Republicans Shut Down Their Own Markup
(Washington, DC) – Today, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on Energy began a markup of the Committee Print of the Department of Energy Research and Development Act of 2014. The markup was adjourned by the Republicans on a party-line recorded vote before any consideration of the bill after Republicans refused to read their own legislation publicly.
Ranking Member Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said in his opening statement. “We are here to consider a bill that was not shared with Democratic members of the Subcommittee until late last Friday, and that proposes to reauthorize all Department of Energy research and development programs. That means we’re being asked to make tough decisions about how to allocate billions of taxpayers’ dollars after having less than three business days to consider the bill’s provisions, let alone talk with constituents and stakeholders.”
He went on to describe a number of issues with the process and the substance of legislation. Read his full statement here.
Mr. Swalwell continued, “I am disappointed that the Majority chose not to approach me to even consider working together to come up with legislation that we could both support prior to scheduling this mark-up – and then refused my reasonable requests for more time for the Subcommittee to at least do this the right way, even if we can’t ultimately come to an agreement on everything in this bill. Thus based on both process and substance to date, I strongly oppose this legislation and urge my colleagues to do the same.
Ranking Member of the Full Committee, Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) said, “In the past eight months this subcommittee has had one joint hearing and one subcommittee hearing, and it occurred only just yesterday. We have virtually no legislative record to support this bill-- a bill that is over 100 pages long. This is not good legislating. How can the Committee be marking up legislation that was not the product of legislative hearings and was not vetted by outside stakeholders or the Department of Energy? Congress should not be writing legislation in a vacuum. Madam Chair, this markup is premature. We need to put the brakes on this ill-advised process and start it over.”
Read her full statement here.
Related Content
Next Article Previous Article