Senate Defeats ANWR Drilling, Saves Cuts

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In the final clashes of a year of partisan conflict, the Senate dealt defeat Wednesday to legislation allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but Republicans salvaged a $39.7 billion package of deficit cuts on Vice President Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote. Legislation providing $29 billion in aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and other storms neared approval. And hours of back-room negotiations yielded a surprise agreement on a Democratic-initiated call for a temporary extension of the anti-terror Patriot Act without changes.

''This has been the saddest day of my life,'' said Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, lamenting the demise of legislation to open the wildlife refuge to oil exploration. Other advocates of drilling said they would try again next year. But with lawmakers eager to leave the Capitol for the holidays, the bill became one of the highest-profile casualties on the Republican legislative agenda. The agreement on the Patriot Act spelled the likely death of a House-Senate compromise that would have made significant changes in the measure.

A Democratic-led filibuster blocked passage last week, as critics said the measure failed to protect the civil liberties of innocent Americans. In the days of maneuvering that followed, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he would not accept -- and Bush would not sign -- a short-term extension. Republicans ''tried to play a game of chicken, and they lost the game of chicken,'' said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., a leader in the effort to derail the proposed changes.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Congress-Rdp.html

[IndyOp]

1. The Saddest Day of Stevens' Life -->

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...

[IndyOp]

2. What do you make of this?

Senate Republicans said they expected the House to approve a $493 billion defense spending bill -- shorn of the ANWR provision -- on Thursday. Ditto for the Patriot Act extension.

But Democrats in the House said they would not agree to speed action on the deficit-reduction bill they voted against unanimously earlier this week.

The House approved the measure in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, but the Democrats' leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, said she will insist it be re-examined ''in the light of day'' the next time. That's likely to be in February.

:shrug: