How Washington Works (Or Doesn't)

The biggest lines at The Capitol tend to involve "Mark-Ups," the sessions in which lawmakers discuss and decide the fate of pending legislation. Seems like everyone with a horse in the race wants an ear in the door. That means lobbyists, reps, players (and their stand-ins) are eager to get inside the hearing room.

With a big committee like this one (House Energy & Commerce) comes big jurisdiction and big, broad bills. So, no surprise that this pic gives you an indication of the full house in attendance this day. Not many seats left in the audience, though you can tell more than a few committee members decided they didn't need to be here. Oh, well...it takes less time to count the votes after each proposed amendment that way.

On this day I was following an amendment we expected Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) to introduce, legislation involving the natural gas production technique called hydrofracking. Without getting too "land man" on this, she wants E&P companies to be forced to disclose what's in their fracking fluids (insert punchline here). Trouble is, leadership won't let her bill hit the floor. So she wanted to try something of an end run by introducing the plan and as amendment.

As it turns out, the K Street defense knew all about Rep. DeGette's end run and was in perfect position. Thanks to an eleventh-hour arm-twisting session the night before, seems that lobbyists convinced E&C Committee Chairman Henry Waxman to ask that the Congresswoman withdraw her amendment, even though she apparently had enough votes in place to pass her amendment.

So, bottom line, there wasn't even a vote on the plan. But, in true legislative fashion, lawmaker spent roughly 30 minutes discussing the merits of the amendment. Yeah, even though Rep. DeGette agreed to pull her amendment almost everyone in the room felt the need to outline how they feel about the amendment that was not going to be introduced. And in a flash, half an hour evaporates without anything actually happening. Not that Congress has much no do anyway, right?

Nonetheless, the Washington Nationals are playing .500 baseball right now so you can certainly argue that our town still has its redeeming qualities.