Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart
Adding to a growing list of failures, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid threw in the towel today on yet another bill he had promised to pass before the August recess. After capitulating on cap and trade, Reid has drawn up an “energy” bill dealing with oil spill liability, more energy tax increases (oil tax) and further restricting domestic energy production. In addition, although the bill claims to be a “response” to the BP oil spill, it would pave the way for BP and a few other large oil companies to dominate offshore oil drilling by eliminating any cap on the amount of liability a company would have for a spill. No small or medium size company could afford that type of risk. Senate Republicans led by Lisa Murkowski have drawn up an alternative bill that would be more favorable to domestic energy production but would give the Obama Administration the power to decide liability caps which is not what some conservatives would think is a good solution to the problem. In any case, by refusing to allow Republican amendments to bills some Republicans would have helped pass, Reid has failed on every issue since the financial overhaul bill with the exception of an extension of unemployment insurance.
As expected, Republicans are going through the motions on the Kagan nomination to the Supreme Court. They have agreed not to object to dealing with other business during the Kagan debate. This helps lessen the intensity of media coverage on issues the Democrats would just as soon avoid, such as Kagan’s unlawful actions in throwing military recruiters off the Harvard Law School campus.
Congress is due to go into recess Friday, not with a bang, but with a whimper.
www.conservative.org
