For the first six years of the Obama administration, Senate Republicans' minority status has handcuffed their efforts to rein in the environmental and energy policies they loathe.
But if Republicans retake the Senate in this year's election, it'll be open season for attacks on President Obama's environmental agenda.
A GOP takeover of the Senate would mean Republicans could finally set the agenda for votes and hearings, haul Obama administration officials to Capitol Hill to testify, slice even more cash from controversial agencies' budgets and continue to stall nominees for key agency posts.
"When it comes to the agencies they don't like, including the EPA and others, I think what you're going to see happen is Republicans throw everything but the kitchen sink against the wall, and they're going to wait and see what sticks," said Jim Manley, a former longtime aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) who now works at QGA Public Affairs. "What you're going to see is amendment after amendment, budget cut after budget cut, all of which is designed to take a nick at the different agencies."
Perhaps the biggest impact on agencies like U.S. EPA, the Interior Department and the Energy Department would be ramped-up efforts to cut their funding -- and some of the administration's pet programs.
"Those three agencies are really important and a significant part of the president's agenda," said former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), a longtime member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "If the Republicans take over the Senate, there will be an appetite for more aggressive hearings on how the administration is using its executive powers, there will be an appetite for riders and all the ... things that have been bottled up that they want to do."
But, Dorgan added, "all of that will be more for show than it will be for impact, because most of that will not get done and the president will have ultimately a 67-vote veto pen in any event."
EPA -- a favorite target for many Republicans -- would see its funding and regulations come under siege with increased fervor.
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