Grassley: Climate bill moving more quickly than GOP expected

The Senate's movement on climate change legislation is faster than Republicans had expected, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Tuesday.

"Yes, it is moving faster than we expected," Grassley said in a conference call with Iowa reporters this morning.

Grassley is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, one of the Senate committees expected to have an opportunity to mark-up the Senate climate bill, which would institute a cap-and-trade system of environmental regulation.

The Iowa Republican expressed concern at the swiftness at which the Senate bill had been moving, saying he hopes the process would proceed in a more "dignified" and "efficient" way.

"We felt that there's just a lot of issues that need to be brought up," he said. "We thought that if we had all of the committees that had something to do with it to let our questions to be raised and get some opportunities to have dialogue with the environment committee that it might proceed in a more dignified as well as efficient way."

Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where the climate bill is first being considered, have boycotted mark-ups in an effort to slow down and seek some changes to the bill.

Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had postponed consideration of the Senate bill, which complements a House version passed in late June, until after the August recess, dampening prospects for finishing the bill this year.

Since Congress reconvened this fall, though, Boxer has pressed forward with an aggressive schedule to move the Senate bill she co-authored with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).