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The last time the U.S. economy suffered a crisis and needed an injection from the federal government, the Democratic Party was fighting with itself over how big rescue legislation should be.

There were those who thought something really huge over $1 trillion was necessary to get the country back on track after the 2008 financial crisis. But plenty of others believed an amount that high not only wasnt necessary, but was a political loser. Democrats didnt want to give Republicans any more ammunition to attack them as profligate spenders. Obama adviser Larry Summers actually forbade one of his colleagues from so much as presenting Obama with an option that topped $1 trillion.

Since then, a consensus has emerged among economists that President Barack Obamas 2009 stimulus package, which ended up costing roughly $840 billion, greatly benefited the economy but should have gone much further. It essentially was big enough to anger Republicans but not big enough to fully get the job done for the economy.

The lessons from that fight, as well as the negotiations over the Affordable Care Act, are now shaping the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that President Joe Biden has offered to help the country recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The takeaways for Democrats are clear: 1) Go big, and 2) dont wait around forever for Republicans to get on board.

The history of fiscal interventions has shown us that the tendency is to go small rather than to go big. If you listen to not just the president, but Janet Yellen, who has a fair bit of experience with this sort of thing, the risk here is not doing too much, its doing too little, said Jared Bernstein, a member of the presidents Council of Economic Advisers.

The lesson of 2009 is repeated and respected even among the colleagues who werent here at the time, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who was his states attorney general at the time.

If you remember 2009, we know that package was too small. It being so small, it caused the economy to recover a lot more slowly, added Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.).

Biden is dealing with a different Senate than Obama did at the start of his first term. Obama had a bigger majority, but there were more than half a dozen moderates he needed to please to get anything done. Biden has a Senate divided 50-50, but there are far fewer moderates.

Biden has expressed an interest in bipartisanship, but so far, he is indicating much more willing to move forward quickly without the GOP than Obama was.

The mood has also shifted. The country appears far more unified around the idea of doing something big on coronavirus than it was on the earlier financial crisis.

In early 2009, support for an $800 billion stimulus package hovered in the 50s, with a third or fewer of Republicans expressing support. Surveys that summer that asked Americans to weigh between stimulus spending and deficit reduction found the public anywhere from near-evenly divided to substantially preferring the latter.

A survey taken this year found Americans prioritizing economic recovery and dealing with the coronavirus outbreak significantly ahead of deficit reduction. In June 2020, as the nation settled in for a long haul with the pandemic, a 57% majority of registered voters wanted the government to do more, rather than leaving things up to businesses and individuals.

The progressive groups Data for Progress and Invest in America released a poll Wednesday that found 68% of voters want emergency relief as soon as possible, and 55% say to move forward with only Democratic votes, if necessary.

Voters have been pleading for help since last spring, and with Republicans in power, it fell on deaf ears. The distinction, today, between which party is interested in digging out from this, and which party wants to sit on their hands isnt an argument we have to make or win; it is the premise of Democratic trifecta, said Eric Schultz, who was communications director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2009-2010 and later worked in the Obama White House, referring to the Democratic control of the House, Senate and White House.

Even moderate senators from 2009 say that the current moment calls for substantial action.

This kind of trickling of the money doesnt give the boost that the economy needs at this time. Im kind of a go big or go home type of person, said Mark Begich, a former Democratic senator from Alaska who is now a strategic consulting adviser with the lobbying and law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

Begich was one of the moderate Democrats who wanted the Obama administration to cap the 2009 legislation at $800 billion. He said the overall number was getting way too big to manage and expressed concerns about some of the items included in the bill.

But he argues that the magnitude of what the country now faces is so much greater than after the 2008 financial crisis.

We didnt have a worldwide pandemic several hundred thousand people in this country that have died. To be frank with you, that is the significant difference. Its not just an economic urgency which it was last time, only economics. This is health first, he said.

Current Democratic lawmakers from more moderate districts are also, so far, largely on board with Bidens strategy in no small part because of what happened in 2009.

As a moderate Democrat representing a swing seat outside Pittsburgh, Rep. Conor Lamb is the type of lawmaker who may have been concerned about the size of the stimulus package in 2009. But he immediately blasted the Senate Republicans counterproposal in a Twitter thread in which he stated that unity doesnt determine the outcome here.

An important lesson after 2008 was that the stimulus efforts were probably too small, he told HuffPost. If we know now, that the COVID-19 shock is greater than 2008, our efforts should be bigger and stronger.

Lamb, whose constituents voted for Donald Trump in 2016, also believes that a bigger recovery package is the smarter play politically. Whether it was deserved or not, Lamb believes that high growth and rising pay in the pre-pandemic economy contributed to Trumps unexpectedly strong performance this past November.

Our job is to give people that same feeling, but in a way that hits the middle class and working people even more, he said. Do it so that people really feel it.

Rep. Matt Cartwright, another Pennsylvania Democrat in a swing seat, also emphasized the importance of bold action.

The door for a bipartisan package is open, but we are the Democratic majority for a reason, Cartwright said in a statement. We are not about to keep the American people waiting for the relief they need and demand.

Still, there are details where not everyone is in agreement, and the package could be downsized.

Some Democrats have started to discusslimiting the number of peoplewho receive the next round of stimulus checks, by lowering the annual income threshold above which people no longer receive the full payment.

This more targeted approach would be a way for the White House and Democrats to lower costs show theyre willing to negotiate, but it would also deprive more Americans of assistance and its unclear whether it would actually attract any Republican votes to the overall legislation.

Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) oversaw the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,charged with expanding the partys majority in the House. She also represents a district Donald Trump won in both 2016 and 2020, and said the biggest risk for the Democratic majority is not delivering significant aid to Americans.

You are a fool if you dont learn from mistakes. And there were mistakes that were made during the great recession, Bustos said.

House Democrats saw their majority shrink by more than a dozen seats in the 2020 elections. Bustos said that while there will be pressure on those remaining Democrats from swing districts to show bipartisan appeal, that concern shouldnt supersede passing the necessary relief.

Well listen, and theres some wiggle room on some of this, but in the end, we need to deliver, Bustos said, saying that she and fellow Democrats met with Biden over a Zoom call Wednesday morning. For the proposal from our friends across the aisle to not include one penny of help for our towns all over this country, that part of it is a nonstarter.

Bustos said that on the call, Biden emphasized the urgency of acting quickly and while there might be some negotiations on individual elements of the package, hes committed to moving forward with a big, aggressive package.

Evan Vucci/Associated PresPresident Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with Republican lawmakers to discuss a coronavirus relief package in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 1. From left, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, Harris, Biden, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

On Monday, Biden met with 10 Republican senators who pushed for a smaller stimulus package that would total $600 billion. It would offer smaller checks to people, no aid for state and local governments and less unemployment insurance. The president is under pressure to live up to his promise of uniting the country, with Republicans arguing that if he truly wants to do so, he needs to get their support for this package.

In an ideal world, everyone would like the coronavirus stimulus package to be bipartisan. The question is, how much time and energy should Biden spend on getting Republicans on board?

For most Democrats, the answer is easy: Dont spend all that much.

Former Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) was a key architect of the Affordable Care Act and, as chairman of the Finance Committee, presided over months of negotiations with Republicans to win support for a bill. The effort seemed increasingly futile to almost everybody else, but he stuck with it, despite pleas from both colleagues on Capitol Hill and officials at the White House.

No matter how hard we pressed ... we couldnt get Baucus to complete his work, Obama wrote in his memoir. Although one Republican senator (Maines Olympia Snowe) voted for a bill in committee, none supported it on the floor.

Baucus said he has no regrets, because he believes bipartisan legislation is ultimately more politically sustainable something essential for a program that will, ideally, exist in perpetuity. But the rescue package is mostly about short-term, time-limited interventions, and the nature of the pandemic means that Biden doesnt have time for months of negotiations.

I dont think he has much time. Hes got to decide pretty quickly, Baucus said, regarding whether Biden will work with Republicans. The virus is spreading, the different strains, such a huge issue. And if he wants his presidency to succeed clearly he does he has to lead. He has to be president. He has to not get bogged down in negotiations.

Claire McCaskill, a former moderate Democratic senator from Missouri who was also around in 2009, tweeted on Tuesday that as long as the White House focuses on policies that have broad public bipartisan support, they can be less concerned about politicians bipartisan support.

So far, the Biden administration is largely standing firm on its $1.9 trillion package. Their argument is that they dont need Republican lawmakers votes on their package since what they are proposing currently appears to be very popular among the American public, even among Republican voters.

