While much of the attention of Congress and the news media has been on a possible budget shutdown, a showdown over the EPA has moves to the front burner of the House and Senate late today.
In a coincidence in terms of timing, the House and Senate will both vote on a Republican plan that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
"I do not want the EPA writing those regulations, I think it's too much power in the hands of a single federal agency," said Sen. Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who has led the charge in the Senate to rein in the EPA.
Inhofe and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell have been trying for over three weeks to get a vote on the plan, and that will finally happen today, though Democrats have arranged for several other EPA amendments to be voted on as well, a desperate attempt to keep Republicans from winning this vote.
Yes, you read that right - even though Democrats have the majority in the Senate, there has been talk that as many as 13 Democrats were ready to break ranks with their leaders and back the Inhofe amendment.
We'll see if Democrats have been able to peel a few of those away.
In the House, it's expected to be more of a party line affair, as Republicans have the votes to muscle through legislation restricting the EPA without any crossover help from the minority.
"This bill says “stop” to an EPA attempting to impose policies we cannot afford that will destroy jobs we cannot afford to lose," argues Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who says Congress should be "back in charge of setting the energy and environmental policies."
For Democrats, these efforts to restrain the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases - which many Democrats believe lead directly to global warming and climate change - are a political outrage.
"Climate change is real," said a frustrated Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), who has blasted Republicans for trying to roll back clean air laws.
But while Democrats mock the GOP as a bunch of 'climate change deniers,' the EPA issue has real currency with Republicans - and a number of more moderate Democrats - as part of the drive to reduce regulations and take on the EPA on a number of policy fronts.
"Weakening these standards would allow more pollution in the air we breathe and threaten the health of Americans across the country," read a statement from the White House Office of Management and Budget issued yesterday.
"If the President is presented with this legislation, which would seriously roll back the CAA (Clean Air Act) authority, harm Americans’ health by taking away our ability to decrease carbon pollution, and undercut fuel efficiency standards that will save Americans money at the pump while decreasing our dependence on oil, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill," the veto threat read.
We'll see where the votes stand this evening.
