June 26 the U.S. House passed the Cap and Trade energy bill, which will now head to the Senate. If passed as it stands, the bill will drastically increase energy costs for everyone in the country, cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, and reduce national productivity by trillions of dollars over the next 25 years. One analysis found 50 reasons Cap and Trade should be stopped.

The bill passed on a largely party-line vote, 219-212, with only 8 Republicans voting in favor and more than 40 Democrats voting against. Leaving aside the problems with the bill itself, what does this tell us about the way things are done in a Democrat-controlled House, and the representation we have from Central Texas in the Congress?

First, it looks like the bill that was voted on and approved was not only unread by any members of Congress, but it didn’t even exist as a coherent bill at the time it was presented for a vote. More than 300 pages of amendments were added to the bill just hours before the vote and those changes had yet to be incorporated in the final bill when the roll was called. It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last in this Congress.

Second, switching just 4 votes from Yea to Nay would have killed the bill. Nine members of the Texas delegation voted in favor, all Democrats, despite urging from the Governor’s office that the bill would impose higher costs on Texas due to the nature of our energy-driven economy. While 3 Texas Democrats did vote against the bill, none of them succeeded in convincing the remaining 9 to also vote against it (and there’s no evidence they really tried).

Which brings us to the leadership our elected representative has provided in Congress on this issue.

Our Congressman voted against the bill in the waning seconds of the vote, a common practice when someone needs “cover” to cast a vote that the party doesn’t approve of. Yet members of Congress should do more than just vote with their district under heavy pressure and only when it won’t affect the outcome. We deserve a representative who will “carry the water” for us every time, in the words of Texas Railroad Commissioner — and U.S. Senate candidate — Michael Williams.

Did our representative take to the House floor to speak against the bill, imploring fellow Democrats from energy-producing states to vote against it? Did he issue public statements in the weeks leading up to the vote voicing strong opposition to the bill? Did he ally himself with those seeking to amend the bill or seeking to keep it from coming to a vote? No, he did none of those things.

Central Texas deserves a congressman who will not cast a last-second vote under heavy pressure, but who will provide leadership on issues that are important to us. We deserve a representative who seeks opportunities to use his influence to convince others to join him in his vote, not one who slides his vote in under the wire after assuring it has “cover.”

On this issue, Rob Curnock’s position has been clear from the beginning: he would have worked day and night to fight this bill, in genuine opposition to it. Our current representative’s vote only proves the old adage that even a broken clock is right twice per day.