This is a bipartisan agenda, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain tweeted Tuesday, sharing a poll that showed two-thirds of Americans favored Bidens $1.9 trillion proposal.

Biden told Senate Democrats this week that he believed the size of the GOP senators counterproposal was too small.

And the consistent message from the administration has been that there is a need to act aggressively to avert further disaster.

[R]ight now, with interest rates at historic lows, the smartest thing we can do is act big, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said at her confirmation hearing last month. In the long run, I believe the benefits will far outweigh the costs, especially if we care about helping people who have been struggling for a very long time.

Jim Manley, who served as a top aide to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) during the 2009 negotiations, said he gives Biden significant credit for, so far, refusing to buckle to the Republican demands.

They staked out a position and started driving a message on Friday that they were going to go big, and they havent walked away from that at all including during these negotiations with the Republicans, said Manley, who is now a senior adviser with APCO Worldwide. I think its very encouraging. They are determined to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Democrats are continuing to message that theyre willing to work with Republicans on this emergency package, but in Congress theyve already taken the first step toward passing the relief without Republican support. This week, Senate Democrats voted to approve a budget resolution that would allow for $1.9 trillion in new spending through a special process called budget reconciliation.

Budget reconciliation bills can pass with only the backing of a simple majority, meaning every Democrat will have to be on board, and Vice President Kamala Harris will have to step in as the tie-breaking vote.

The loudest moderate Democratic voice in the Senate so far has been Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), who previously grumbled that $1.9 trillion was maybe too high but ultimately accepted the number as an upper limit. Hes made clear that he wont sign on to nonemergency proposals being pushed through reconciliation,opposes the $15 an hour minimum wage included in Bidens initial proposal and wants further narrowing of how many Americans would receive the direct payments in the proposal.

On MSNBC Wednesday morning, Manchin said Biden told him that he does not want a repeat of what happened in 2009, when Democrats negotiated with Republicans for months on the Affordable Care Act and essentially came out with nothing.

I said, fine, Mr. President. Im happy to start this process, Manchin said, adding that he was not willing to change the rules of the Senate like abolishing the filibuster.

Some veterans of more collegial lawmaking eras also still see inherent value in at least making a good-faith effort to unite the two parties. Former Sen. Evan Bayh, a moderate Indiana Democrat active in the 2009 stimulus negotiations, argues that the key question is whether Biden can court Republican support without undermining his core policy goals.

There is a danger in moving too slowly say, longer than a few weeks but also a political risk in moving too fast, Bayh said.

The economy needs help, so you do need to move expeditiously, said Bayh, who is currently a senior adviser to the private equity firm Apollo Global Management.

But, he added, If you just go out and put the hammer down immediately within a day or two, people will misjudge the man. Joe Biden would genuinely love bipartisan cooperation.

Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), who was the Republican governor of the Sunshine State in 2009, effectively ended his career in the GOP when he welcomed Obama to an event in the state touting the states stimulus money. Crist and Obama shared a hug that Marco Rubio would use to attack Crist in the Republican Senate primary in 2010, prompting Crist to become an independent and subsequently a Democrat.

Crist, who made calls to Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) to get her on board with the stimulus package in 2009, believes that Obama got it just right.

I pray for a bipartisan bill this time too, Crist said, though he admitted hes not certain it will occur.

As for concerns about the size of the stimulus then, Crist said, President Obama probably would have liked for it to have been more. But one thing Ive learned in my public service is its better to get half a loaf than no loaf at all.

And at least one former Democratic lawmaker who served during Obamas first term warned in no uncertain terms against dispensing with the partys historic concerns for fiscal prudence and bipartisanship.

Going big isnt consistent with what the president was proposing when he said, We want to do things in a combined way in other words, reaching across to Republicans, said former Sen. Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, who proved one of the toughest Democratic votes to get in support of the Affordable Care Act and now practices corporate law at the Omaha firm Lamson Dugan & Murray. He said hes president of everybody, not just those who voted for him. So its hard to have it both ways.

The White House is banking on the belief that the American public isnt focused on the budgetary process and the inside negotiations. They simply want to see results.

