Republican Senators boycott debate of climate change bill
Gail Russell Chaddock
The Christian Science Monitor
November 3, 2009
[efoods]Call it empty-table diplomacy — with a nuclear option.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) ended the morning today shuffling papers in silence at the head of an empty table, as Republican senators boycotted Day 1 of her panel’s markup of historic climate legislation.
“This is an opportunity. I ask my colleagues to show up. We’re going to be extremely patient. We’re going to be here. We’ll take some time to wait for our friends,” said Chairwoman Boxer, at the end of the aborted morning session of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
But if Republicans prolong the boycott, she hinted that Democrats, with a five-seat majority on the panel, are prepared to go on without them. “We’re not going to be deterred. We’ll do our work. It’s our job. We’re going to follow the committee rules to the letter,” she said.
That rule allows the committee chairman to bypass the requirement that at least two members of the minority are needed to constitute a quorum. Republicans call it a “nuclear option” that will undermine committee traditions and put a bipartisan bill out of reach.
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