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The prospect of a September government shutdown loomed over the Capitol on Wednesday as the two parties fought over rising energy prices.
It’s a fight some members of either party are willing to have, but others worry about who will get blamed for a repeat of the 1995 shutdown that President Clinton pinned on a Republican Congress.
Lawmakers and staff are starting to talk not just about how to avoid such a repeat, but also about who would gain and lose November election votes if it happened.
“The Democrats will probably want to play chicken,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).
Senate Republicans debated strategy at a party lunch Wednesday, discussing whether they should block a continuing resolution (CR) that must pass in September if the government is to continue functioning, according to lawmakers who attended.
The moratorium on drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) has been renewed annually for decades in spending bills by Republican and Democratic presidents and Congresses.
Since Democratic leaders this year are not planning to pass most of the individual spending bills, Congress will have to pass a CR to keep government functioning past Sept. 30.
Usually, such resolutions pass easily. But this year, soaring gas prices have changed the political calculus and Republicans have decided the issue might rescue them at the polls. Republican leaders say Congress should not leave for the August recess without taking a vote on drilling.
Republicans would likely have to make the first move by filibustering a bill, or by President Bush vetoing a spending bill. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he doesn’t think the GOP would go through with it.
“I believe the Republican Party would be risking even more wrath of the American people than they’ve gotten so far,” said Van Hollen, who’s in charge of electing more Democratic House members this fall. “I think the people on the Republican side will pull back.”
The White House also brushed off the possibility of a shutdown, emphasizing that it’s Democrats who control whether there’s a vote on offshore drilling.
“We’ll try to be hopeful that Democrats will do their job by passing appropriations bills and do what the American people want them to do by allowing drilling, and try not to speculate on what might happen if they fail on both of those,” said White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore.
Bush rescinded the executive order banning offshore drilling, but Congress must also act to open the waters to exploration. Bush on Wednesday again called on Congress to lift the moratorium.
But he’s never threatened a veto of a bill with the moratorium included in it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a longtime opponent of offshore drilling, has called the notion that expanded drilling would ease prices at the pump a “hoax.”
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