Congressional Democrats left town last week for their two-week spring recess still celebrating the passage of President Barack Obama’s budget blueprint, but they will return to face their toughest legislative battles since winning the majority in 2006.
And much of the fighting will be within their own party, beginning with a proposal to introduce a cap-and-trade program that would require power and manufacturing plants to pay more for emitting pollutants.
“I do know that behind the scenes there are serious disagreements taking place,” said Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss.
When the House and Senate passed budget resolutions last week, they left out the specifics on how to combat global warming and make health care more affordable and accessible, which in Obama’s budget was accomplished with a cap-and-trade program and tax increases to serve as a down payment on health care reform.
But passing anything close to Obama’s blueprint won’t be easy.
The House and Senate plan to introduce separate legislation on health care and energy, beginning with an energy bill House leaders hope will be ready for a vote in late May followed by a health care debate beginning in June.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., has written an energy bill that includes a global warming tax and a requirement that power companies get a quarter of their energy from renewable sources within 15 years. His bill would also increase the fuel economy standards in U.S. cars.
But the bill in its current form is already unpopular, particularly with members from parts of the country where energy is already expensive, like the East and West coasts, or derived mostly from coal-fired plants.
“Will I vote for anything that would increase utility rates?” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio. “No, I can’t.”
Any initiative that raises electricity rates will be almost impossible to pass in the Senate, where a 60-vote threshold must be met.
Democrats control only 58 seats and face significant defections from their own party.
“I’m not for cap and trade,” Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said last week.
Waxman acknowledged the lack of consensus.
“We are going to try to talk through the issues with Democrats and Republicans to try to get them to understand the importance of energy reform not only for the world, but for their own districts,” Waxman told The Examiner.
A top aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House may work on the energy bill and health care simultaneously and whichever gets the most support will go first to the floor for a vote.
Health care will likely win that race because it will have special fast-track rules permitting Democrats to push it through the Senate with a simple majority instead of the 60-vote supermajority.
But if Democrats use that procedure, it will bring vocal objections from both Republicans and some Democrats because it will essentially shut the minority out of the debate.
And Democrats have yet to figure out how to pay for their health care plan. In Obama’s budget, tax increases on the wealthy, including the elimination of some charitable tax deductions, provided a down payment on health care reform. But Democrats don’t like those options.
“That’s one of the challenges,” Waxman acknowledged.
