Landrieu cool to blocking EPA rules through small business bill

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) is not embracing GOP efforts to block EPA greenhouse gas regulations through an amendment to small business legislation that Landrieu is shepherding through the Senate, even though she too wants to thwart the climate rules.

Landrieu – who heads the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship – reacted coolly Tuesday to the prospect of an EPA amendment to the bill.

“My number one focus is to get this small business bill through, so I am not going to make any final decisions right now about what amendments should be on it or not,” Landrieu told reporters in the Capitol, but added: “That amendment is very controversial, as you know.”

“I would have hoped that we could have limited the debate to specific amendments that are actually specific to the [small business] program, but I understand that there are senators that want the opportunity to debate things that they think are very, very important, so we will just take it a step at a time,” she added.

The small business measure on the Senate floor would provide a long-term reauthorization of the Small Business Innovation Research and the Small Business Technical Transfer programs.

Landrieu voted last year for an unsuccessful measure to strip EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gases, and has said she may vote for Sen. James Inhofe’s (R-Okla.) recent legislation that would have the same effect.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is seeking to attach Inhofe’s plan to the small business bill.

It is unclear when a vote on the amendment may occur.