Senate passes continuing resolution

The Senate on Saturday passed a measure that ends a 27-year-old oil drilling ban and keeps the federal government funded until March 2009, leaving only a massive bailout bill for Wall Street on Congress’s weekend to-do list. 

Senators voted 78-12 for the measure, which passed the House 370-58 on Wednesday and will fund the government until next March 6. The White House had threatened to veto earlier versions, but signaled Saturday it will accept the measure as passed.

{mosads}The funding bill does not include a ban first implemented by Congress in 1981 that prevented oil companies from drilling off coastal states in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Gulf of Mexico. The moratorium prevented the Department of the Interior from issuing drilling leases in certain waters covered by the ban.

At least temporarily, that means the oil drilling debate in Congress is over, although senators from both parties acknowledge there is now a vacuum in U.S. policy and the ban could always be reinstated by a future president or Congress.

Saturday’s vote also goes a long way in lessening the closely-watched possibility of a lame duck congressional session after the November elections. The continuing resolution was the source of a long, torturous tug-of-war between Congress and the White House. The Bush administration had been reluctant to sign off on a long-term CR for fear of losing leverage during the president’s remaining months in office.

Congressional Democrats had wanted a CR that lasted beyond Bush’s departure to avoid having to give ground on any number of contentious issues between them and the president.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said while Bush will sign the resolution, it “stands as a reminder of the failure of the Democratic Congress to fund the government in regular order – by passing authorization and appropriations bills and sending them to the president.”

However, Fratto saluted the expiration of the oil drilling ban.

“One benefit of this broken process is the agreement to discontinue the moratoria on exploration and drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and allowing access to western oil shale reserves,” he said. “Ending these moratoria puts the United States one step closer to ending our dependence on foreign sources of energy.”

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) had threatened a procedural move that would have delayed Saturday’s final vote until Sunday, keeping senators in Washington for the rest of the weekend. But Landrieu relented, allowing the early-afternoon vote.

Landrieu is pushing a $1.12 billion agricultural disaster relief bill that is intended to aid Southern states hit hard by recent hurricanes, floods and droughts. Cotton farmers, which comprise much of Louisiana’s agricultural industry, were particularly hit hard by the recent stress and are estimated to have lost $700 million in revenue, according to Landrieu’s office.

Landrieu did secure a commitment that the Senate will consider the bill “sometime this year,” according to her office, although her aides said it was unclear if that meant next week or in a lame-duck session.