A fight broke out in a closed-door meeting of House Democrats over climate change as a powerful veteran lawmaker fought with freshman star Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members-elect over the creation of a special panel for the issue.
New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, incoming chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee — backed by a number of other committee members — slammed the creation of the new climate panel, according to multiple sources in the room.
Pallone argued that his committee and other existing panels within the House could take on the issue aggressively.
But Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rep.-elect Joe Neguse (Colo.) and some of the other progressive incoming lawmakers fought back, saying they ran on the issue and needed to do it. Ocasio-Cortez earlier this week pushed for a “Green New Deal” as she backed more than 200 young protesters at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office.
Ocasio-Cortez later said it wasn’t a direct confrontation with Pallone in a tweet late Thursday.
“I never even [had] a direct interaction with him today,” she tweeted, “and by direct interaction, I mean I didn’t share a conversation. I did say hello and he is very kind.”
Watching it all from the sidelines was Pelosi, who has already called for the reinstatement of the select panel that she first set more than a decade ago. Ocasio-Cortez has praised Pelosi for reinstating the special committee, even though she wants it to have far broader authority to craft legislation remaking the U.S. energy grid.
“We need to act on climate change NOW w/ a fossil fuel $-free Select Committee with a mandate to draft a Green New Deal,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted earlier Thursday. “It’s our best chance to beat the clock.”
Read more at Politico
AO-C a example of why liberal idiots making mess out of everything they touch
If AO-C wants to be a rebel, she’ll declare that it’s not about the health of the planet, it’s about taking from the rich to feed the poor, minus the Socialist commissions. Tell it like it is Alexandria. Trump does.
She’s going to tell the senior reps
how to think ?
The reps of her own party
will silence her.
She clearly has Hillary Derangement Syndrome
We’ll see how it plays out
She either ” toes ” their line or
she’ll be an outsider
possibly, not even SEATED
Just like Hillary was reproached in 1993 !
A young legislator with an addenda. I am not aware of the lady’s background and education history. Arts, law, any of the sciences? I believe it was a song title – “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread”. Any Bill drawn up by politicians could well be a disaster for the country.
Pelosi should let AOC have the climate cause all to herself.