CQ TODAY Dec. 16, 2005 - 1:08 p.m.

CQ TODAY Dec. 16, 2005 - 1:08 p.m.

No Agreement Yet on ANWR, Defense or Budget Package

By Steven T. Dennis, CQ Staff

An impasse over drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
continued to hold up movement on the budget savings package Friday, though
talks between House and Senate leaders continued.

A meeting between House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Sen. Ted Stevens,
R-Alaska, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., on Friday morning
failed to yield a deal, but the leaders pledged to keep talking.

Hastert wants Stevens to allow the budget savings package to move forward
without drilling in ANWR, but Stevens, a staunch supporter energy
exploration in ANWR, has refused to support such a move until ANWR drilling
has been attached to the Defense appropriations bill (HR 2863) and has
overcome an anticipated filibuster by Democrats.

"We're working on it," Hastert said. "We're still in discussions."

Frist said no decision has been made whether the Defense appropriations
measure or the budget savings package will advance first. "We're still
deciding. We're really going to do whichever one is done the quickest,"
Frist said.

A senior Senate GOP aide said Friday morning that the Senate would not vote
on the Defense bill or the budget savings package and probably would not
vote on the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations measure (HR 3010) either.

The $2.5 billion ANWR provision is included in the $35 billion Senate budget
package (S 1932) but was not included in the House package (HR 4241) because
of opposition from House moderates.

House leaders have suggested attaching ANWR to another bill, such as the
Defense measure - which is expected to be the last appropriations bill
considered before the holiday recess - which would pick up support from
Democrats. But doing so would likely spark a filibuster, and Stevens would
need to find 60 votes to invoke cloture.

The budget savings package is protected from filibuster in the Senate under
special budget reconciliation rules but the Defense spending bill has no
such protection. Stevens would first have to overcome a budget point of
order, but would need just 51 votes to do so.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has been circulating a letter to her
colleagues urging them to oppose moving ANWR drilling to the Defense bill.

ANWR was originally included in the budget savings package because
Republican leaders have been unable to overcome filibusters in the past, as
only a small majority of senators support drilling.

Yet Democrats and moderate Republicans would be placed in the politically
awkward position of trying to filibuster oil drilling along with funding for
the troops in a time of war as well as other measures that will likely be
attached to the Defense bill, such as about $25 billion in hurricane relief
and $3 billion to $4 billion in flu funding.

Leaders also talked on Friday about what might be included in a stopgap
spending measure, but appropriators said they would wait until the evening
to decide on the details. The continuing resolution would fund the Defense
and Labor-HHS programs beyond Saturday at midnight, when an earlier stopgap
measure funding these operations expires.