A Senate Appropriations subcommittee this afternoon approved a rider-free $37.5 billion funding bill for the Department of Energy, Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers that could go to the Senate floor as early as next week.

Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander aid the measure restores the $1.4 billion the president proposed to cut for the Army Corps of Engineers, setting a "new record level of funding" for the agency. He nevertheless ripped President Barack Obama's request for $2.3 billion in mandatory spending for DOE as "wishful thinking" and "misleading."

A House Appropriations subpanel also advanced its energy and water spending measure this afternoon, offering modest increases to popular Energy Department programs, as well as to the Army Corps of Engineers.

Unlike the House version, Alexander, a supporter of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, again failed to muster enough support to include funding for the effort, but would let DOE facilitate private waste sites.

The House bill also includes Republican-backed provisions aimed at drought relief for parched California.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who has been leading negotiations with House Republicans on drought legislation and has taken a harder line on environmental protections, serves as the top Democrat on the upper chamber's energy and water appropriations panel.

Today she made no mention of the House provisions, but said her panel's bill includes "limited funding for drought relief in Western states."

Text of the Senate measure is slated to be available after tomorrow's full committee markup.