Week ahead: Senate looks to wrap up energy, water spending bill

The Senate will look to finish its work on an energy and water spending package in the coming week, aiming to pass its first appropriations bill of the year. 

The fiscal 2017 bill would increase funding $355 million over 2016 levels, with a $1.163 billion increase for the Department of Energy’s defense-related programs and an $808 million decrease for the nondefense portions of the bill, including other DOE programs and the Army Corps of Engineers.

{mosads}The $37.5 billion bill doesn’t contain many of the policy riders included in the House version of the bill. The Appropriations Committee sent it to the floor earlier in the month, and the Senate began debating in recent days. 

Senators voted down a particularly controversial rider, with Democrats blocking an amendment from Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) designed to prevent funding for an Obama administration water rule. 

Even so, the White House has threatened a veto, saying the bill doesn’t provide enough research funding for advanced energy projects or renewable energy sources. 

“At this funding level, the number of research, development, and demonstration projects supported in cooperation with industry, universities, and the national labs would be reduced, limiting innovation and technological advancement,” the White House said in a statement.

Senators are scheduled to vote on amendments to kick off the week, including measures to increase spending for wind energy and water projects at Lake Mead in Nevada, and another to cut funding from the Army Corps’ construction work. Other amendments will likely follow before final passage.

Congress and energy watchers will also begin waiting for news on an energy bill conference committee. After the Senate passed its energy bill, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), its sponsors, said they were looking forward to merging the House and Senate legislation. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), too, has indicated his desire to get the bills to a conference committee this session and craft a compromise package. 

Neither the House nor Senate have named conferees, the next step in a process so far marked by fits and starts. 

Committee schedules in both the House and Senate are light. On Thursday, though, the House Science Committee is scheduled to investigate the Environmental Protection Agency’s oversight of the Pebble Mine project in Alaska. The same day, a House Natural Resources Committee panel is scheduled to hold a hearing on the Bureau of Land Management’s regulations of methane emissions on federal lands. 

RECENT STORIES 

-Kerry celebrates signing of Paris climate deal: http://bit.ly/1T3TOiV

-Senate measure to stop Obama water rule fails: http://bit.ly/1rqtWYy

-3 charged in Flint water crisis: http://bit.ly/1QsQEDt

-Senate passes energy reform bill: http://bit.ly/1VHAs9T

-Interior secretary calls for ‘major course correction’ on conservation: http://bit.ly/1WKXwUh