House prepares for more debate on climate
Fiscal 2024 bills on the floor this week include riders against major climate rulemaking. Some Republicans want to push back harder.
The House will debate a host of climate issues this week as it takes up at least two more fiscal 2024 spending bills.
The Financial Services-General Government legislation targets the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed rule to require public companies to disclose their climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions.
The legislation would also claw back money for the General Services Administration to build green buildings and would block the Consumer Product Safety Commission from regulating gas stoves.
“We demand in this bill that agencies concentrate on their core mission,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), chair of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, said about the bill.
“The pursuit of a job-killing, burdensome and unnecessary regulatory agenda only serves to further bloat a federal bureaucracy that has become too big, too intrusive, and counter-intuitive to limited government,” he added. “We move in that direction with this bill.”
Full Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said the GOP bill was full of “problematic and pointless riders.”
“My Republican colleagues claim to support things like law and order, economic competition, and protecting children. Yet their actions, demonstrated by this bill, suggest otherwise,” she said.
One proposed amendment from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) would defund the White House’s climate policy office. Another GOP amendment targets a proposed climate disclosure rule for contractors.
Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) proposed an amendment to scrap the rider against the SEC climate rule.
The Rules Committee will meet Monday to decide which amendments will be teed up for floor debate.
By: Manuel Quinones and Nidhi Prakrash
Source: E&E News