House Natural Resources Republicans are aiming to advance their part of the GOP’s tax, energy and national security megabill Tuesday. And while committee Democrats are powerless to stop it, they plan to make the process as painful as possible.
The Democrats, led by ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), plan to launch a bombardment of more than 100 amendments to the bill during the full committee markup, according to an aide granted anonymity to speak on the plans. Huffman has called the bill “worse than anything I could have imagined.”
The amendments will span a wide breadth of the bill, aiming to strike controversial permitting provisions, block new oil and gas leasing and safeguard public lands.
While most or all will fail, the markup will offer an opportunity for the Democrats to pick apart the Republican bill that holds the keys to President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda and his promises to “drill, baby, drill.”
