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Category: Barbara Boxer

ENDA clears Senate after nearly 20 years

In a 64-33 vote, including 10 Republicans, the Senate overwhelmingly passed, 64-32, the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, or ENDA, Thursday. The first version of the bill was introduced in 1994, but none has ever passed either chamber. The bill bans discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, pushed a broad religious […]

Barbara Boxer gives environmental hero award to George W. Bush library

Sen. Barbara Boxer was down in Texas Monday, handing out her inaugural Climate Hero Award to the George W. Bush presidential library for its environmentally friendly design. The liberal California Democrat, environmental agitator and frequent foe of the former president, was received in Dallas by former First Lady Laura Bush, who accepted the award on  

Walmart adds pressure on toxics overhaul

Retail giant Walmart said today it would reduce or eliminate 10 chemicals in products it sells, adding pressure to the chemical industry to support Sen. Barbara Boxer’s planned rewrite of a bill to begin regulating industrial chemicals. Stacy Malkan, who worked on the failed campaign for California’s Prop. 37 to label genetically engineered food, called  

Dianne Feinstein, Jerrold Nadler re-introduce DOMA repeal

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, reintroduced the Respect for Marriage Act Wednesday that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, even though the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the 1996 law known as DOMA. We said things wouldn’t be over and they aren’t. Section 3 denies all of 1,138  

Obama climate plan ignites Washington

Environmentalists hailed President Obama’s plan to force existing power plants to reduce C02 emissions,as a long overdue, just-in-time action to stop global warming now expected to easily cross the 2 degree Celsius threshold that nations had agreed was dangerous. Obama is to speak on the issue at 1:30 EST at Georgetown University. Electric power plants  

Bipartisan gun bill ready in House should Senate act

Rep. Mike Thompson, a gun-owning Vietnam veteran hand-picked by House minority leader Nancy Pelosi to forge a bipartisan agreement on gun legislation in the House, unveiled a companion background check bill Tuesday that has bipartisan support. That puts pressure on House Republican leaders to bring up gun legislation if it can pass the Senate.The Thompson  

Dianne Feinstein’s assault weapons ban dies in Senate

Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told Sen. Dianne Feinstein Monday night that he would drop her assault weapons ban from the package of gun control legislation he intends to bring to the Senate floor. From the outset of her quest to re-enact a version of her 1994 assault weapons ban in the wake of  

Battle lines forming on carbon tax

For a political non-starter, a carbon tax is generating an awful lot of activity on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, the conservative Republican Study Committee is holding a press conference to slam the idea, headlined by Texas Reps. Joe Barton and Jeb Hensarling and Louisiana chair Steve Scalise, with star billing to anti-tax activist Grover Norquist.  

Barbara Boxer pushes forward on “planetary emergency”

Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., formally introduced their fee-and-dividend climate bill Thursday,as you learned here Wednesday. The press conference featured several environmental activists who were arrested at the White House Wednesday, part of a push for a big climate rally in Washington Sunday. Also on Thursday the Government Accountability Office added climate  

Barbara Boxer sees carbon tax in the mix

Sen. Barbara Boxer said she had a one word answer for why President Obama promised to act on climate change in his second inaugural address: “Sandy.” Boxer called Hurricane Sandy a turning point in public opinion on global warming, and said Washington will act to curb CO2 emissions not via legislation but through the Environmental […]