The bill is not dead but it’s in E.R., and on life-support. Today Senators John Kerry (D- Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and lone Republican Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), were set to release their energy and climate change bill. A legislation that enjoys support from key industry leaders, environmental groups, and unlike other key Obama legislation had some aura of bi-partisanship.
But on Friday night Senator Graham walked away from the bill over attempts by the Senate leadership and the White House to push through immigration reform over climate change and energy. This week immigration became a top priority after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) signed into law one of the country’s strictest immigration law on record. On Friday President Obama called the law “misguided.”
Graham, already vulnerable in his home state, partly because of his willingness to work with the White House on climate change and other key issues, wants climate change and energy to go ahead of immigration. The bill has been a year in the making and is obviously much farther along than any immigration reform bill.
In his letter he wrote:
“Expecting these major issues to be addressed in three weeks — which appears to be their [the White House] current plan based upon media reports — is ridiculous…. Let’s be clear, a phony, political effort on immigration today accomplishes nothing but making it exponentially more difficult to address in a serious, comprehensive manner in the future.”
From our perspective what’s hard to understand is why shake the deck, so close to the end-goal. While the 60 votes weren’t secured (yet), the Kerry -Lieberman -Graham legislation enjoyed wide industry support (ConocoPhilips was on board); It was bi-partisan, all factors that could have helped twist some arms to get to 60 during the floor debate.
At least for now pragmatic politics has won the day. Senator Reid faces a tough reelection in his home state of Nevada, which has a large Hispanic population. Pushing a comprehensive immigration reform with provisions that could legalize millions of illegal workers would play well with his Hispanic constituents.
In a statement released shortly after Graham’s letter, Reid downplayed the riff.
He wrote:
Immigration and energy reform are equally vital to our economic and national security and have been ignored for far too long. As I have said, I am committed to trying to enact comprehensive clean energy legislation this session of Congress. Doing so will require strong bipartisan support, and energy could be next if it’s ready. I have also said we will try to pass comprehensive immigration reform. This too will require bipartisan support and significant committee work that has not yet begun.”
Senators Graham, Kerry and Lieberman are expected to meet later today. Lieberman seemed optimistic, saying it should be sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a full economic analysis, a process that’s expected to take five weeks to do.
Supporters of the bill are angry, not Graham but at the White House and Reid. On CBS’s Face the Nation New York Times columnist Tom Friedman said the political gamesmanship played over the climate change bill was a “disaster,” and a “travesty.”
He added:
“The result is, right now … in Beijing, they are high-fiving each other… ‘Oh yeah baby. This means the Americans are going to be paralyzed on green tech for another couple of years. China is already leading the world now in wind production; China is already leading the world in solar production. Where industry goes, where research goes.’
Joe Romm on his Climate Progress blog wrote:
Obama cannot possibly be a successful president from a historical perspective if he doesn’t have a domestic climate bill, since that would essentially doom the chance for an international climate deal. Who really is going to care about accomplishments in banking regulations and immigration when they are suffering through Hell and High Water?