What’s Keeping a Quarter of the Senate Up All Night?
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iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Get ready for another all-nighter in the Senate. Twenty-eight Democratic senators are expected to take turns speaking on the Senate floor Monday evening through Tuesday morning, all in the name of climate change.
Led by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii; and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the senators are expected to talk about how climate change is affecting their home states and discuss the need to build momentum behind the issue. The all-night talk-a-thon will begin after votes conclude Monday evening and last until approximately 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday.
Five senators – Whitehouse, Schatz, Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Cory Booker, D-N.J.; and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. – are taking the shifts in the dead of the night when most of their Senate colleagues will be tucked away in bed.
And how will the senators keep their energy up during the sleepless night? Schatz will give his colleagues an energy boost by providing kona coffee and macadamia nuts from Hawaii, a spokeswoman for Schatz told ABC News, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., will bring bagels to round up her colleagues in the morning.
Many of the senators are part of the “Senate Climate Action Task Force,” which was formed in January to “wake up” Congress about the need to address climate change. Senators will promote their overnight session on social media using the hashtag #Up4Climate.
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