Democrats Planning Climate Change All-Nighter
Get ready! Senate Democrats might be rolling out the cots next month for a debate on climate change.
That’s one of the plans of the new Climate Action Task Force, a group of members of the Senate Democratic Conference announced last month.
The Huffington Post reported Thursday evening that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., gave word of the marathon session to a group of Organizing for Action activists during a recent conference call.
Whitehouse said the group of senators involved wants “to basically break the pattern of the Senate and show the interest of at least 20 senators who will be participating through the night,” according to the Huffington Post report.
Whitehouse has given a “time to wake up” floor speech about climate and environmental issues each week the Senate’s been in session for the past 58 session weeks.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, will take the lead in organizing the all-nighter, his office confirmed Thursday evening. Aides to both Schatz and Whitehouse said the event is still in the planning stages, with timing and details yet to be announced.
The Senate Historical Office counts Senate sessions as running all-night when they extend past 4 a.m. There are records for 34 such sessions to date, the most recent being during consideration of a stopgap spending bill in September of last year.