Climate bill Pelosi’s biggest triumph yet

The House on Friday passed a historic climate change bill, giving Rep.
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) one of the biggest victories of her tenure and
answering a call from President Obama for the United States play a
leading role in reducing greenhouse gasses.

The bill passed with
219 votes, two more than the 217 that ended up being necessary for
passage. Eight Republicans voted for it, while 44 Democrats voted “no.”

{mosads}Democrats
pulled out all the stops to secure those votes, even arranging for
Reps. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and John Lewis (D-Ga.) – who had both
been absent for weeks – to fly in for the vote on final passage.

After
the 219-212 vote, Democratic Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Kennedy and Lewis
ended up as the 218th and 219th votes, declaring that Democrats had
secured the 217 votes they needed from the rest of the caucus.

“The calculation was 217. The two of them made 219,” Clyburn said.

But a number of reluctant Democrats held out as long as they could during the 15-minute vote.

Pelosi
had last-minute conversations in the rear of the chamber with Reps. Joe
Baca (D-Calif.) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), two undecideds who cast
the “yes” votes that helped push the bill over the finish line. Cuellar
had even turned down President Obama in a one-one-one phone call
Thursday.

“This bill was totally different,” Clyburn said. “This bill was all about regions.”

“This was a tough vote,” he said.

Pelosi
found humor in the extraordinary efforts. She walked into a post-vote
press holding an “easy button” from the Staples store advertisements.

“That was easy,” she quipped.

“No
matter how long our colleagues want to delay, they couldn’t hold off
the future,” Pelosi said after receiving congratulatory calls from
Obama, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.).

Other elated Democrats joined in the festivities,
playing coy about a vote that they were simply not sure they had until
very close to the finish line.

“As I told you all throughout the
week,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) joked to a group of
reporters in the Speaker’s Lobby, “we had the votes.”

Hoyer was
even able to laugh off a Republican filibuster-of-sorts that came by way
of Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who used his two minutes –
and his right as Leader – to spend an hour reading the 309-page
manager’s amendment that was filed at 3:09 a.m.

“The bad news is Boehner spoke for an hour,” Hoyer said. “The good news is my flexibility in the future is greater.”

Pelosi,
herself known for long closing speeches, responded to Boehner’s
lengthy speech with one that was little more than a minute, calling
the bill one about “jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.”

The legislation,
authored primarily by Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman
(D-Calif.) and Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Edward
Markey (D-Mass.), went through a series of substantial changes – up
until 4 a.m. Friday – in order to win the support of enough Democrats.

“I
had about six asks, and we got all six into the bill, aimed at
low-income citizens,” said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.). “This bill was a
work in progress until 4 o’clock this morning. We were very strategic
in our activities.”

Republicans were furious with those late
changes being rushed to the floor, prompting Boehner’s reading of much
of Waxman’s manager’s amendment.

“I really hate to do this, but
when you file a 309-page amendment at 3:09 a.m., the people have a
right to know what’s in it,” Boehner said.

{mosads}Republicans weren’t the only ones mad about the midnight changes. 

Rep.
Jane Harman (D-Calif.) said the late amendment “gutted” a provision
she’d inserted about outdoor lighting. So she became one of the 30
Democrats who voted against the procedural rule needed to bring up the
bill.

“I was a protest vote,” Harman said. “They replaced it with something that weakens current standards.”

She voted for the final bill, though, issuing a statement saying the bill “falls far short.”

For Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.), it went too far.

“I
usually try to vote the feeling in my district,” said Davis, who’s
sprawling Middle-to-East Tennessee district is very rural. “There
wasn’t a lot of support for that in my district.”

Rep. Vernon Ehlers (Mich.) was a possible Republican “yes,” but he said of his “no” vote, “They
worked hard on creating a bill that worked for them, rather than a bill
that worked for the whole House.” Ehlers added that his
beleaguered state wasn’t treated well. “They didn’t take into account
our dire economic circumstances.”

At least one Democrat who voted “no” said that his leadership needlessly forced vulnerable Dems to take a vote that will come back to haunt them.

“A lot of people walked the plank on a bill that will never become law,” Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) told The Hill after the gavel came down.

At the same time, Republicans managed to have some fun of their own.

When
the presiding officer, Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.), asked if there were any  members
wishing to change their vote just prior to gaveling the vote to a
close, a member of the Republican Conference shouted “All of them!”
— clearly referring to the Democrats who had gotten whipped hard by their
leaders, cabinet members, Emanuel and
Obama.

Molly K. Hooper contributed to this story.

This story was updated at 9:12 p.m.