Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set a clearer timeframe for a vote on the Green New Deal. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Energy & Environment McConnell promises Green New Deal vote within weeks

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday promised the chamber would vote on a resolution outlining the scope of the Green New Deal within "the next couple weeks."

It's a clearer timeframe from McConnell, who last week suggested only that the vote would occur sometime before the August recess.


The ambitious climate change proposal has been relentlessly attacked by Republican leaders, who devoted most of their weekly press conference to it and discussed it at their weekly policy lunches.

“The Green New Deal is a green raw deal that’s going to destroy our rural areas," Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said today. "I really wish our colleagues would be serious about this.”

The GOP attacks come as Democratic leaders vowed to continue pressing Republican leaders to outline their own plan on climate change and praised young climate advocates for spurring discussion of the issue.

"It’s our job to channel the energy of those young people — wonderful energy, I’m so glad it’s out there — into bold legislation that addresses the climate crises head on," Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor. "And that’s exactly what Democrats will do, even if Republicans continue to play these political games in their efforts to keep their heads in the sand and ignore that climate change is real."