Senators Tuesday blocked the Democratic Green New Deal resolution in a procedural vote the GOP called up in order to showcase the radical plan to end the use of fossil fuels and address climate change.
Most Senate Democrats voted “present” rather than in favor of the resolution, even though many of them said they support the framework of the measure. The resolution calls for the United States to end greenhouse gas emissions and transition to renewable energy in the coming decades.
No senators voted to advance the resolution, while 57 voted no, including a handful of Democrats: Doug Jones of Alabama, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, also voted no.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he brought up the measure for a vote in order to get Senate Democrats to publicly indicate where they stand on the resolution, which he labeled “a radical, top-down, socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy.”
Republicans have seized on the resolution as 2020 talking point on the Democratic agenda.
In a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans Tuesday, President Trump urged Republicans to keep the Green New Deal a focus because he believes it will help the GOP in the 2020 elections.
The measure has the backing of the half-dozen Senate Democrats running for president.
Democrats used the debate to try turn the tables on the GOP and accuse them of ignoring a looming climate disaster.
“The president and Senate Republicans refuse to acknowledge these basic truths,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is running for president. “They routinely dismiss the facts of basic climate change. Refusing to believe them doesn’t mean they will go away.”
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., called the vote “a chance to show whether they support this radical approach” and said Democrats “are ducking” by voting present.
Rising freshman star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduced the measure in the House in February, but only about a third of the caucus is officially backing it, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has no plans to bring it up.
The measure calls for implementing policies that have nothing to do with the climate and would instead address racial injustices and income inequality, among other social issues.
Democrats have defended the resolution as “aspirational,” and one that will help shift more attention to the need to address climate change.
Democrats called the vote and debate on the resolution “fake” and “a sham” that ignores addressing the climate change threat in earnest. But McConnell scoffed at their anger in a floor speech before the vote.
“I have to say, it’s remarkable enough to see a major political party coalesce around a proposal to forcibly remake the entire country according to what’s fashionable in Brooklyn and San Francisco,” McConnell said. “But it is even more stunning to see my colleagues so angry and upset at the opportunity to back up their new philosophy with their votes.”
