Senate to vote on Manchin’s permitting amendment to defense spending bill
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is granting Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) another stab at getting his effort to speed up approvals for the country’s energy projects into a defense spending bill.
Schumer earlier this year promised Manchin that he’d support his energy approval efforts, known as permitting reform, in exchange for Manchin’s vote on the Democrats’ major climate, tax and health care bill.
“Yes, we’re going to vote on that amendment. As you know, Republicans blocked it in the House even though permitting reform is something that they’ve always supported in the past, so I hope they’ll help us and support it,” Schumer told reporters on Tuesday.
Manchin announced that he’d put forward the policies, which include faster timelines for environmental reviews, giving the federal government authority to direct electric transmission lines and approving a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia, as an amendment to this year’s annual defense spending bill after it was not included in the bill’s text.
The spending bill already passed the House without Manchin’s amendment and will need to get reapproved if the amendment ultimately ends up attached to it.
The latest effort also comes after an unsuccessful attempt to get the policies into a stopgap funding measure earlier this year. It failed amid opposition from both progressive Democrats and Republicans.
It’s not clear whether the latest amendment push will be able to garner the necessary support. Six Democrats said in a letter last week that they opposed putting the energy policies into the defense bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act.
Previously, a handful of other Democrats also expressed opposition on environmental grounds despite support from Schumer and other Democrats who argue that a faster process is also needed to build out carbon-free energy sources.
Though Manchin made some changes aimed at getting Republicans on board, the push also faces headwinds there, with some Republicans saying the changes don’t go far enough.
Republicans have also expressed hostility to helping Manchin after he supported the Democrats’ climate and tax bill. And the party may be hesitant to hand a legislative win to Manchin, who faces a tough reelection bid in 2024.
Source: TEST FEED1