What I think people are thinking about is we are almost a year into a crisis that has yet to be adequately controlled because of the lack of a focused and concentrated effort in the prior administration, said Bernstein, adding, What the American people want to see is action of scale that accomplishes three things: control the virus, distribute the vaccine and launch a reliably robust recovery.

Igor Bobic, Jonathan Cohn and Ariel Edwards-Levy contributed reporting.

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Democrats Determined To Avoid Their Old Mistakes With Big COVID-19 Stimulus - HuffPost

Democrats may be forced to scale back their ambitions for a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as one key senator, West Virginias Joe Manchin, has said he wont support trying to stretch the rules governing the budget process.

At issue is the so-called Byrd rule, named after Robert Byrd, a former senator also from West Virginia. The rule prohibits material from being in filibuster-proof bills that has a merely incidental budget effect, would raise the budget deficit after 10 years or affects Social Security.

Were not going to bust the filibuster, were not going to bust the Byrd rule that basically protects the filibuster, Manchin said in an interview on CNN Tuesday night.

In an appearance on MSNBCs Morning Joe Wednesday, Manchin said he had told Biden the same thing.

I said, Fine Mr. President. Im happy to start this process but Im not going to bust the Byrd rule, Im not going to basically get rid of the filibuster. We are going to work in a bipartisan way,' he said.

The House is expected to adopt the fiscal 2021 budget plan Wednesday that would set in motion the budget reconciliation process, which allows later spinoff bills to be immune to the filibuster in the Senate. Those bills, which would be subject to the Byrd rule, will be written by congressional committees by Feb. 16 to meet deficit targets in the budget resolution.

Passing a budget requires only 51 votes in the Senate and the follow-on reconciliation bills would also require only 51 votes, which Democrats would have with Vice President Kamala Harris vote. That makes the later reconciliation bill an attractive vehicle for Democrats to use to pass Bidens $1.9 trillion plan.

But the Byrd rules restrictions will likely make some priorities, like a direct boost to the minimum wage, drop out, unless Democrats break a long-held norm and vote on the Senate floor to overrule the parliamentarian who arbitrates Byrd rule challenges.

Overruling the parliamentarian also only takes 51 votes, but if Manchin sticks to his position, Democrats would be one vote shy. Republicans wont support waiving one of the ways to limit what Democrats can put into a reconciliation bill and have warned that overruling the parliamentarian would be seen as the same as getting rid of the filibuster,

The Senate is expected to adopt the budget on Thursday and the committees will have about two weeks to report back with the spinoff filibuster-proof legislation. While the White House has said it wants to take a bipartisan approach, the gulf between a first offer by a group of Senate Republican moderates $618 billion and Bidens plan will be hard to bridge.

Manchin on Wednesday said Republicans will agree to more. Theyll go farther than that. They know they have to, he said.

And Manchin said hes open to spending less.

If its $1.9 trillion, so be it. If its a little smaller than that, if we find a targeted need, then thats what were going to do, he said.

More:
Democrats may have to lower ambitions for relief bill as Manchin stands firm - MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden told Democratic lawmakers Wednesday hes not married to an absolute number on his $1.9 trillion COVID rescue plan but Congress needs to act fast on relief for the pandemic and the economic crisis.

Biden also said he doesnt want to budge from his proposed $1,400 in direct payments promised to Americans. But he said he is willing to target the aid, which would mean lowering the income threshold to qualify for the money.

Look, we got a lot of people hurting in our country today, Biden said. We need to act. We need to act fast.

Biden said, Im not going to start my administration by breaking a promise to the American people.

He spoke with House Democrats and followed with a meeting at the White House with top Senate Democrats, deepening his public engagements with lawmakers on pandemic aid and an economic recovery package. Together they are his first legislative priority and a test of the administrations ability to work with Congress to deliver.

Bidens remarks to the Democratic House caucus were relayed by two people who requested anonymity to discuss the private conference call.

While Biden is trying to build bipartisan support from Republicans, he is also prepared to rely on the Democratic majority in Congress to push his top agenda item into law. Objecting to the presidents package as excessive, Republicans proposed a $618 billion alternative with slimmer $1,000 direct payments and zero aid for states and cities. But Biden panned the GOP package as insufficient even as he continues private talks with Republicans on potential areas of compromise.

In his meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and 10 top Senate Democrats in the Oval Office, the president expressed confidence that the relief package would still win over GOP votes and be bipartisan.

