Boxer hints at mark-up for climate change bill in early November

Committee hearings on the Senate climate change bill will begin late this month, with mark-ups beginning one or two weeks afterwards, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Tuesday.

Boxer, the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, announced hearings on the climate bill starting October 27th. featuring cabinet secretaries and other Obama administration officials. Boxer crafted the climate bill with Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.).

Hearings will last Tuesday through Thursday of that week, and feature testimony from Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, along with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Jon Wellinghoff.

Boxer also suggested that mark-ups would begin shortly afterwards, in early November.

"Clearly, we're on track to move as quickly as we can," Boxer said during a press conference. "So I think it would be fair to say that Senator Boxer and Senator Cardin hope that the bill will be marked the next week or the week after, after the hearings."

Boxer refused to give an exact date for the beginning of mark-ups, fearing some delays.

She did say that the opportunity may be extended, though, to several other Senate chairmen -- such as Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Agriculture Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) -- to mark up provisions in the climate bill over which they claim jurisdiction, though she left it up to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to determine when, how much, and for how long the bill would be allowed to the other committees for mark-up.

The timeline for the Senate's climate bill had been pushed back by Boxer until after the August congressional recess amidst signs that the bill was lacking some support within her own party. The House passed its own version of the cap-and-trade legislation in a close, late June vote.

Senators from Midwestern and other manufacturing-intensive states have been reluctant to sign onto the climate bill so far, citing concerns over how the new emissions regulations might tilt the balance of trade in manufactured goods toward countries with less restrictive climate rules. A bloc of Democratic senators, led by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), has sought assistance to U.S. manufacturers in the bill.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), along with Kerry, have been also working on negotiations with senators from coal-producing states, Boxer said, to ameliorate concerns that the climate bill would disproportionately harm their home-state industries.

"We have made tremendous progress on the coal issue," Boxer said. "And we'll let you know as soon as we can about exactly what we decide to do."

Boxer said she was working to make sure all 60 Senate Democrats support the climate bill she and Kerry have been working on.

"My goal is to get every single Democrat, yes, without a doubt I'm working on that," she said, cautioning also that any defections would not be cause for delay.

She said she was "absolutely working to get every Democrat to vote for it, very optimistic that that will happen, and hoping to move to markup right away."