Where the Heck is Congress?
by Stacy Feldman - Sep 20th, 2007
I listened in to a press conference today on next week’s UN climate meeting that's going to kick off the post-Kyoto era, and on Bush's “Meeting of Major Economies on Energy Security and Climate Change,” which could be something historic or just more meaningless crap. No one seems to know yet.
The call was a preview from some Beltway insiders. Senator John Kerry. The National Environmental Trust. And the UN Foundation.
MP3 is here.
Of note (and kind of off the subject) was a question brought up by Timothy Wirth. He's the president of the UN Foundation and Better World Fund and was a former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs.
It went something like, where the heck is the U.S. Congress on this whole issue?
The two houses came up with energy and climate bills a while back. There are huge differences between the bills. And as a result, a logjam. According to Wirth, today was the first day that there were meetings between the staffs of the two houses.
They didn't meet all summer. We're talking about one of the biggest and most significant pieces of legislation this country may ever see. That doesn't happen on bills of this magnitude. They meet. A lot. Summers and all.
Perhaps they're just too bogged down with the interest groups who are trying to sway the debate, a reporter asked. Wirth's retort was good. He said that Gov. Schwarzenegger and Governor Crist from Florida and so many others are being surrounded by the same interest groups. And they're moving climate bills.
The whole thing makes you wonder if there's any urgency at all in Washington. And if a decent bill is going to be able to make it through before it's too late.
As Wirth said, there is so much public pressure on the president to get on board and do something, which is good. And necessary. But the U.S. Congress has an enormous responsibility on climate too. And if both houses don't act, and if they don't act together, the entire U.S. government could become irrelevant in this debate.
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