in favor of the amendment. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who also faces re-election in 2014, was the only Republican to break rank and vote against Inhofe’s amendment. An amendment offered by Sen. Daniel Coats (R-ID) to exempt utilities that require extra time to comply from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Mercury and Air Toxins Standard (MATS) regulation ( S.Amdt.514 ), was voted down 46-53.

In a show of bipartisanship, an amendment introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) that requires that any carbon emissions standard is “cost effective, based on the best available science, and benefits low-income and middle class families” ( S.Amdt.706 ) passed with a unanimous vote. Similarly, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced an amendment ( S.Amdt.184 ) that would allow any American export to bypass greenhouse gas regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act. The Senate Democrats allowed the amendment to pass unanimously because they felt it was already the law.

The House passed a budget resolution for fiscal year 2014 ( H.Con.Res.25 ) on March 21. The House’s budget reduces funding for clean energy research and requires federal approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. The discrepancies between the House and Senate budgets are supposed to be worked out in conference this year. However, given the substantial differences between the two budgets, it is unclear whether the disparities will be resolved. President Barack Obama is slated to release his fiscal year 2014 budget April 10.

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