Senate moves closer to energy vote deal

The Senate on Monday inched toward a potential breakthrough on stalled energy legislation, as Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Republicans could offer four amendments, including a vote on offshore oil drilling.

Speaking on the floor, Reid proposed that Democrats and Republicans each would have four amendments, which could be second-degree measures and would be subject to 60-vote thresholds.

{mosads}Such an offer could break the legislative logjam that has kept the Senate stuck on the energy bill. Democrats failed to reach cloture last week on their proposal to crack down on speculation in the oil futures market, and Republicans are refusing to allow the chamber to move on to other topics before the August recess.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Reid’s proposal was “significant.” He asked for time to confer with GOP senators.

“This is a significant step in the direction I had hoped we might take,” McConnell said. “I’m very encouraged by this development.”

Just an hour earlier, in a conference call with reporters, McConnell strongly suggested that GOP senators would hold firm against any effort to pass anything besides the energy bill.

“Right now the No. 1 subject in the country is the price of gas at the pump,” McConnell said at the outset of the Senate’s last week of work before the August recess. “We think we ought to do something about that and then move on to other subjects.”

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), echoed Reid’s long-held contention that Republicans are simply stalling and are uninterested in a genuine solution to high gas prices.

“As soon as Republicans decide they are more interested in doing something instead of just talking, they know where to reach Sen. Reid,” Manley said.

Democrats last week failed to pass a bill to crack down on speculation in the oil futures market, after Republicans insisted that Reid allow a more open amendment process. The GOP is pushing for an amendment that would allow them to vote on lifting the congressional moratorium on offshore oil drilling.

McConnell hedged when asked Monday if he could produce enough votes for a drilling amendment. Assuming all 49 Republican senators vote for such an amendment, McConnell would still need 11 more votes to reach the necessary threshold of 60.

The minority leader did note, however, that the defense authorization measure is usually handled in September, suggesting that there is still time to hash that out after the recess.

“When the Senate decides to accomplish things, it can do it in record time,” he said.

McConnell said he has not discussed with President Bush the possibility of calling on Congress to cut short its August recess to reopen the energy bill debate, “but if he does, I’ll be happy to be here.”