Barbara Boxer said she has given the Senate majority leader a draft list of bills to consider. Dems aim for 100+ bills in 1 swoop

Democratic efforts to push through more than 100 public lands and water bills in the lame duck session are reaching a fever pitch, with the recognition this is the last chance many of them have to become law.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has tasked Democratic leaders on at least three committees to come up with a list of bills that could get past a GOP filibuster.


They may also need to be able to secure the two-thirds support that would be needed if the House tries to expedite the package without amendments in a tight legislative calendar.

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told reporters Thursday that she has given Reid a draft list of bills to consider. That evolving list is believed to include plans to provide protection to the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes, Lake Tahoe, the Gulf of Mexico and the San Francisco Bay.

“The issue is getting 60 votes, which we think we can,” Boxer said.

Boxer, most of the Democrats on her panel, Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) were among those who gathered with Reid off the Senate floor during a vote last Monday to talk options. More formal meetings were also held Tuesday.

Several Senate Republicans are cosponsors of individual bills that could be included but the GOP appears likely to object to the package as a whole.

“There’s no way a giant omnibus like that would gain support among Republicans,” said Robert Dillon, spokesman for Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “There’s bills in there we would like to see passed but not this way. We don’t have the time to fix all the problems.”

A potential Democratic package could include more than 100 measures from at least three panels. Energy and Natural Resources has passed 72 public lands bills that are pending on the Senate calendar and there are others the panel has not yet voted on; the Environment and Public Works Committee has so far given more than a dozen bills to be considered; while the Commerce Committee Friday sent over a list of 13 bills.

A Boxer spokesperson said bills being considered for the package were reported from several committees with bipartisan support. “They represent the work of committees and senators over the course of this Congress and, for many, over the course of a career and they deserve a vote,” the spokesperson said.

Bingaman spokesman Bill Wicker said the panel's bills are not controversial and many were approved with no opposition. Bingaman staffers are holding off on providing a final list to Reid in case additional bills not voted on by the panel could be added.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Environment and Public Worls Committee has threatened to block swift approval of a land and water omnibus bill if it includes, for example, the version of the Chesapeake Bay protection bill that passed the panel by voice vote with the understanding that work on it would continue.

That bill “still needs significant changes, principally with respect to restricting the broad, and unprecedented, scope of authority it grants EPA over state permitting programs,” Inhofe said last week. Inhofe said he wants to keep talking with the bill's chief sponsor, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.).

“But it won’t be reached today or if this bill is thrown together with several other bills, many of which are too expansive and set unrealistic authorization levels,” Inhofe said.

Inhofe aides sent POLITICO a list of water bills the committee has passed that the Oklahoma Republican thinks are fine in their current form. They include protections for Lake Tahoe, the San Francisco Bay, Gulf of Mexico and marine turtles.

The chances of passage for the package in a packed calendar this month is further complicated by the demand last week of all 42 Senate Republicans not to allow any measures to come up until the Senate agrees to extend a set of Bush-era tax cuts.

A Reid spokeswoman simply said that a lands and water package is on “a long list of items to consider and not much time to do so.”

If the Senate were able to move the omnibus measure, the House would still need to follow suit.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could pass the measure in five minutes if she can round up a two-thirds majority to avoid any amendments and tricky GOP motions to recommit. But that's no sure thing.

House Natural Resources ranking member Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) – who is in line to chair the panel in the next Congress – pushed back last week at any attempt to quickly pass what he deemed "a Frankenstein" bill.

“This omnibus lands bill will have significant impacts on American jobs, our economy and our nation’s energy, environmental and land-use policies,” he wrote to House Democratic leaders Thursday. “Such a significant bill should not be hastily pushed through Congress without thoughtful and careful consideration.”

Some Democrats also may not just simply want to green light a list of Senate bills without adding their own input.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) – who chairs a key Natural Resources subcommittee overseeing public lands – wants his committee to come up with its own list to offer House Democratic leaders.

“I feel it is imperative that the House Natural Resources Committee and House leadership has equal say in what legislation is included in a final package,” Grijalva wrote. “If the Senate develops a list of bills to package, the House should be able to do the same.”