Departments

Senate CAFE Votes

I am pleased to report that last night the Senate overwhelmingly defeated the Durbin amendment calling for extreme, discriminatory CAFÉ increases, and by a wide margin approved the Bond-Levin amendment requiring the Department of Transportation to issue new fuel economy regulations. Copies of both roll call votes are attached to this memo.

The Durbin amendment was defeated by a vote of 28-67. Nineteen Democrats joined most Republicans in voting against this amendment. The 19 Democrats who stood with us on this vote were: Baucus, Bayh, Biden, Byrd, Clinton, Conrad, Dorgan, Feingold, Johnson, Kerry, Kohl, Landrieu, Levin, Lincoln, Mikulski, Ben Nelson, Pryor, Salazar and Stabenow.

The Bond-Levin amendment was adopted by a vote of 64-31. Eighteen Democrats joined most Republicans in voting for this amendment. The 18 Democrats were: Baucus, Bayh, Byrd, Carper, Conrad, Dayton, Dorgan, Feingold, Johnson, Kohl, Landrieu, Levin, Lincoln, Mikulski, Ben Nelson, Pryor, Salazar, and Stabenow.

The CAFE votes last night were very similar to the Senate votes in 2003. Given the predictable result, and the very wide margins, many observers were puzzled that Senator Durbin decided to go forward with the votes. Earlier in the day it had appeared that he would back off, and the environmental groups were not pressing for a vote. But in the end Durbin insisted on going forward.

The Senate is expected to pass the overall energy legislation on Tuesday, June 28th. The legislation will then go to a House-Senate conference, where its prospects are uncertain because of various contentious issues. However, because the UAW and the auto companies prevailed on the CAFE votes in both the House and Senate, both bills have acceptable provisions on fuel economy standards. Thus, we should be in very good shape on this key issue during the House-Senate conference.

During consideration of the energy legislation, the UAW backed several initiatives to provide incentives for the domestic production of advanced technology (hybrid and diesel) vehicles. We supported the Bingaman global warming amendment because it would have provided grants to auto companies to convert facilities for the domestic production of advanced vehicles. We also supported Schumer and Levin proposals for tax incentives for this purpose. However, when it became clear that these proposals did not have sufficient support to pass, Bingaman, Schumer and Levin decided not to bring them to a vote. Nevertheless, we will continue to work to build support for these proposals, with an eye towards attaching them to future vehicles (such as upcoming tax bills).

Many thanks to UAW activists for all of their efforts on the CAFE and advanced technology vehicle issues.

Jim Rogers
CAP Representative