Even though all GOP Members of the Senate EPW Committee boycotted the second day of mark-up, the bill still passed today. However, Senator Max Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee who will have hearings on the legislation next week voted "no." He cited the bill’s strict emissions standards as reasoning.
While may seem small to some, it is further evidence that Sen. Boxer cannot hold her Committee together. As I reported in the Washington Examiner, EPW has lost several staff members since she took over and her office lost one of the top climate experts citing he was left out of the drafting process.
To show their opposition to Boxer’s lack of transparency and her willingness to rush this bill through, not one GOP member was present.
Grover Norquist thanked the members for their leadership and dedication to stand for principle and said this in a letter to them:
What’s more, this is not a boycott for the sake of just saying “no.” Your stance was a principled and transparent refusal to consideration legislation until all of the facts are presented. As Ranking Member Inhofe put it, “We don’t have a full economic analysis.” The Senator continued in last weeks hearings noting, “This isn’t just my view…Lisa Jackson, the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] Administrator, when asked whether EPA had conducted a full analysis, she said, very clearly, ‘No’.”
Click here to view the PDF version of the letter sent to the Senate.