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By Manu Raju
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Posted: 07/12/07 07:45 PM [ET] |
While Democrats in both chambers have repeatedly blamed Republicans for obstructing their agenda in the 110th Congress, congressional sources say there is escalating tension between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on energy legislation.
Reid told senior lawmakers on a conference call late last month that Pelosi could be making a mistake by not passing the energy bill that recently passed the Senate and instead moving ahead with a House plan that will open up an intra-party battle, according to one person on the call.
A spokesman for Reid declined to comment.
Pelosi has ruled out a vote on the Senate’s energy bill as House Democrats craft legislation that is expected to head to the floor later this month.
The policy disagreement comes as most of the Democratic agenda has largely stalled, providing fodder for Republicans charging Democrats with running a “do-nothing” Congress.
Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told The Hill that Senate leadership had asked Pelosi to pass the Senate’s energy bill, but he downplayed any lingering dispute from the Speaker’s decision to go her own way.
“I wish they would,” Durbin said of Pelosi bringing up the Senate measure. “But I can understand, she wants to try her best to put together a House version of the bill.”
“We respect the good work of the Senate, but we will use the House bill as the basis for our action,” a Pelosi aide said.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) laughingly told The Hill that sending the Senate’s bill to the president’s desk is “an interesting idea.” But he added, “There are a lot of views on the House side that want to be reflected in the House bill.”
A House leadership aide said there is “frustration” seeing House-passed legislation bogged down in the Senate, but that the ill will is directed toward Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has led his caucus in thwarting much of the Democratic legislative agenda.
Lawmakers and aides have pointed out that Pelosi and Reid regularly discuss strategy and have shown few signs of a strained relationship.
Moving major legislation through the Senate — where Democrats hold a slim two-seat advantage — has become a tremendous challenge for the majority party, which faces increasingly hard-line Republican opposition. In a chamber where acting on anything requires unanimous consent, Republicans have repeatedly objected, forcing Democrats to move toward time-consuming cloture votes where 60 ayes are needed to override any objections.
Reaching 60 votes has been a hard task for Democrats, occurring only narrowly last month when the Senate invoked cloture on the energy bill on a 62-32 vote.
Of the six measures passed by the House as part of Pelosi’s “100 hours” agenda, an increase to the minimum wage is the only one to become law after it was attached to a war supplemental spending bill strongly detested by the Democratic base.
Other priorities have stalled in the Senate, and President Bush has vetoed a bill to expand stem cell research. Conference negotiations over a sweeping overhaul of ethics and lobbying policies have been held up by a partisan dispute in the Senate over earmark disclosures; until this week a dispute over a labor provision had prevented bicameral talks from convening on a bill to implement 9/11 Commission recommendations; a bill to alter interest rates for student loans has languished; and a bill aimed at providing cheaper prescription drugs under Medicare fell short in the Senate.
That makes the Senate’s approval of an overhaul to the nation’s energy policies, which is part of the 100 hours agenda, all the more significant. If the House were to approve the Senate’s measure before the August recess, Democrats could tout their efforts in moving to stop rising gasoline prices, and blame Bush for helping oil companies if he were to follow through on his veto threat.
And if the House plan deviates too much from the Senate’s version, there is no guarantee a bicameral compromise bill could attract 60 votes to clear the upper chamber.
One of the key aspects to the Democrats’ energy bill is a ramp-up in fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon by model year 2020.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat and an ally of the auto industry, has been vehemently opposed to an increase in automotive efficiency standards, and has sparred openly with Pelosi over the future of the nation’s energy policy.
Hoyer said yesterday the House may punt the issue until bicameral discussions, but predicted that a final conference report would include language on auto efficiency standards similar to what passed the Senate.
But Dingell could be the lead House negotiator in a conference committee. And Reid on the conference call suggested that House leaders could be erring by negotiating with Dingell, the source said.
Jonathan E. Kaplan contributed to this article. |
