Gramm ANWR amendment to Aviation Security bill dropped

Frustration widespread as Senate Democrats maneuver to sidestep normal committee procedure on Energy Security bill

Steve Sutherlin

PNA Managing Editor

On Oct. 10, U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Tex., added an amendment to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling to Senate Bill 1447, the Aviation Security bill, but the amendment did not pass a cloture vote Oct. 11 and was dropped from the bill.

The amendment included comments from Gramm expressing frustration that Democrats had made unrelated amendments to the Aviation Security bill, particularly the Carnahan amendment that called for relief to laid-off airline workers. The Carnahan amendment was also dropped from the bill.

Gramm said an ANWR provision had been adopted by a fairly substantial bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, and that his amendment had just as much to do with aviation security as amendments offered by Democrats on the same bill.

“Quite frankly, I think nothing could

do more to immediately bolster national security than enable us to produce more oil and gas here at home at a price consumers can afford to pay to turn the wheels of energy and agriculture,” Gramm said.

The strategy of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman to suspend mark up of national energy legislation and bypass the normal committee process has met with substantial criticism in Washington, and it constitutes an admission that Bingaman did not have support in the committee to kill ANWR development, an Arctic Power spokesman told PNA Oct 11.

“It’s a victory without having to vote,” the source said, adding that if rational discussion of energy issues is allowed, it appears the Senate would vote in favor of ANWR development.