| Page 2 of 2 < |
Senate Passes Energy Bill Without House Tax Package
Charles E. Schumer, left, Harry M. Reid and other Democratic senators fell one vote short of ending GOP stall tactics.
(By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
The 59 to 40 vote in the morning, one vote short of the margin needed to end debate and clear the way for a vote on the measure, came after warnings from the White House and Sen. Pete V. Domenici (N.M.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, that Bush would veto the bill because of the tax component.
Nine Republicans voted in favor of ending debate, and one Democrat, Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.), voted against it. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, was not present.
Before the vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Democrats had "shown how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory" by "inserting an enormous tax hike, a tax hike they knew would doom this legislation."
But Reid said Congress is an equal branch of government and should not be intimidated by the threat of a White House veto. "We are the Congress of the United States," he said. "We can write things even though the president may not like them."
Democrats had argued that the tax measure, including about $13 billion raised from the oil industry, was modest and simply took back tax breaks that oil companies had received, along with other manufacturers, in 2004 and that they did not need with oil prices around $90 a barrel.
"The future just failed by one vote. The past was preserved," Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said after the vote. "The oil companies are now celebrating in their boardrooms."
Republicans said higher taxes on oil companies would not help lower prices for consumers.
The American Petroleum Institute issued a statement saying, "We applaud the Senate for recognizing the adverse effect that increased taxes would have had on future energy supplies." API said it still opposed the biofuels provisions, which it called "unrealistic."
The version of the bill approved last night did include $1.46 billion in revenue increases to offset an estimated $2 billion that would be lost in gasoline taxes as a result of improved automobile gasoline mileage.
