GOP Members Oppose Arctic Oil in Budget

[Judi Lynn]

GOP Members Oppose Arctic Oil in Budget
By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

(08-10) 16:24 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Two dozen House Republicans, including three committee chairmen, have asked Speaker Dennis Hastert not to use a congressional budget procedure to clear the way for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

They said in a letter to Hastert, R-Ill., that the budget process "is an inappropriate venue to be debating this important environmental issue" and warned that it would further complicate already difficult budget issues.

"We believe the debate on opening this unique land to oil and gas exploration should be done outside the budget process," said the group led by Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., in an Aug. 4 letter made public Wednesday.

Among those signing the letter were three committee chairmen: Science Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y.; Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Government Reform Chairman Thomas Davis, R-Va.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/0...

[rodeodance]

1. Sensenbrenner signed the letter!!--wonders never cease!!--

[54anickel]

2. Must threaten someone's pork project. Notice they didn't say they'd

vote against it, just don't tie it to the budget. He's still a worthless shill.

[tabasco]

3. I am hoping that sanity prevails.

But Bush just keeps pushing harder to screw Americas's future.

Bush doesn't listen to any congressmen. He only obeys his corporate overlords like Dick Cheney.

[mom cat]

6. They are all scared about 2006...especially after Hastart1

[meganmonkey]

4. WTF?

Am I hallucinating? Wasn't there a Senate vote in like March where approval for drilling there passed 51-49 ?????

Why are the repubs questioning this now when the vast majority of them voted already to approve it? And there was a full floor debate on this.


Flip-flop-a-looza

My mind is reeling

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. I'll bet they do it anyway, this stuff is for the record back home.

[hatrack]

7. Time to look all brave and "environmental" in time for 2006

Sorry, but my cynicism knows no bounds of late.

[sintax]

8. ....

[DeepModem Mom]

9. kick

[GoSolar]

10. That's a surprise.

Hard to accept at face value...

[TahitiNut]

11. Watch for the House rules to be particularly bogus on such a bill.

The rules for floor debate on budget measures are fairly long-established. The only strategy I can see for this charade is to impose particularly authoritarian rules over any drilling measure. We must remember that the majority party stranglehold on the House is leveraged by the Rules Committee and the Speaker's Office's imbalanced power to impose customized rules for debate, amendment, etc. on any measure brought to the floor of the House.

[Supersedeas]

12. psst...slip it in Denny..just slip a lil drillin in there for some friends