Congressional negotiators reached a deal Thursday on a $2.6 trillion budget for fiscal 2006 that would, among other things, clear the way for oil and natural gas drilling on the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

The negotiated agreement was the latest step forward in the more than decade-long fight to open the 2,000-acre portion of the Arctic refuge to exploration and production. Ironically, ANWR was one of the least controversial items in the budget initiative, which targeted reductions in Medicaid spending and at least $70 billion in tax cuts.

Senate Republican leaders said they believed the budget agreement could pass both houses of Congress before the Senate leaves Friday for a week-long recess, The Washington Post reported. A House vote was expected to occur Thursday evening,

The budget agreement for fiscal 2006 assumes that ANWR will produce $2.5 billion in receipts for the federal Treasury over five years. It instructs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over energy legislation, to report back legislative language that authorizes exploration in the Arctic refuge.

The budget resolution cannot be filibustered under Senate rules, meaning that pro-ANWR Senate forces won’t have to muster 60 votes to overcome a filibuster by anti-ANWR lawmakers. Instead, the measure will require only a simple majority vote (51) to pass.

The Senate last month narrowly voted in favor of putting ANWR in its fiscal 2006 budget resolution (see Daily GPI, March 17). The House budget measure did not include ANWR, but it was part of the energy bill that the House passed last week (see Daily GPI, April 22).

ANWR still has more hurdles to scale. If Congress passes the budget bill this week, lawmakers will have to vote later this year on a reconciliation measure before ANWR can become a reality.

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