House lawmakers were expected to vote late Tuesday on an amendment to an Interior Department spending bill that seeks to block further oil and natural gas drilling on 36 disputed leases off the coast of California.

With their amendment, Reps. Nick J. Rahall of West Virginia, ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee, and George Miller and Lois Capps, both of California, said they were seeking the same safeguards from offshore drilling for California, as were awarded to Florida by the Bush administration in late May.

“What we are trying to encourage is a settlement between leaseholders [offshore California] and the federal government,” said Cathryn Seck, a Democratic spokeswoman for the resources panel. “We believe what’s good for Florida is also good for California.”

She noted the House lawmakers’ amendment has received bipartisan support, and wasn’t likely to encounter much opposition when it came up for a vote late Tuesday. Seck predicted that the House would be in session until midnight.

Just as the Florida delegation was successful in blocking drilling on Lease 181 in the gas-rich eastern Gulf of Mexico last year, she said she expected the House lawmakers to win on California. “We’re looking at Lease 181 as a model.”

In May, the Bush administration agreed to buy back leases offshore Florida that were owned by Conoco, ChevronTexaco Corp. and Murphy Oil, in order to prevent coastal drilling near the Sunshine State. California officials requested similar treatment for their state’s offshore leases, but Interior Secretary Gale Norton told them in June that the federal government would not buy back leases along the California coast as it had done for Florida. Florida’s governor, Jeb Bush, is the younger brother of President Bush.

Norton said the states’ circumstances were markedly different. While Florida’s ban against offshore drilling has been in effect for years, California has permitted drilling in its waters in the past, she noted.

The distinction drew the immediate wrath of California Gov. Gray Davis, who argued that the state “should not be punished” for having done its part to contribute to the country’s energy supply. “The administration continues to fail to establish a reason to treat California differently than Florida,” he said in a letter to President Bush in early June.

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