The House of Representatives adjourned Friday, May 13, for a week's recess. Before it did, members passed the Intelligence Authorization Bill by a vote of 392-15.
If the Senate passes this authorization bill, it will be the first time in more than four years that Congress has authorized this vital government agency.
The House also passed the third of a series of energy bills that were considered and passed in an effort to combat high gas prices. The House Natural Resources Committee actually held hearings on these energy bills, called expert witnesses and conducted votes in the committee before the full House considered these pieces of legislation. This return to regular order by the House of Representatives is a welcome event that unfortunately has been rare in the past couple of Congresses.
The energy bill passed in the House was a reversal of President Barack Obamas drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. It passed by a 243-179 vote. The two other energy bills that passed in May also garnered large majority votes.
Also worth noting is that all three bills achieved enough votes to override a presidential veto if they were to actually pass the Senate and make their way to the presidents desk. Maybe that is why the presidents weekly address centered on high gas prices. This writer is guessing that the White House congressional relations folks have been watching these energy bills pass with large margins in the House and they have been recommending that the president begin to focus on this crisis.
As a matter of fact, the presidents weekly address laid out a strategy to expand domestic oil production by directing the Department of Interior to speed up the evaluation of oil and gas leases and develop new incentives for the industry to develop leases both onshore and offshore.
The odd thing about the presidents address is that he definitely made it sound like he had given these directives in recent weeks. However, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar actually published the new leasing rule Feb. 16, which is designed to cut the leasing permitting process in some cases by as much as a year. The rule will be published and in effect on Monday, May 16.
Whether the House action helped to nudge the president to make some agency changes is not near as important as the fact that the president seems to be easing the regulatory maze for oil and gas companies. Time will tell if the Interior department is able to make the process easier and quicker.
The Senate spent most of last week voting on executive nominations and conducting hearings whereby the oil company executives had to appear and face the wrath of the senators who sit on the Senate Finance Committee. The Senate majority leader could have the Senate vote on the bill introduced by Sen. Robert Menedez, D-N.J., that puts an end to the big oil tax loopholes as early as this coming week.
Sen. Menedez spoke about his bill last week while appearing on an MSNBC TV show and said the following: I'm convinced we're going to do this, because whether this is done through my legislation or whether this is done as part of any debt-ceiling vote, which well insist on, or whether its done as part of any budget vote, we are going to eliminate these subsidies.
Stay tuned to see if the Senate schedules a vote to end oil and gas company tax subsidies, while the House enjoys a week-long recess.
Elizabeth B. Letchworth is a retired, elected United States Senate secretary for the majority and minority. Currently she is a senior legislative adviser for Covington & Burling, LLC and is the founder of GradeGov.com.
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