Senate leadership canned an attempt by Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-OK) to force a vote on the adoption of energy legislation as amendments to the defense authorization bill. Inhofe had submitted Sen. Frank Murkowski’s energy bill and the House energy legislation (H.R. 4) as prospective amendments to the $340 billion defense spending bill.

After being unable to get a pledge last week by Senate leaders that energy issues would be addressed before the end of the year, Inhofe’s attempts finally failed when the Senate voted 100-0 to invoke cloture on the defense bill, thus dropping all unrelated amendments from consideration and allowing the defense bill to move forward.

“I am disappointed that the Senate leadership has not seen fit to set a date to act on energy legislation,” Inhofe said in a statement. “But my efforts have been constructive in calling needed attention to a critical national security issue which must be addressed in a timely manner. It was never my intention to block the defense bill — a bill which no one wants more than I do.”

Inhofe said he would look for other opportunities to “highlight the need for a national energy policy and to continue to urge its timely consideration.” He said it is not “about partisanship or delay tactics,” but rather about trying to act on “what almost everyone says is important for America — to act on a comprehensive national energy policy that reduces our long-term dependency on foreign oil.”

Gary Hoitsma, an Inhofe spokesman, noted that Democrats don’t like the Republican energy bill, which is “heavy on the production side. They want a bill that is heavy on the conservation side. But they can’t get one out of their committee; at least so far they haven’t. We’re just frustrated that you’ve got the president saying it’s an important priority issue, and the House has already acted, and here the Senate is running out of time for the year. It seems obvious to us there’s not going to be action on energy this year. We just think that is very disappointing.”

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