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Oil Drilling in Arctic is Blocked Democrats Muster Republican Support

Posted on: Thursday, 22 December 2005, 18:00 CST

By Carl Hulse

The Senate voted Wednesday to block a military spending bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, preventing congressional Republicans and President George W. Bush from achieving their long-sought goal of allowing exploration in the Alaskan wilderness. In the second major legislative showdown of the day, drilling supporters fell 4 votes short of the 60 needed to cut off debate on the $453.3 billion spending bill as the Senate voted 56-to-44 to end a filibuster. Forty-one Democrats and one independent were joined by two Republicans in opposing the drilling plan. Democrats argued that Senate Republicans, at the behest of Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the Republican who has long championed the oil drilling, were twisting the rules of the Senate by adding the drilling to a military bill.

Senate leaders immediately began exploring ways to save the underlying Pentagon spending bill before Congress comes to a close in the next few days. As it stands now, temporary authorization for military spending expires Dec. 31. Earlier Wednesday, with Vice President Dick Cheney breaking a 50-50 tie, the Senate approved a $40 billion budget-cutting measure that Republicans hailed as evidence of their determination to control government spending. "Victory No. 1," Senator Bill Frist, the Republican majority leader, declared after the budget measure was passed. But Democrats won a procedural victory on the budget bill that forced it back to the House of Representatives, delaying final approval and depriving House and Senate Republicans of a clear victory. The House has left the capital for the holidays and it is unclear when lawmakers can take up the minor changes. The tie-breaking vote by Cheney, who cut short an overseas trip to be on hand, was needed because 5 Republican senators joined all 44 Democrats and the one independent in opposing the budget plan, which Democrats argued cut too deeply into social programs. "This bill targets Americans with the greatest needs and the fewest resources," said Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader. Republicans said the budget bill would save $39.7 billion over five years. As the oil debate began, a Democrat, Senator Robert Byrd, urged his colleagues to block the military spending bill, even though he is a longtime friend of Stevens. "I love this man from Alaska, I do," he said after clutching a bound book of Senate rules. "But I love the Senate better." The votes Wednesday are part of a flurry of activity in the last few days before the Senate leaves for the holidays. Several senators have said that the votes on several major issues, like Arctic oil drilling and the spending cuts, would determine whether the congressional session ends on a triumphal note for Republicans, or whether Democrats will celebrate blocking their efforts. "It is make it or break it," Senator Mel Martinez said Tuesday as he left a strategy lunch for Republicans. The last few days at the Capitol have been chaotic, with an exhausting all-night session in the House that ended just before sunrise Monday and then, after adjournment there, two days of bitterness in the Senate over process as well as policy. The two parties have done battle over the fate of the USA Patriot Act, the broad anti-terrorism law. Charges and countercharges are flying over the Bush administration's secret domestic surveillance program. Democrats continue attacking the Republicans for making what the minority deems draconian cuts in social programs. Veteran legislators say that preholiday theater is not unusual and that congressional leaders often use the calendar to try to push through measures that would never pass otherwise. "I have been here 27 years, including, I think, two of those years on Christmas Eve," said Senator John Warner, a Republican. "I actually observed fisticuffs between two of the most respected Republican senators ever to serve in this body on Christmas Eve." One piece of legislation for which no votes are yet scheduled is the USA Patriot Act. Sixteen provisions of the law are set to expire at the end of the year, and an effort to extend them was blocked by a filibuster last week. Senate leaders traded accusations Tuesday over responsibility if the provisions lapsed. "The Patriot Act expires on Dec. 31, but the terrorist threat does not," Frist told reporters, echoing Bush.

Democrats, who were joined by four Republicans in blocking the measure, say it is the majority that is at fault, for refusing to agree to a temporary extension while disputes over civil liberties safeguards are worked out. Republican leaders also say they might have been able to finish earlier had they not lost considerable time in September dealing with Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. But the approach of a holiday break is often an occasion for legislative action, as time pressure builds and lawmakers relent on some fights. Richard Baker, the Senate historian, recalled that in 1982, exasperated senators of both parties joined just two days before Christmas to shut off a filibuster by a handful of conservatives against an increase in the federal gasoline tax. After the lopsided vote that followed, Senator George Mitchell, Democrat of Maine, recalled for his colleagues Cromwell's exhortation to Parliament in 1653: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing; in the name of God, go."

Source: International Herald Tribune

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