I think well get some Republicans, he said at the start of the meeting.

With a rising virus death toll and strained economy, the goal is to have COVID-19 relief approved by March, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid measures expire. Money for vaccine distributions, direct payments to households, school reopenings and business aid are at stake.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the president fully recognizes the final package may look different than the one he initially proposed.

She said further targeting the $1,400 payments means not the size of the check, it means the income level of the people who receive the check. Thats under discussion, she said.

As lawmakers in Congress begin drafting the details of the package, Biden is taking care to shore up his allies while also ensuring that the final product fulfills his promise for bold relief to a battered nation.

House Democrats were told on the call with the president that they could be flexible on some numbers and programs, but should not back down on the size or scope of the aid.

We have to go big, not small, Biden told the Democrats. Ive got your back, and youve got mine.

As the White House reaches for a bipartisan bill, House and Senate Democrats have launched a lengthy budget process for approving Bidens bill with or without Republican support. Voting started Tuesday in the Senate and was set for Wednesday and Thursday in the House.

We want to do it bipartisan, but we must be strong, Schumer said after the 90-minute session at the White House. Democrats are working with our Republican friends, when we can.

The swift action follows Tuesdays outreach as Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen joined the Democratic senators for a private virtual meeting, both declaring the Republicans $618 billion offer was too small.

Both Biden and Yellen recalled the lessons of the government response to the 2009 financial crisis, which some have since said was inadequate as conditions worsened.

Schumer said of the Republican proposal: If we did a package that small, wed be mired in the COVID crisis for years.

Earlier in the week, Biden met with 10 Republican senators who were pitching their $618 billion alternative, and told them he wont delay aid in hopes of winning GOP support even as talks continue.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell criticized the Democrats for pressing ahead largely on their own as the GOP senators try to provide bipartisan alternatives.

Theyve chosen a totally partisan path, McConnell said. Thats unfortunate.

The two sides are far apart. The cornerstone of the GOP plan is $160 billion for the health care response vaccine distribution, a massive expansion of testing, protective gear and money for rural hospitals, similar to what Biden has proposed for aid specific to the pandemic.

But from there, the two plans drastically diverge. Biden proposes $170 billion for schools, compared with $20 billion in the Republican plan. Republicans also would give nothing to states, money that Democrats argue is just as important, with $350 billion in Bidens plan to keep police, fire and other workers on the job.

The GOPs $1,000 direct payments would go to fewer people those earning up to $40,000 a year, or $80,000 for couples. Bidens bigger $1,400 payments would extend to higher income levels, up to $300,000 for some families.

The Republicans offer $40 billion for Paycheck Protection Program business aid. But gone are Democratic priorities such as a gradual lifting of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The Delaware senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons, both Democrats from Bidens state, were at the White House earlier Wednesday and discussed with the president the need for state and local aid and the possibility of narrowing who qualifies for another round of direct payments.

Coons said hes in conversations with Republicans about on what terms are they willing to increase the amount significantly for some state and local aid. Without that, he said, its a nonstarter.

Winning the support of 10 Republicans would be significant, potentially giving Biden the votes needed in the 50-50 Senate to reach the 60-vote threshold typically required to advance legislation. Vice President Kamala Harris is the tie-breaker.

But Democrats pushed ahead with Tuesdays vote, laying groundwork for eventual approval under the budget reconciliation process that would allow the bill to pass with a 51-vote Senate majority.

Continued here:
Biden flexible on who gets aid, tells lawmakers to 'go big' - The Associated Press

Could Democrats be fighting the last war and wasting money on another $1.9 trillion economic relief package?

Perhaps, if Saint Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard is right.

The Fed official thinks the economy is already set for a strong recovery in 2021.

Its possible U.S. economic growth could top 6% this year, he said. Theres certainly a chance we grow faster than China in 2021, Bullard said.

Even the first three months of this year are looking strong. Only weeks ago Wall Street economists were penciling a contraction, Bullard noted

But strong growth should really kick in as soon as April as more Americans are vaccinated, he said.

So Democrats could keep their powder dry for another day, he said.

Democrats have the power here and can do what they want. But the trade-off would be in my mind do they want to invest a lot in this recovery that already looks strong or do they want to save firepower to do other things that they might want to do, Bullard said during a discussion with reporters after he spoke to the CFA Society St. Louis.

