Congress Adjourns Without Action on Energy

"This is my flagship issue, energy independence and reducing our dependence on foreign oil," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters this week, saying her legislative focus was on finding renewable energy sources. She openly mocked the GOP push for more drilling as a panacea for the nation's economic woes.

Pelosi said the "only short-term remedy" for higher gas prices would be to force Bush to release some of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

In the run-up to the break, Republicans incessantly hectored Democrats over energy in floor speeches, press conferences and committee hearings. The effort put the Democrats on the defensive.

Democratic leaders closed legislative markups for both the House and Senate Appropriations committees, which finance the federal government, when they realized enough of their own rank and file might support Republican amendments to fund more drilling.

Instead, both chambers offered narrowly crafted bills that dealt only with expanding the authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate oil speculation. Even these bills stalled. Pelosi and Hoyer put the House version on a fast-track that required a two-thirds majority; it fell short by more than a dozen votes.

The Senate hit gridlock on its version of the speculation bill. Rather than debate the substance of the bill, Democrats and Republicans spent days arguing over how many amendments Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) had offered to allow each party and whether he had changed his offer.

After the energy talks broke down, Republicans in both chambers objected to adjourning for the recess, which is usually a routine vote. Seventeen House Democrats joined Republicans in favor of staying in session to work on energy legislation, but the adjournment vote passed, 213 to 212.

A similar battle unfolded in the Senate Thursday night, as Reid scrambled to round up Democrats to make sure they voted to close the chamber. Holding the vote open an additional 15 minutes or so, Reid eventually prevailed, 48 to 40. Party leaders differed over whether that should be considered a triumph.