APPROPRIATIONS:
McConnell moves to advance energy, water spending bill
Published: Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) today moved to proceed with the $35.4 billion fiscal 2016 energy and water development spending bill.
The Senate could vote as early as Thursday on a procedural motion deciding whether to take up H.R. 2028.
The measure passed the Senate Appropriations Committee in May on a 26-4 vote, with Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Jon Tester of Montana and Chris Murphy of Connecticut opposed (Greenwire, May 21).
The spending measure, which funds the Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers, steers clear of the battle over the Obama administration’s controversial water rule, leaving that for another venue. It includes an additional $50 million to offset drought gripping broad swaths of the West.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, said she wasn’t expecting McConnell’s move.
“This is a real surprise to me,” Feinstein said, adding that Democrats will be preparing for Thursday’s votes. “It gives us a little bit of time.”
McConnell has vowed to continue to bring up appropriations bills to force Democrats to make good on their pledges to filibuster the measures, a strategy that the minority has followed for months to try to prompt broader budget negotiations.
Besides potentially bringing up spending measures as stand-alone bills, McConnell also has begun procedural steps to bring up packages of appropriations bills known as “minibuses.”
The four minibuses would combine the agriculture, energy and water, and transportation-Housing and Urban Development appropriations bills; the Defense, energy and water, homeland security, military construction-Veterans Affairs, and state and foreign ops appropriations bills; the Commerce, Justice and science, and Homeland Security appropriations bills; and the Interior, Labor-Health and Human Services, and financial services bills.
Reporter Amanda Reilly contributed.
Tags: energy, federal, policy, water