Bush urges lame-duck votes on OCS bill, US-India nuclear deal

Bush urges lame-duck votes on OCS bill, US-India nuclear deal

Washington (Platts)--9Nov2006

President Bush Thursday listed offshore oil and natural gas legislation
and a measure to authorize a US-India agreement on nuclear energy among his
priorities for the lame-duck session of Congress scheduled to begin Monday.

His top priority for lawmakers, he said, was approving appropriations
bills for fiscal 2007, which began October 1.

"Some of these issues need to be addressed before the current Congress
finishes its legislative session, and that means the next few weeks are going
to be busy ones," Bush said in a statement following a Cabinet meeting. "First
order of business is for Congress to complete the work on the federal spending
bills for this year, with strong fiscal discipline, and without diminishing
our capacity to fight the war on terror."

Congress has passed two of 12 appropriations bills for the new fiscal
year. Among the agencies whose spending for the new fiscal year remains
unresolved are the Energy and Interior departments and the Environmental
Protection Agency. They are operating under continuing resolutions at funding
levels that in some cases fall below what they could expect under
appropriations bills.

"We also need to pass the bipartisan energy legislation that's now before
Congress," Bush said, a reference to Senate and House bills that would expand
oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf. While each bill enjoys
bipartisan support, they differ significantly and are considered challenging
to reconcile in the lame-duck session.

Bush has suggested that he favors the Senate bill (S. 1637), which would
open portions of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling. The House bill (H.R.
4761) would authorize development along the entire US coast.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman sees prospects for cooperation on energy
between Democrats and Republicans, DOE Press Secretary Craig Stevens said
Thursday. "Energy is something that nearly all of the congressional candidates
mentioned as they campaigned and it is something that this administration has
championed over the past six years," Stevens said.

Bush included the US-India bill among his foreign policy objectives,
saying the measure would promote cooperation in nuclear energy between the two
countries.

His other legislative priorities, he said, are enactment of the Terrorist
Surveillance Act and a bill that would recognize Vietnam as a member of the
World Trade Organization.

--Bill Loveless, bill_loveless@platts.com

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