1. SENATE: Efforts to pass pieces of Reid's resource package hitting walls (12/21/2010)
Efforts to salvage pieces of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's public lands, water and wildlife omnibus legislation are failing as senators place holds on bills offered for fast-track consideration.
Sponsors of some key proposals declared defeat today, while Republican leaders said there was too little time in the home stretch of the lame-duck session to work out outstanding concerns about the costs and economic and regulatory implications of the individual measures.
"Since we're down to the last day or so, it's going to be difficult to resolve any concerns," said Matt Dempsey, spokesman for Oklahoma Republican Jim Inhofe, the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Efforts to pass the 110-bill resources omnibus in pieces began in earnest yesterday after Reid (D-Nev.) withdrew the overall package and a list of bills that had passed out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee was "hotlined" along with measures to restore Lake Tahoe and the San Francisco Bay. A hotlined bill is one that Reid proposes to pass swiftly, provided there are no objections.
But there were objections. Senators placed holds or were expected to place holds on key measures, all but dooming chances for "big-ticket items" to clear Congress before the lame duck ends, an environmental lobbyist said.
Maryland Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin acknowledged in an interview that time had run out for his Chesapeake Bay cleanup bill, adding that the bill's supporters "need to do a more effective job" countering Republican arguments that it gives U.S. EPA notable new powers to rein in pollution washing off farmland.
"I don't look at this as expanding EPA's authority," Cardin said when asked about the bill's chances of advancing next year under a Republican-controlled House.
Colorado Democrat Mark Udall said he would prefer to see key bills move as part of the original omnibus package but added that he had eight lands bills that could move by unanimous consent.
"Each one of them has merit," Udall said. "Each one of them has gone through the regular order."
Udall said he is asking his colleagues to "Free Willy" on two bills, highlighting a measure to promote year-round recreation at a ski area in his state and a proposal to improve the firefighting capacity in a community near Boulder.
Udall said he would also push passage of his "San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act," which seeks to designate 33,383 acres of wilderness in southwestern Colorado and 21,697 acres as a special management area.
That bill would also withdraw about 6,596 acres from hardrock mining claims in the Naturita Canyon area.
Inhofe, who supports some legislative components of the omnibus package, said it is "hard to say" whether any bills could pass independently before the Senate adjourns.
The likelihood of senators placing holds on individual bills, he added, could have been lessened if leaders from both parties had worked to clear potential objections before the headlong rush of the lame duck's last days.
