As NRDC’s Pete Altman reports, the U.S. Senate could be planning a late-night vote with limited or no debate on a bill that would gut Clean Air Act protections:
A common strategy for passing unpopular legislation is to launch a swift sneak attack that doesn’t allow for much discourse or debate ahead of time and enables lawmakers to get through the process with as little scrutiny as possible.
That’s what is happening right now in the US Senate, where Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is trying to amend a small business bill with the unrelated language from Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton’s Asthma Aggravation Act of 2011 (more formally known as HR 910) in order to sneak through a law that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from making badly-needed updates to clean air safeguards to protect public health from carbon pollution.
As Pete reports, a full 64% of Americans think Congress should let the Environmental Protection Agency do its job – and that even includes 57% of Republicans. It’s clear that any senator voting for this bill would be ignoring what Americans want to do the bidding of the billionaire polluter Koch brothers.
Please call Sen. Mark Warner at 202-224-2023 and Sen. Jim Webb at 202-224-4024 and ask them to oppose the Inhofe-Upton bill.
UPDATE 3/16: This is being debated on the Senate floor today, if you haven’t already, please call Senators Warner & Webb and ask them to fight any attempt to weaken our clean air laws. Here’s a CCAN action alert with more details.
UPDATE 3/17: The Senate put off action on carbon pollution limits until after the recess. Thanks to everyone who took action!
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
