The floor debates on the budget continue in both chambers today. A couple things we’ll be looking out for–Republicans should be offering an amendment at some point have offered an amendment that would “prohibit the use of reconciliation in the Senate for climate change legislation involving a cap and trade system.” Right now, reconciliation instructions are only included in the House bill, but they may well be imported to the Senate bill in conference.
Meanwhile, Senator John Thune has introduced an amendment that would “prohibit the collection of funds from any future cap and trade proposal if that proposal would increase electricity rates and gasoline prices for American households and businesses.”
Neither of these amendments are likely to pass, but the roll calls will be educational. Recall that during the stimulus debate, 36 Republicans voted for an alternative plan put forward by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) that would have scrapped the Democrats’ proposal and replaced it with a bunch of tax cuts. It failed, obviously, but it was a telling moment about the alignment of thinking within the body–only four senators (Voinovich, Specter, Snowe, and Collins voted against it, and three of them supported the final stimulus).
Along the same lines, it will be interesting to see who votes to support either of these amendments–and, particularly, to see if any Democrats vote to block reconciliation entirely.
