U.S. Senate Votes to Fund Climate Czar Carol Browne on Party Lines

The U.S. Senate today voted 57-41 to table an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill that would have prohibited any funds appropriated under the bill from being used to carry out the policies and directives of White House Climate Czar Carol Browner. Americans for Prosperity-Nebraska applauds Senators Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns for casting votes against funding an un-elected, unaccountable, climate czar.

Americans for Prosperity-Nebraska State Director Brad Stevens issued the following statement:

Nebraskans of both parties likely shared our concerns that unaccountable special advisers, popularly called czars, are apparently exerting enormous influence on U.S. policy. White House Climate Czar Carol Browner is an especially egregious example. Browner's role in pushing expensive new EPA regulations through secret negotiations and her membership as recently as this year on the so-called "Socialist International Commission on World Society" suggest Browner is out of touch with Nebraska values.

The U.S. Senate had an opportunity today to block funding for the policies and directives of White House Climate Czar Carol Browner, but decided not to do so on a nearly party-line vote, with only one Democrat putting accountability above party-loyalty and voting to block funding. Ben Nelson was that one Democrat, and we commend him for doing the right thing.

Americans for Prosperity Director of Policy Phil Kerpen issued the following statement:

In voting to keep White House Climate Czar Carol Browner funded, the Senate voted to allow a hard-left ideologue to continue to drive U.S. policy. Even worse, the Senate undermined its own constitutional right to exercise advice and consent by allowing an unaccountable White House staff czar to exert unchecked influence on energy policies.

Carol Browner has already overstepped the bounds of a legitimate adviser by crafting the Obama’s administration’s unprecedented attempt to regulate automobile fuel economy standards. She shoehorned greenhouse gas regulation into the 1970 Clean Air Act, and she insisted that nothing was put in writing while she did it.

As recently as January of this year, Browner was listed as one of the 14 members of the “Socialist International Commission for a Sustainable World Society” on that group’s web site. The 57 U.S. Senators who voted to fund the whims of Climate Czar Carol Browner with taxpayer money will have to explain that to their constituents.