President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats have said a Republican fiscal stimulus package of $618 billion is insufficient.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats cannot accept a package that is too small or too narrow to pull our country of of this emergency.

In his talk to reporters, Bullard said the major downside risk to his forecast was the chance the vaccines might turn out not to be effective as expected against mutations of the coronavirus.

While the unemployment rate has fallen sharply to 6.7% after hitting a peak of 14.8% in April, many economists worry the 10.7 million unemployed Americans who have lost their jobs during the pandemic will have a hard time finding work again and the jobless rate may not improve much further.

But Bullard noted many of these workers believe they are on temporary layoffs. If they are called back, he thinks the unemployment rate could fall to 4.5% by the fourth quarter.

The problem of the permanently unemployed isnt as big as it was during the aftermath of the financial crisis, Bullard said.

There is still a tendency to think that this is a replay of the global financial crisis and a replay of the recovery from the global financial crisis. I dont think its anything like that, this shock is very different.

The idea that youre still not going to recover three, four, or five years from now is not the right way to view whats going on here, he said.

Continue reading here:
U.S. economic growth could surpass China this year and Democrats may be better off spending stimulus money on something else, Fed's Bullard says -...

Four Texas Democrats in the U.S. House have come out against President Joe Bidens Wednesday executive order directing the secretary of the interior to halt new oil and gas leases on federal public lands and waters to the extent possible.

In a letter, Democratic Reps. Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen, Henry Cuellar of Laredo, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher of Houston and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth called Bidens order far-reaching and demanded he rescind it, arguing that banning responsible energy leasing would eliminate jobs, decrease the countrys gross domestic product, increase crude imports from foreign countries and chip away at federal revenue, among other concerns.

Texas ... has been ravaged by the coronavirus and this recent Executive Order will hurt an already suffering community. Therefore, I urge the Biden administration to rescind this federal order and reevaluate the impact of this measure with input from relevant stakeholders and experts, Gonzalez said in a news release. I, and my colleagues, stand ready to work with President Biden, the incoming secretary of interior and other stakeholders to develop a thoughtful policy that addresses climate change, protects American jobs and moves us forward.

At a signing ceremony Wednesday, Biden cast the order as a measure to slow the pace of climate change and avoid the pollution of public lands.

[Unlike] the previous administration, well start to properly manage lands and waterways in ways that allow us to protect, preserve them, the full value that they provide for us for future generations, Biden said. Let me be clear, and I know this always comes up: Were not going to ban fracking. Well protect jobs and grow jobs, including through stronger standards like controls from methane leaks and union workers willing to install the changes.

The order, dubbed the Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad Executive Order, also calls for the interior secretary to launch a rigorous review of existing energy leases and permits while identifying steps toward doubling offshore wind energy production by 2030. It also establishes an interagency National Climate Task Force along with the development of an emissions-reduction target.

Bidens other executive order reestablishes the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which will seek input, advice and the best-available science, data and scientific and technological information from scientists, engineers and other experts in science, technology and innovation.

Efforts to fight climate change are largely popular among Democrats in Texas and across the nation. But the energy sector is a major source of jobs in the state, making the issue more politically complicated here. Soon after the four Democrats released the statement, the Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee devoted to helping Republicans win a majority in the U.S. House, released statements criticizing two other Texas Democrats U.S. Reps. Filemon Vela of Brownsville and Colin Allred of Dallas for not signing on.

The federal government owns 1.9% of the land in Texas, which is less than 3.3 million acres out of more than 168 million throughout the state. According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, there are more than 11.7 million acres of active energy leases off the Gulf of Mexico, as of the beginning of January. Of the leases that are active, slightly more than 2.5 million acres are producing or have produced oil or gas.

While the four Texas Democrats spoke out against Bidens plan for energy leasing, they praised him for signing an order rejoining the international Paris climate agreement on the first day of his administration. The letter does not mention where the four Texas Democrats stand on Bidens decision to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Correction, Jan. 28, 2021: This story previously misspelled the last name of a U.S. representative in one reference. He is Vicente Gonzalez, not Gonzales.

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Four Texas Democrats urge Joe Biden to rescind oil and gas order - The Texas Tribune