Congressional Budget For The United States Government For Fiscal Year 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I rise today in support of Johanns climate change amendment, No. 735. Budget reconciliation was designed to facilitate passage of legislation to reduce the deficit with a simple majority. It was never meant to pass major policy initiatives such as cap and trade.

I was pleased to sign a letter written by both Senator Byrd and Senator Johanns opposing the idea of using budget reconciliation to pass climate change. The letter has broad bipartisan support.

Cap and trade would be one of the most dramatic expansions of Government in American history. It is a trillion-dollar climate bailout scheme. This weekend, Thomas Friedman stated in the New York Times that ``we need a climate bailout along with our economic bailout.'' I tend to disagree.

The American people, including my constituents in Wyoming, are very skeptical about any bailouts. So how important is climate change in the interest of the American people? The Pew Research Center did a poll and they showed that climate change ranked dead last with the public in terms of what was important to them. The American public is dealing with the reality of an economic meltdown. This is a real and immediate problem. Trillions of taxpayer dollars are being directed to stimulate the economy. Every step Congress takes to spend additional funds is being watched closely, as it should be, by the American public.

We have passed numerous bailout bills over the past 6 months. We have just passed a $787 billion bailout for an economic plan intended to save or create millions of jobs. The American people deserve the opportunity to have any climate bailout go through the regular order.

Frankly, the American people are demanding the opportunity to have a climate bailout go through regular order. Such legislation should not be enacted using procedures that limit debate and do not otherwise provide the kind of transparency the people of this country want and demand.

I urge Members on both sides of the aisle to support the Johanns amendment.

I yield the floor.

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