Energy & Environment

Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said today that the GOP should be embarrassed by House Republicans' votes for the farm bill.

100 Republicans voted for the bill, which Toomey says is full of "egregious" spending measures. The bill passed with a large enough majority to override a veto; the White House has repeatedly threatened to veto the bill over its tax provisions.

House Republicans today unveiled their "American Families Agenda," a range of proposals including 47 bills that, Republicans say, would update laws to reflect the needs of modern families.

The agenda's premise is that American families have changed since the 1950s: more single parents and working mothers have meant a new set of needs for families -- needs laws should address.

The agenda includes bills to increase domestic energy production, train underprivileged women under the Small Business Administration, allow workers to trade overtime for time off, provide tax credits for health insurance, and increase penalties on sex offenders.

House Republican Conference Vice Chair Kay Granger (Texas), who spearheaded the agenda, says it will assure five solutions for families: healthcare and retirement security, access to education, protection for children from predators, support for military families, and more time and money (including lower energy costs, assistance for small businesses, and facilitation of taking time off work).

Granger unveiled the agenda at a press conference this afternoon with House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (Fla.), House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.), and other Republican House members.

See Granger's release here.

Oil executives have been asked to return to Congress later this month to testify on rising oil prices.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today called top executives from Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP America, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips to testify before his committee Wed., May 21 on "the skyrocketing price of oil."

The hearing will examine oil's effect on gas prices, in addition to "speculation and manipulation of the oil commodity market, anticompetitive practices by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), artificial limits on supply, and the oil industry

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), siding with President Bush and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), says he'll vote against the farm bill.

In a press briefing this morning, Boehner cited higher loan limits and target prices, as well as a $200 million payment to Plum Creek Timber, as reasons he would vote against the bill.

The following is a transcript from the briefing:

QUESTION: Mr. Boehner, the conference report for the farm bill was expected to come up next week. And it's got a lot of criticism from the White House. What are your thoughts on that conference report [OFF-MIC] Republican leadership counsel its members on how to vote?

BOEHNER: I've been monitoring the progress of the farm bill talks. And this continued to get worse this week, rather than get better. And I voted against the 2002 farm bill, been a long-time member of the Ag Committee. But I don't think that this farm bill represents our best effort. And, frankly, I think we can do better. So I don't expect that I'll be voting for the farm bill. And beyond that, no decisions have been made about how to proceed.

QUESTION: What are the things you [OFF-MIC]

BOEHNER: I think, in a time of high commodity prices, to be raising loan limits and target prices just really flies in the face of reality. Secondly, when you look at some of the issues that, frankly, don't belong in there, you know, this $200 million payment to Plum Creek Timber as part of a Nature Conservancy buyout strikes me as an egregious earmark. And some of the heady provisions are causing concern. Beyond that, I don't know what other bombshells might be in this bill. We haven't seen it yet.

Farm bill conferees have postponed a meeting on a tentative spending agreement reached Friday, according to staffers for two conference committee members. The meeting, which was scheduled for 6 p.m. today, had been postponed until tomorrow morning, with the time yet to be determined.

Staffers for conferees said the meeting was postponed due to members' conflicting travel schedules.

Principal members of the farm bill's conference committee reached a tentative agreement Friday on a spending framework for the bill--a framework they had been working on since February. Those members are expected to present that tentative agreement to the full conference committee tomorrow.

That agreement outlined $10 billion in added farm bill spending, along with some guidelines for allocation. After the full conference committee reaches an agreement on that framework, the debate will turn to more specific allocation of funds.

Friday's agreement was reached by Reps. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), as well as Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.)--all chairmen and ranking members of committees related to the farm bill.

As the House and Senate continue to negotiate over the farm bill, the Senate conferees presented their House counterparts with a new offer today for a framework outlining the bill's $10 billion in new spending and offsets to make that spending deficit neutral.

House conferees said they would take the proposal under advisement, neither accepting nor rejecting the proposal as Ways & Means Committee members were not present.

House Agriculture Committee GOP spokeswoman Alise Kowalski told The Hill that conferees are aiming to agree on a spending framework by next week, but that a one-week timeframe has been in effect for the past month.

President Bush today signed an extension of the previous farm bill that will push back its expiration to next Friday. Kowalski said this was the third extension Bush has signed.

Details of the Senate's offer can be found here.

President Bush is expected to call for the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to cease by 2025. Bush is scheduled to speak about climate change in the Rose Garden at 2:45 p.m. today.

The White House released excerpts from Bush's prepared speech early this afternoon.

Save the Whales was a movement that started in 1977 and soared in the 1980s. Save the Sharks could be next, or at least that's what Del. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) and seven other legislators were hoping for when they introduced a shark conservation measure on Thursday.

The Bordallo measure would seek to eliminate "an enforcement loophole" related to the transport of shark fins. In a floor speech, Bordallo said, "The rising demand for shark fins over past decades has also led to increases in the particularly exploitive practice of shark finning, where fins of sharks are removed and the carcass is discarded at sea."

Sharks don't attract any sympathy from beachgoers who fear a "Jaws"-like demise, but Bordallo says saving the sharks is vital to conserve marine ecosystems.

The other backers of the measure are Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Sam Farr (D-Calif.), Charlie Gonzales (D-Texas), Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), Frank Pallone (D-N.J.). and Dels. Donna Christensen (D-V.I.) and Eni Faleomavaega (D-A.S.).