[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14015-14016]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             CAP AND TRADE

  Mr. JOHANNS. Mr. President, I rise to talk about legislation that I 
intend to introduce today, both as an amendment to the small business 
bill and as a stand-alone measure.
  With the BP oilspill in the headlines, we are rumored to tackle 
energy legislation later this week. For months, energy legislation has 
been held up while the majority attempted to find 60 votes for a very 
unpopular cap-and-trade aspect to this legislation.
  But just last week, Americans sought to hear great news when they saw 
headlines such as ``The Climate Bill is Dead,'' ``Democrats Call Off 
Climate Bill Effort.''
  You have to imagine that around the country, thousands of Americans 
and small businesses breathed a sigh of relief that they would not be 
forced to bear yet another financial burden, a hidden tax increase in 
these trying times.
  But, unfortunately, I believe the sigh of relief was premature and 
here is why. Some in Washington have been keeping a wish list of 
policies they want to complete after--and I emphasize after--the 
November elections. At the very top of that list is the national energy 
tax called cap and trade. So after the elections this November, the 
American people could be in for quite a surprise.
  After voters have cleared out of the polling places and the yard 
signs are all taken down, after the voting booths have disappeared from 
the high school gymnasiums and the church basements, after the American 
people have exercised their constitutional right and made their claims 
regarding the future direction of this great Nation, well after all 
that, be warned because the politicians will return to Washington to 
advance an agenda that they did not have a chance of advancing at all 
prior to the election.
  During this postelection time, we are likely to see what is called a 
lameduck session. You see, the newly elected will not be here on the 
floor after the election in that interim until they are sworn in, nor 
will they be on the House floor. Yet we may be conducting business with 
many who are not returning to office and therefore are no longer 
accountable to their constituents; will not stand for another election.
  You see, therein lies the danger, a last gasp by this Congress to 
push an agenda that was dead on arrival prior to the election. But, I 
suggest today, do not take my word for this. Simply listen to the most 
senior members of the party that controls the White House, the House, 
and the Senate. In an interview on Friday, a senior Democratic Senator 
openly discussed the plan to have cap and trade in the lameduck 
session. The headline could not be more clear: ``Democrats May Take Up 
Broad Climate Legislation After Election.''
  Why is that the plan, you might ask? Why could not the Senate advance 
this

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 measure in the more than a year since the House barely passed it? 
Well, I will point back to another surprisingly candid interview. 
According to one Democratic Senator: ``If it is after the election, it 
may well be that some members feel free and liberated.'' Let me read 
that again. ``If it is after the election, it may well be that some 
members are free and liberated.''
  Free and liberated, you ask. Well, the answer is as obvious as it is 
chilling. The plan to do cap and trade in a lameduck is premised on 
Senators and House Members being free and liberated from the tethers of 
the American people. That is extraordinary, and it is deeply troubling. 
But it gets worse because the plan is not simply to wait until after 
the election. The plan is to add cap and trade in conference or attach 
it to some other legislation from the House, even though the Senate 
will not have considered, debated or approved a cap-and-trade bill. 
Stunning.
  Again, do not take my word for it. You can read it in the various 
news reports. For example, on June 16, Politico reported that the 
Senate legislative plan for passing cap and trade is to: ``. . . 
conference the new Senate (Energy) bill with the already-passed House 
bill in a lame-duck session after the election, so House Members don't 
have to take another tough vote ahead of midterms.''
  On June 28, Energy and Environment Daily reported that House 
Democratic leadership: `` . . . acknowledged that lawmakers on the 
conference committee may wind up merging the House cap-and-trade plan 
with a Senate bill that does not include it.''
  On June 30, the Hill newspaper reported: ``House Energy and Commerce 
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said he would `absolutely' 
seek to keep greenhouse gas limits alive in a House-Senate conference 
if the Senate approves energy legislation this summer that omits carbon 
provisions.''
  So the not-so-secret plan is not secret at all. In fact, it is very 
transparent and clear: Pass an energy bill, any energy bill, pass it 
out of the Senate so it can be conferenced with the House cap-and-trade 
bill after the election. My legislation directly addresses this plan in 
a very concise way. It simply says, if the Senate has not previously 
approved cap-and-trade legislation, and you try to slip it into law 
during a lameduck session, then a point of order will lie against the 
legislation. However, if the Senate has already approved a cap-and-
trade bill under regular order, then my amendment would not be 
triggered.
  My amendment, therefore, preserves the opportunity for the Senate to 
debate this critically important issue. It takes the debate out of the 
shadows and the back rooms and the conferences onto the Senate floor, 
in full view of the American people, and it permits the American people 
to see what is in this bill.
  It says, if the Senate has not approved cap and trade, do not slip it 
in an appropriations bill, do not add it to a defense bill, do not 
sneak it into another stimulus, and do not hide it in the heaven knows 
what during a conference committee meeting secretly held who knows 
where.
  I urge my colleagues to look ahead down the road a few months. 
Members will be here. Maybe they will be ``free and liberated'' from 
the will of the American people as one Democratic colleague describes 
it. The shenanigans are already being forecast. Let's stop it here. I 
ask for support on this very important legislation.
  If debate is intentionally circumvented, our business owners and all 
Americans will be impacted and hurt. They deserve to know what the 
debate is going to be about in cap and trade, and my amendment provides 
this assurance.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland is recognized.

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