by Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama’s climate-change agenda
was thrown into turmoil over the weekend after a key Republican abruptly pulled
his support for a compromise energy and climate bill. Sen. Lindsey Graham
(R-S.C.) abandoned what Democrats said was a painstakingly negotiated climate
bill, saying he was outraged over a decision by Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid (D-Nev.) to move forward on an immigration bill first.
White House officials appeared to be taken aback by the
move, unsure how to respond to the unraveling of a major component of the
president’s strategy both for meeting his international pledges on climate
change and shifting the U.S. economy from its heavy reliance on foreign oil.
“We need and we welcome that cooperation from Sen.
Graham. … There is no either/or between energy and immigration reform,”
said Lawrence Summers, the head of the White House National Economic Council.
“Even though immigration reform and energy reform are
both crucial issues for the business community, there has been an enormous back
pressure against the kind of bipartisan cooperation that Sen. Graham has
engaged in, and that perhaps has made this a more complex situation, more
difficult for him than it would otherwise be,” Summers said on CBS’s Face
the Nation.
“But we are prepared to go ahead vigorously with any
partner who wants to join us on both energy reform and immigration legislation
because we think gridlock needs to end,” he said.
Reid’s sudden shift in legislative priorities comes as
Democrats face an increasingly hostile climate in November midterm elections.
Obama won 67 percent of the Hispanic vote in the 2008 presidential elections,
but Hispanics have grown impatient with the administration as immigration
reform has been sidelined by other priorities.
Ironically, Graham and Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of
New York had hammered out an immigration reform bill that would lay the path to
legalization for millions of illegal immigrants, reinforce border controls, and
create a process to admit temporary workers and produce biometric Social
Security cards.
But in a letter Saturday, Graham accused the administration
of putting “partisan, political objectives” ahead of the energy bill,
warning that “moving forward on immigration—in this hurried, panicked
manner—was nothing more than a cynical political ploy.”
Graham’s partners in crafting the climate bill, Democratic
Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) and independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Conn.), called
off plans to introduce it on Monday as they regrouped.
Kerry warned that this year was “our best and perhaps
last chance” for Congress to pass a comprehensive reform bill that
encompassed both climate change and energy. “We have no choice but to act
this year. The American people deserve better than for the Senate to defer this
debate or settle for an energy-only bill that won’t get the job done,” he
said.
He credited Graham with helping to build “an
unprecedented coalition of stakeholders from the environmental community and
the industry who have been prepared to stand together behind a proposal. That
can’t change. We can’t allow this moment to pass us by.”
But Republicans questioned whether either the climate or immigration
reform should be brought to a vote at a time when Congress has its hands full
with reforming the regulation of the U.S. financial system and major pending
appropriations bills.
“I’m not sure how you can really justify bringing
either one of them up at this point,” Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby
Chambliss told CNN’s State of the Union.
“I mean, we’ve got a budget to deal with. We’ve got a lot of work left on
our plate between now and the rest of the summer.”
Summers also suggested that climate bill-immigration reform
flap was a distraction for the administration. “Frankly, for our part,
what’s really overwhelmingly important is that financial reform pass as soon as
possible as the next step,” he said.
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