Energy/Environment

The Senate agreed to five more amendments to the water infrastructure bill by unanimous consent on Wednesday evening.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) introduced one of the amendments, which would give communities with populations smaller than 25,000 people additional help in developing rural water infrastructure projects.

The Senate approved a bipartisan amendment to the water infrastructure bill that would combat the spread of Asian carp into U.S. waters.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced the amendment along with Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.). The amendment was approved on a 95-0 vote on Wednesday.

The first GOP amendment voted on for the Senate’s water infrastructure bill was about gun rights.

The Senate is considering the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which would authorize projects related to flood and storm risk reduction, coast and inland navigation, and ecosystem restoration.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) introduced an amendment to the bill dealing with gun use on Army Corp of Engineer’s land.

Coburn’s amendment failed on a 56-43 vote Wednesday — 60 votes were needed for passage. It would have allowed individuals to carry guns at water resources development projects administered by the Secretary of the Army.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) announced Wednesday that he would withdraw one of his amendments to the Senate water infrastructure bill.

Coburn had introduced an amendment that would have required federal studies on guns. That amendment was scheduled to get a vote at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said Friday that Congress should not spend less on food stamps in order to reduce the deficit through the farm bill.

“Families who are living in poverty, who are just trying to figure out how to keep the lights on and put food on the table — they did not spend this nation into debt,” Gillibrand said. “And we should not be trying to balance the budget on their backs.”

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said Thursday that taxpayer subsidies should not “pad the enormous profits” of big oil companies.

“American taxpayers pad the enormous profits of the Big 5 oil companies by over $2 billion a year,” Menendez said. “We shouldn’t continue to feed the Big 5 oil companies’ greed while the sequester and other budget cuts starve funding for seniors, soldiers’ families and students.  

“Let’s be very clear: Big Oil subsidies on top of Big Oil profits is a big waste.”

A bipartisan group of 14 senators told the Obama administration that it should fight a recent decision by the European Commission (EC) to impose an anti-dumping duty on U.S. ethanol exports.

The senators, led by John Thune (R-S.D.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), wrote a letter to acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis and acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank on Tuesday urging them to challenge the EC’s decision at the World Trade Organization.

Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.) demanded transparency from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on their relationships with environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, so the public can see how these groups are shaping policy.

“The American people deserve to understand the process EPA follows when crafting the environmental policies under which they must live,” Inhofe and Vitter wrote Monday in a letter to acting EPA administrator Bob Perciasepe.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that he would soon introduce a bill to stop the “EPA’s attack” on the coal industry.

McConnell said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is going beyond its “scope of authority” by making the permitting process for coal mines more burdensome.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told her “friends in the environmental movement” that they couldn’t always agree with her “100 percent of the time.”

The Los Angeles Times on Sunday reported that Boxer is facing opposition from environmentalist — who are usually her allies — on her water resources bill, which the Senate will begin considering next week.