Conferees Agree on Energy Bill; Drop Ethanol "Fix" for Highway Fund
House and Senate negotiators approved a wide-ranging energy bill after rejecting more than a dozen proposed amendments from Democrats, sending the measure to the House floor. The conference agreement, cleared just before 11 p.m. on Nov. 17, was signed by all the Republican negotiators and three Senate Democrats. The House was expected to pass the bill on Nov. 18 and there was a chance the Senate might begin debating it later that day. A Senate Democratic filibuster was a possibility.
The Senate side of the conference gave highway construction advocates some hope when they narrowly approved an amendment from Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to offset the revenue lost to the Highway Trust Fund from ethanol-based fuels. But that victory was short-lived: House conferees rejected the Baucus amendment several hours later, and the Senate side went along with the House decision.