Manchin Pushes Permitting Reform as Government Shutdown Deadline Looms – By Kaia Hubbard (US News) / Sept 26, 2022
The clock is ticking on a resolution to fund the government as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle push back against a proposal from Sen. Joe Manchin.
Lawmakers are working to stave off a government shutdown as a week’s-end deadline looms large. But standing in their way is yet another showdown with Sen. Joe Manchin.
The Senate is slated to hold a procedural motion on Tuesday to move forward with a continuing resolution that would, among other things, keep the government funded through mid-December. And with a 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster, it’s no easy task. Still, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have little interest in a government shutdown just six weeks ahead of the midterm elections.
Complicating matters is a proposal from Manchin to tack on energy permitting reforms to the continuing resolution, after the senator from West Virginia struck a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York to include the legislation in an effort to fund the government as part of their agreement when Manchin was the major obstacle to advancing the reconciliation package that passed last month. But pushback against the proposal has been fierce – and from multiple directions.
Progressives, chief among them Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have lambasted the legislation, which would make it easier for West Virginia’s Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline project to move forward, as environmentally hazardous and warned that it would disproportionately affect communities of color and low-income areas. Meanwhile, Republicans, despite pushing for permitting reform for years, have argued that Manchin should not be rewarded for his support for the Inflation Reduction Act, which came as a surprise to many when the key centrist switched course in July, agreeing to climate provisions that had once seemed out of the question.
