When the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee counted votes Thursday on greenhouse gas-reducing legislation, no mark stood next to Missouri Sen. Kit Bond’s name.

Nor that of any other Republican.

Mr. Bond and fellow GOP committee members spent three days boycotting the panel’s consideration of the Kerry-Boxer energy bill. With no Republicans in the room Thursday, Democrats passed the measure 11 to 1.

Beginning Tuesday, Republican members of the committee stayed clear of the sessions, insisting the Environmental Protection Agency should have conducted a full economic analysis of the legislation.

During a Wednesday interview with Missouri reporters, Mr. Bond said, “Sen. Boxer is trying to move ahead and report out a bill before we even have an analysis of how much the EPA says this is going to cost the American public.”

Mr. Bond said the climate-change measure, which he called the “cap-and-tax” bill,” would kill jobs and drive utility costs higher for his constituents.

“We know it would cripple the Midwest and coal-dependent regions,” the Missouri senator said.

Backing Liberty Memorial

Northwest Missouri Congressman Sam Graves went to the House floor Thursday to speak in favor of legislation designating Kansas City’s Liberty Memorial as the National World War I Memorial.

The bill, introduced by Kansas City Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, would also establish a commission to plan and carry out a World War I centennial in the coming years.

Mr. Graves co-sponsors the measure with other Missouri lawmakers. The Tarkio Republican called it “a fitting recognition” for a memorial and museum that recognizes roughly 2 million Americans who served overseas during the war, which ended in 1918.

“To be clear, there is no nationally recognized memorial honoring the service of Americans who served in World War I,” he said.

The commander of American forces in the war, Gen. John J. Pershing, was born in northern Missouri, about 94 miles east of St. Joseph in Laclede. He attended the Liberty Memorial dedication in 1921.

The bill authorizes a commission appropriation of $500,000 a year between 2010 and 2019.

Relocate the

embassy

The United States should yield to history and move its embassy in Israel, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback believes.

On Thursday, he joined other Republican senators in introducing legislation that calls for the American embassy to relocate from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem has been Israel’s capital since 1950. Congress passed legislation in 1995 recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and designating the move of the U.S. embassy to that city by 1999. That directive has remained unfulfilled for reasons of Middle East politics and American differences between the executive and legislative branches of government.

“It is long overdue for America to recognize the sovereign right of Israel to choose Jerusalem as its capital city,” the Kansas Republican said in a statement on Thursday.

Ken Newton can be reached

at kenn@npgco.com.