Senate GOP wary of shutdown

Senate Republicans are resisting calls to shut down the government if Democrats try to keep a longstanding offshore drilling ban intact.

Despite the party’s election-year rallying cry that expanding offshore drilling would lower high gas prices and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, several GOP senators said holding up a must-pass continuing resolution (CR), which may include an extension of the drilling ban, is not yet in the calculus.

{mosads}“Obviously, there will be an interest for getting a vote on drilling in the CR, but it’s not going to lead to any dramatic event,” said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), an adviser to the GOP leadership.

Republicans have bad memories of the 1995 government shutdown that resulted from a bitter fight between a GOP-led Congress and President Bill Clinton over the federal budget. And several GOP lawmakers worry that a shutdown would further damage their prospects in congressional races or drag down their presidential candidate, John McCain, just weeks before the November elections.

“Those politics are pretty well-known,” said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.). “No one in our caucus that I know of is seriously even uttering the word ‘shutdown.’ ”

House Republicans, who spent the August recess pounding Democrats for keeping the offshore drilling ban in place, have threatened to hold up the CR, which both Congress and President Bush must approve to keep the government operating past Oct. 1.

The growing political pressure from the GOP and conservative Democrats seems to be paying off.

House Democratic leaders reversed course Wednesday and unveiled a compromise bill that gives states the authority to allow oil and gas drilling 50 miles off their coasts. The bill is likely to pass the House next week, but its prospects for winning Senate approval and Bush’s support are grim.

House Democrats have signaled they will not include a drilling ban in the CR, either. But their leaders are leaving themselves room to put that language in a final version.

{mospagebreak}Senate Democrats have not settled on a strategy for the CR yet, according to leadership aides.

First they are setting their sights on a series of energy votes scheduled for next week, including a measure supported by 20 senators that would allow four Southeastern states to authorize new offshore drilling off their coasts and open up new lands in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico for oil exploration.

Prospects seem slim for approval of any of those measures.

{mosads}Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Thursday that Democrats’ suggestion of allowing only three energy votes would not pass muster with the GOP.

“Is this just an opportunity for members to have a cover vote — to vote for something knowing it never becomes law?” he said.

Kyl said the GOP has not yet considered holding up the CR if Democrats don’t allow additional Republican energy proposals to advance.

Forty Senate Republicans have signed on to a letter by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), saying they would “actively oppose” any attempts to extend the offshore drilling ban.

But a number of the signatories say signing the letter does not mean they would vote to block a CR and shut down the government to win the energy fight.

“It does not mean that there is a desire to necessarily shut down government, but just a desire to show we want [the ban] lifted,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).

DeMint sees it differently. He said Democrats would suffer the repercussions of a government shutdown because, he said, the public is on the GOP’s side in the fight over gas prices.

“Any Republican would be foolish to vote for a ban on energy after this issue has been so front and center,” DeMint said.