On Monday, after votes finish that evening and until approximately 9 am Tuesday morning, a group of 28 senators, led by Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), will hold the floor to urge action on climate change.
Most of the 28 participants are members of the Climate Action Task Force, launched in January. The only member of the Task Force who is not a part of the all-night marathon is Bob Menendez of New Jersey. Several members of the Senate leadership (Reid, Durbin, Schumer, Murray) will be joining the members of the Task Force.
Here are the senators who are expected to speak during the all-nighter:
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Dick Durbin (D-IL)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Al Franken (D-MN)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Angus King (I-ME)
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Ed Markey (D-MA)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Harry Reid (D-NV)
Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Brian Schatz (D-HI)
Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Mark Udall (D-CO)
Tom Udall (D-NM)
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Of this group, only one--Bill Nelson (FL)--voted for the Keystone XL pipeline last year. I do not know Booker's stance, but Markey is obviously opposed.
There are 11 Democrats who voted against Keystone who are not on the list of expected speakers:
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
Pat Leahy (D-VT)
Carl Levin (D-MI)
Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
I was particularly surprised by the fact that Baldwin was not one of the 28 speakers, given her strong climate record in her House career.
If we are to divide the Senate up on this issue, here is the bottom tier of the caucus, the Keystone supporters (save Nelson):
Mark Begich (D-AK)
Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Tom Carper (D-DE)
Bob Casey (D-PA)
Chris Coons (D-DE)
Joe Donnelly (D-IN)
Kay Hagan (D-NC)
Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Joe Manchin (D-WV)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
John Walsh (D-MT)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Walsh did not vote for Keystone because he was not in the Senate then. He has, however, been strongly supportive.
We are not likely to see climate legislation come out of the Senate any time soon, let alone the House. However, building public consciousness, momentum for future legislation, and political will behind executive actions remain important. Public opinion polls often show that most people place depressingly little importance on climate action, so efforts like this, despite their lack of direct effect, are important.
We'll have to wait and see, though, how many stations actually give it any coverage.