A new congressional committee will join the ranks of the House of Representatives this year, charged with studying the issue of global climate change and what the nation can do to respond to it. But the panel, dubbed the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, will have no authority to revise or approve legislation.
The creation of a new congressional committee dedicated to the issue of climate change was a top priority of many progressive Democrats elected to Congress last November. The House rules package for the 116th Congress that was subsequently approved by lawmakers responded by forming the Climate Crisis Committee. Under the rules, the panel will have 15 members (nine of whom will be Democrats), and will be directed to “investigate, study, make findings, and develop recommendations on policies, strategies, and innovations to achieve substantial and permanent reductions in pollution and other activities that contribute to the climate crisis.” The committee will have the power to organize hearings on this topic, but may not mark up legislation or subpoena witnesses. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) will chair the committee, but the top Republican has yet to be announced.
While the Climate Crisis Committee will not be able to draft its own legislation, the rules package does outline a path for the panel to influence climate policies. Based on its hearings and investigations, the committee is instructed to share any “policy recommendations” with the standing House committee with legislative jurisdiction over the relevant topic by March 31, 2020. Presumably this would give the standing committee time to incorporate the suggestions into its own climate-related legislation, though the rules set no requirements for any committee to do so.
In many ways the Climate Crisis Committee is a successor to the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which Democrats created in 2007 when they last took over control of the House of Representatives. That panel also had no legislative authority, but held a series of hearings on climate change science and risks. Republicans disbanded the panel upon taking back the House majority in 2012.