Thursday, September 24, 2009
Boucher policies make him a bigger political target
Boucher, who is pushing a cap-and-trade bill, is being pounded with criticism from foes.
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roanoke.com/politics
U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher has found himself in a strange position this year: more influential than ever, but also more potentially vulnerable to an opponent than he's been in years.
Boucher already has one opponent for next year's race -- independent Jeremiah Heaton of Abingdon -- and Republican names are being floated, too.
Heaton announced his candidacy earlier this month from Dubai because he said Boucher and other members of Congress seem more concerned about "theoretical long-term loss of life from global warming and health care" than they do about loss of soldiers serving overseas.
Boucher, D-Abingdon, is a key player in negotiations on a bill to create a national cap-and-trade system on greenhouse gases. His work helped soften the bill into a version that got passed by a committee and then the full House of Representatives earlier this summer.
Since Congress reconvened, Boucher has given three briefings to large groups of senators and participated in one-on-one meetings with several individual senators, including the two from Virginia.
"I'm seeking improvements in the bill. Many groups are ... all for the purpose of making the measure more economically sustainable," Boucher said.
To reach a filibuster-proof 60 votes, the bill will require some Republican support and all but a handful of Democrats, he said. In its current form, Boucher said it wouldn't even get 50 votes, so it must be changed to reassure legislators that electricity will remain affordable and that industries in their home districts will be protected.
Boucher's efforts have drawn plaudits from the White House and from U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the Commerce and Energy Committee and sponsor of the cap-and-trade bill.
But he continues to draw heat from critics who say the legislation amounts to a national energy tax that could cost families between $1,500 and $3,100 a year and potentially cripple the coal industry that employs roughly 5,000 people in Boucher's district.
Heaton, 33, said Boucher should focus more on preserving the 9th District's manufacturing base than on promoting broadband Internet expansion and pushing for clean coal technology, which he said will be outpaced by the cap-and-trade bill's tightening restrictions.
"If it passes, we are going to have another nail driven into America's economic future," Heaton said. "It's another financial burden that small businesses and companies are going to have to overcome."
No Republican has as yet officially filed paperwork to challenge Boucher next year. Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott County, has been mentioned as a possible candidate but has declined to commit one way or the other. Kilgore is currently running for re-election this year as a state delegate.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, meanwhile, has pounded Boucher with advertisements and a steady stream of critical news releases.
Most recently, the NRCC targeted Boucher's record of missed votes in his two committees, saying he's missed 61 percent of recorded votes from Sept. 16, 2008, to Sept. 16, 2009. That's fifth overall in Congress and second among Democrats.
"It's unfortunate that Rick Boucher's two signature accomplishments this year consist of selling out Southwest Virginians by spearheading Obama's energy tax and missing more committee votes than nearly every other member of Congress," said NRCC spokesman Andy Sere.
In a Tuesday interview, Boucher said he's missed 90 of 157 recorded votes in 2009 but argued there are good reasons. His mother, Dorothy Buck Boucher, suffered an illness and died in January, and during that time he was by her bedside in Abingdon. In addition, both of his committees meet at roughly the same time, he said. Third, he spent much of this year in backroom negotiations with Waxman on cap and trade.
Some have asked why Boucher is working so hard to pass a bill that could well be detrimental to his district. Boucher counters that a March 2007 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court established carbon dioxide as a pollutant subject to regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency. If Congress doesn't address the issue of regulation, Boucher said the EPA will -- and without the nuance that legislators can consider.
The EPA cannot "balance the need for economic sustainability against environmental regulation," Boucher said. "We can and we have done that in the bill that's passed the House."
Boucher said the bill should come up for a vote by November, ahead of an international conference intended to produce a follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol, which was intended to reduce greenhouse gases by 2012.
