The fun we're seeing on the Senate floor now with the PATRIOT Act reauthorization promises to continue as early as tomorrow with the Defense Appropriations. Sen. Ted Stevens has vowed to attach a provision that would
open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling to the legislation.
Harry Reid calls foul:
But Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) said Democrats would filibuster the defense spending bill if necessary, to block the drilling provision. "The defense appropriations bill -- the bill to take care of the fighting men and women of the United States -- is being held up because they can't figure out a way to grovel and satisfy the oil companies," Reid said.
But it's not just Give-em-hell-Harry lining up in opposition to this one, despite the fact that, in addition the Arctic drilling, Stevens plans to pad the bill with Iraq war funding, Katrina aid, pandemic flu research money, and low-income energy assistance. Opposition to this move, like the PATRIOT Act, is bipartisan.
A group was drafting a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) saying that senators "ought not to exploit . . . the well-being of our troops" to advance the drilling measure.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a drilling opponent, said he wasn't sure how he would vote if the bill included the drilling measure.
"That's the dilemma," McCain said in an interview. "I think it's disgraceful I have to be put in that position."
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), another drilling opponent, said that adding the measure to the military appropriations bill would make the vote "very uncomfortable for me."
Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, a former Senate Republican leader, said that if Arctic drilling were attached to a military appropriations bill packed with other popular items, "a lot of people are going to have a hard time voting against it. . . . I couldn't vote against it."
Given this opposition, Stevens is likely to be short of the necessary 60 votes to cut off Reid's filibuster.
While we might not be getting all we wanted for Fitzmas, we're getting the gift of a further fracturing among Republicans, and continuing erosion of White House influence. It's shaping up to be a very disappointing Christmas for Bush. Yet another of his top priorities, opening the Arctic Refuge so his big oil buddies could wring out just a little more profit, seems out of reach.
Update: As encouraging as the early opposition is, let's not take anything for granted on this one. Contact your Senators to let them know you will expect and support their opposition to the Defense Appropriations bill should it contain the Arctic Refuge drilling provisions.