Two hundred and six House Republicans voted unsuccessfully on Wednesday night to insert an amendment into a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that would have required that the words “climate change” in the bill be replaced with the word “weather.”

Referring to the requirement that the FAA study air turbulence, Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, who introduced the amendment, said: “As part of this, it requires the agency to conduct R&D to understand the impacts of climate change and other factors on the nature of turbulence. My amendment changes this requirement to focus on the impacts of weather rather than climate change. Weather patterns are a common cause of turbulence.” Ogles’ amendment was intended “to clarify that a study of turbulence should include a focus on weather conditions rather than climate change since weather is the proximate cause.”

Had it passed, the amendment would have limited the agency’s study of increased aviation turbulence to focusing solely on the weather, rather than the underlying cause of higher air temperatures.

With all 211 Democrats who were present and 16 […]