WRAP UP

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
3/15/13

IN THE ADMINISTRATION

The Obama Administration appears set to submit its Fiscal Year 2014 budget request to Congress in early April—approximately two months behind schedule. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said March 12 that the request would “probably” be sent to lawmakers the week of April 8. “The president will be putting forward a budget in the next several weeks, probably the week of April 8, I would expect,” Carney said during Tuesday’s White House press briefing. In the absence of the Administration’s budget request for next year, lawmakers have already begun moving ahead with FY 2014 planning. House Republicans unveiled their FY 2014 budget resolution March 12, which helps set how much funding individual appropriations committees will have to work with as they allocate funding for programs under their jurisdiction. Senate Democrats unveiled their FY 2014 budget resolution March 13.

IN CONGRESS

House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman said his Republican colleagues are “missing in action” on climate change. In an op-ed in The Hill earlier this week, Waxman criticized the Republican leadership on the House Energy and Commerce Committee for failing to hold any hearings on the subject. He highlighted the nearly two dozen letters he sent to the committee leadership with colleague Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) over the last two years requesting hearings on climate change, the most recent of which they sent this week regarding greenhouse gas emissions trends in the U.S. In his op-ed, Waxman said he has never received a response to those letters. By ignoring the issue of climate change, he said, “we are abandoning our obligation to American families, future generations and our industries to govern responsibly.” Waxman, along with three Democratic colleagues, released a discussion draft of carbon pricing legislation earlier this week.