Competing Senate proposals to increase energy and water dollars and cut billions in unspent Energy Department funding will test this week whether Congress can expect to move bipartisan spending legislation this year.
The Senate will have a vote early this evening to take up a three-bill package, dubbed a minibus, that contains the $43.7 billion fiscal 2019 energy and water spending. The House passed its $44.7 billion version of the legislation two weeks ago.
Later in the week, the Senate is likely to turn to a more contentious bill that would rescind $14.7 billion in
unspent funding from previous years, including $4 billion in cuts from DOE technology loan programs, an effort created by an Obama-era economic recovery package.
Members from both parties are eyeing this week's floor debate on the minibus to set the tone for the remainder of the appropriations process, which in the Senate has advanced with bipartisan support over a truce to avoid "poison pill" amendments, at least
in committee.
"I think we'll see the path develop in the first couple of bills," Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, said last week.
