U.S. Senate
Climate’s 17 Undecided Dems Got $2.3M From Transport & Electric Lobbies
The trouble with broad analysis pieces on campaign cash is that they often go for eye-popping numbers while obscuring uncomfortable political realities. For example, Greenwire reported this morning that the 27 senators who remain undecided on the chamber's pending climate bill took "more than $20 million ... over the past two decades from energy interests with a direct stake in pending legislation."
November 30, 2009
‘This Needs Attention’: Senators Seek Shot in the Arm on Transportation
Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and fellow lawmakers today pressed the Obama administration to take a more active role in ending the current political stalemate over federal transportation funding, but the sense of urgency they sought emerged only intermittently during an 80-minute session on infrastructure.
November 18, 2009
3 GOPers, 4 Dems Ask Reid to Call Up Six-Month Transport Bill Extension
The senior Republicans on three of the Senate's four infrastructure-centric committees today signed a bipartisan letter asking the leaders of Congress' upper chamber to call up a six-month extension of the 2005 transportation law.
November 17, 2009
Coal-Burning Electric Utilities Still Commanding Dem Senators’ Attention
As reported here yesterday, transportation is a close second to electric power generation in the not-so-great race to become the nation's fastest-rising source of emissions.
November 13, 2009
Grassley: ‘Two or Three Other’ Republicans Open to Climate Change Deal
The Senate's propensity for filibusters, delay, and fruitless attempts at bipartisan deal-making is earning it quite the reputation these days. And climate change legislation, with its big-ticket implications for transit and urban development in general, is becoming increasingly caught up in the Senate's peripatetic politics.
November 10, 2009
Why Urban Residents Have a Bone to Pick With Vitter and Bennett
In a development that flew largely under the radar on Thursday, the Senate beat back an attempt by David Vitter (R-LA) and Bob Bennett (R-UT) to add a citizenship question to the 2010 U.S. Census, with the goal of no longer counting non-citizens as part of states' official populations.
November 10, 2009
Senate’s Next Climate Hearing to Feature Big Oil-Backed Critics
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) may have voted against the Senate environment committee's climate bill yesterday, but The New Republic picked up on some pretty optimistic (for Washington) rhetoric from him on the issue this morning:
November 6, 2009
How Important is a United Front on the Climate Bill?
As fans of clean transportation and sustainable development join the push for a strong climate change bill to emerge from Congress, it's worth remembering that not all environmental groups support the approach congressional Democrats have chosen.
November 5, 2009
Boxer Okays Senate Climate Bill, Without Amendments or GOP
The Senate environment committee approved its climate change bill today on an 11-1 vote, shrugging off a boycott by all of the panel's Republicans but missing out on the chance to consider amendments to the lengthy legislation.
November 5, 2009
Kerry: There’s a Narrow Window For GOP Cooperation on Pricing Pollution
The chief sponsor of the Senate climate change bill acknowledged today that there is a narrow window for Republican cooperation on the legislation, thanks to GOP resistance to its central goal -- putting a price on CO2 emissions.
November 4, 2009