Tax cuts for millionaires and budget cuts to social programs are one thing, but touch House Democrats’ paper coffee cups and you’re in a world of hurt.
Democratic leaders have been waging a war of words against the GOP majority after Republicans canceled a composting program and replaced the cafeteria’s biodegradable cups, plates, and utensils with styrofoam and hard plastic. Rep. Daniel Lungren (R-CA), who announced the move last month, said in a press release the House Inspector General concluded the process of composting the green utensils added $475,000 annually to the Capitol’s operating costs with only marginal environmental benefits versus the usual approach of burning trash and using the heat to create energy. In addition, the biodegradable materials drew frequent criticism from cafeteria-goers, who complained the utensils broke easily and the cups could not hold coffee without overheating and even sometimes leaking out the bottom.
But styrofoam— long a symbol of environmental ruin — is proving too much for enviro-friendly Democrats to handle. After initially putting out a statement labeling the changes “disappointing,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took to Twitter this week to continue the offensive, writing “GOP brings back Styrofoam & ends composting—House will send 535 more tons to landfills #TalkAboutGovtWaste.”
Pelosi’s staff believes the IG’s report failed to take into account additional factors in evaluating the composting program’s environmental benefits. TPM reached out to the IG’s office to go over their complaints, but has yet to receive a response.
Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, took things waaaay further in a press release tying the changes (somehow) to the House GOP’s budget plan: “Evidently the Republican economic strategy for jobs is one word: ‘Styrofoam,’” Israel said. “In two months they haven’t created a single job, but they have boldly brought Styrofoam cups back to the congressional cafeterias. At least the 700,000 Americans whose jobs the Republican budget eliminates can sleep better at night knowing that the Republicans have made the world safe for Styrofoam.”
Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) also went to bat on behalf of the maligned biodegradable utensils, telling The Hill this week that “styrofoam cups will increase costs to our country due to health-related impacts, toxic cleanups, new landfill construction and increased reliance on energy-intensive, oil-based plastics. Our compostable cups did none of this.”
The composting program was part of Pelosi’s larger “Greening the Capitol” initiative, which remains in place with a goal of reducing energy use to 50% of 2006 levels by 2016. According to the Office of the Inspector General, the House was on track to meet its goal as of last August. Pelosi’s staff noted to TPM that the cafeteria changes led to 1,196 tons of material being composted instead of trashed as of last November.
For those lawmakers upset about the changes, there may be a compromise solution: walk over to the Senate cafeteria, where the old enviro-friendly cups still enjoy the Democratic majority’s protection.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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