In other news, Joe Manchin’s side-deal which talked him into voting for the terrible Inflation Reduction Act, which doesn’t reduce inflation, hasn’t gone through after all these months. Chump
Some Republicans show appetite for a Manchin deal on permitting reform
A handful of Republican lawmakers appear open to working with Sen. Joe Manchin on his push for permitting reform despite tensions between the West Virginia Democrat and the GOP caucus. Manchin has been pushing for policies that speed up the approval process for energy projects in order to build out more energy infrastructure. His last attempt ran into opposition from both Republicans — who said it didn’t go far enough — and progressives, who said it could harm communities who live near the projects.
Republicans were also not inclined to help Manchin after many saw him as double-crossing them with his agreement on a deal that led to passage of the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act. The deal was announced after Republicans backed a separate infrastructure bill.
In recent weeks, Manchin has engaged in talks with Republicans in the hopes of finding a lame-duck agreement on permitting reform.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) told The Hill that getting permitting reform done was “really, really, really important” and that he believed there is an appetite for it.
“Our country needs energy, all kinds of energy: oil, gas, renewables — we need critical minerals,” he said. “All of those things get boxed out by a broken, dysfunctional permitting system that pretty much everybody knows is broken.”
He said there was “slow but steady progress being made” and that he hoped to close what he described as “loopholes” on time limits in the energy project approval process that he said were a part of Manchin’s initial proposal.
They’re talking about putting this into some other legislative package. Why not just put up stand-alone legislation? Why is it necessary to always do these big bills with all sorts of stuff in them, often unrelated to the purpose of the bill? Is it to hide the pork? To hide the crazy? For Republicans, it would make sense to pass this as a stand-alone once they take the House. Would there be enough Democrats to vote for it if Dems control the Senate 51-49? It would put Democrats on notice if they vote against it, which is a vote against America having our own energy and trying to bring down prices for Americans. And it would be funny seeing Democrats try and filibuster it.
If Republicans did pass a stand-alone, what would Chuck Schumer do? He promised Joe this side deal: would he bring it up for a vote on the Senate florr?
