Republican Senate environment committee chief John Barrasso on Tuesday blocked a Democratic effort to establish a select committee on climate change, saying it would undermine his panel’s jurisdiction.
“We don’t need another committee, we don’t need the Green New Deal,” Barrasso said, stopping Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s attempt to hold a vote on establishing the special climate committee on the Senate floor.
Schumer had proposed the select committee as a way to end the partisan fights over the Green New Deal and come together in bipartisan fashion to address the climate issue.
Schumer argued for the panel ahead of a test vote on the progressive Green New Deal resolution on Tuesday afternoon. He had introduced a resolution establishing the select committee earlier this month, urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to schedule a stand-alone vote on the resolution.
The select committee would be devoted to examining the costs of failing to address climate change. The Democratically-controlled House recently established a special select committee on climate change.
“Climate change is an existential threat to our country and out planet,” Schumer said. “The least we can do is what the House has done.”
Barrasso, who represents Wyoming, suggested that the climate change panel is a ploy to undermine the Republican-held majority’s control over the Environment and Public Works Committee that he chairs. The environment committee has primary jurisdiction over climate change.
“Adding a layer of bureaucracy is not the answer to every problem,” Barrasso said. “It’s the same thinking that gave us the Green New Deal.”
The Green New Deal resolution is a broadly-worded call to action on climate change, but lacks specificity. Republicans argue that it would harm the U.S. economy by placing huge cost burdens on consumers.
In Tuesday’s vote on the Green New Deal, most Democrats chose to vote “present” instead of taking a position on the resolution.
Republicans accused Democrats of trying to duck the vote because it would show they are in favor of raising costs on consumers.
The final roll call vote on the resolution was 0 to 57.
