Burgess, a licensed obstetrician, offered two amendments to prohibit CFL’s from being required to be installed in nursing homes, daycares or schools and to put mercury warning labels on CFL bulbs. During debate he said when he treated pregnant women, “I agonized over it when faced with giving pregnant women a vaccine that had thimerosal [a mercury containing organic compound] in it.”
The measures failed 13-16 and 14-16 respectively.
Democrats on the committee complained of existing “label fatigue” and said the three-fourths of a ton of mercury contained in the nation’s supply of CFL’s is not a significant amount to warrant opposition.
Work on the bill has not yet been completed and will be taken up again by the committee this week.
The $16 billion in domestic energy taxes and $6 billion green project fund came from the bill out of the House Ways and Means Committee which is chaired by Rep. Charlie Rangel (D.-N.Y.). His bill also contains a line item to enact Davis-Bacon labor standards, language to route $1.636 billion back to his home state of New York for transportation, and $10 million for limited fringe benefits to those who commute to work using a bicycle.
This bill passed out of committee 24-16 and is now headed for a floor vote.
Republicans have complained that the legislation being moved out of the five committees that have jurisdiction over energy issues do nothing to increase domestic energy supply or conserve energy.
Amanda Carpenter
Amanda Carpenter is the author of “The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy's Dossier on Hillary Clinton,” published in October 2006.
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