Democrats fear a vote on offshore drilling

Politico:

Tempers flared and the House Appropriations Committee abruptly adjourned Thursday morning after Republicans sought to hijack the meeting agenda and force a vote on their hottest new political issue: easing restrictions on offshore drilling for oil and gas.

California Rep. Jerry Lewis, the panel’s ranking Republican, said he was forced to spring the legislative trap when he couldn’t get a firm commitment from Democrats for a vote on the Interior Department budget bill, which governs federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf. But the ploy infuriated Chairman Dave Obey, who threatened to shut down the entire appropriations process this summer and put the government on a stop-spending bill after Oct. 1.

“I think we probably had our last meeting for the year, and that this is going on a continuing resolution,” said the Wisconsin Democrat. “We only have six weeks left of the session, and if they are going to spend it in partisan wrangling and posturing, that’s not a productive use of time. There are too many real things that Congress can do.”

Cooler heads may yet prevail — and opposing staffers were seeking one another out in the wake of the fray. But Lewis said he needed a real commitment to bring up the Interior bill, which has been delayed by the Democrats for fear of losing on the OCS issue given the public outcry over gasoline prices.

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Lewis said Obey's refusal to commit publicly was telling. “I have it from very good sources that they do not intend to bring up the Interior bill unless they have the votes to kill the amendments that were proposed to that bill,” he told Politico. “That sort of strategizing is the Democratic form of 'Keep our majority intact.' And it’s my job that we go back to regular order and that we impact the process.”

Yet the legislative device used by Lewis broke committee custom and seemed more a crowbar than a regular order. The panel was in the process of marking up a bill most dear to Obey’s heart, the giant 2009 budget for the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. Lewis offered an amendment in the nature of a substitute, the Interior bill. And then, on cue, Peterson offered his offshore drilling language as a perfecting amendment.

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Democrats continue to be bent on strangling the supply of energy. They know they are on the wrong side of the voters on this and that is why the are so desperate to avoid a vote.

I have never been a big fan of Lewis, but this maneuver was a good one. He and Boehner need to follow it up with a press briefing that will get the Democrats duck and run on the record for the cameras. Republicans need to keep the pressure on to open up the drilling.

The Democrat policy makes no sense unless they really like higher prices for oil and gas and transferring wealth to those who don't like us.