H. Josef Hebert
Boehner protests last-minute climate amendment
WASHINGTON — Republican leader John Boehner knew Democrats had the votes to push through a massive climate bill.
Still, after a day of debate, he wasn’t quite finished.
Democrats had added 341 pages to a bill that had already grown to more than 1,200 pages and did it in the dead of night — at 3:09 a.m. Friday morning to be exact.
Shortly after 5:30 p.m., as Democrats were about to call for a vote, Boehner took the House floor to speak. He began leafing through the thick loose-leaf binder that contained the amendment, reading excerpts.
“I hate to do this to all of you,” he told his colleagues, a half hour into the reading, seeming, however, to relish it.
Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the Democrats’ floor leader for the bill, asked the presiding officer if there was any rule to cut Boehner off. He was told the custom of the House allowed House leaders to speak as long as they wished.
So Boehner continued reading page after page, citing language on building codes, the location of electric outlets, creation of green energy demonstration projects, new restrictions on mortgages to promote energy efficiency and other abstract legalistic phrases requirements.
He came across page 157, halfway through the document, where it discussed new training for real estate appraisers. Fifty minutes had passed.
Many of the lawmakers, especially those on the Democratic side, had drifted out of the chamber. Waxman sat quietly, rolling through his BlackBerry.
Again, Boehner feigned an apology. “But when you file a 300-page amendment at 3:09 a.m., the American people have a right to know what’s in this bill,” he intoned.
Waxman, who actually had to surrender some of his own time for Boehner to speak, wondered aloud whether the Republicans were stalling in hopes some Democrats might leave the Capitol before the vote, eager to start the July 4 holiday recess.
Boehner spoke a bit longer, but stopped 80-some pages short of the end. By then, an hour had passed.
About 45 minutes later, the House passed the bill 219-212 with only eight Republicans voting for it.
(This version CORRECTS RESTORES dropped word ‘had’ in 3rd graf; corrects style on BlackBerry.)
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