ARCTIC
IN THE FIRST BUDGET BILL:
BUDGET
AND OIL DRILLING
Senate Votes to Keep Arctic Drilling in the Budget;
Doesn't End Arctic Fight
On March 16, 2005, the Senate voted 51-49 to defeat
Senator Maria Cantwell's (D-Wash.) amendment to strip
Arctic Refuge drilling from the budget resolution. The
narrow vote to leave oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge in
the larger Budget Resolution was a setback, but just the
first round in a long fight that Defenders will wage to
protect the Refuge. Read the press
release.
The future of the Arctic Refuge was first put in jeopardy
when Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), Chairman of the Senate
Budget Committee, included the drilling provision in the
Senate version of the budget bill. We were extremely
disappointed by Senator Gregg's irresponsible and
destructive decision to use the budget process as an
end-run tactic to approve drilling by avoiding true debate
on this highly controversial issue. Defenders commends
Senator Cantwell for her amendment to strike this
provision from the Senate bill, and we commend Senator
Feingold (D-Wisc.) for offering an amendment last week to
strike the language when the bill was still in committee
(that amendment lost by a vote of 12-10).
With the Senate closely divided on such a high-profile issue, including it in the larger budget resolution could seriously damage the prospects of that bill as it passes through the Senate, the House-Senate conference and final passage in both chambers. Even then, this provision of the budget resolution will not go into effect unless it makes it into the final Budget Reconciliation bill later in the year, which must itself go through the same arduous process as the budget resolution itself. Congress hasn't managed to complete the budget process in the last two years; if that happens again, drilling backers will be back to square one. And Defenders will work to protect the Arctic every step of the way.
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