Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK), a leading proponent of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), threatened Thursday to mount a filibuster to the economic-stimulus bill or other legislation, in order to force a vote on the ANWR issue before Congress adjourns for the year.

In a 14-minute speech on the Senate floor, he said “I guess I’m going to have to filibuster something around here — there’s a few things [bills] left — to get some kind of commitment from the Democratic leadership [for] a vote on this issue in a timely manner.”

Murkowski put Senate colleagues on “alert” that he and other Republicans “[were] not going to let this issue go away. We’re going to force a vote…or force a filibuster because this time this issue is going to come up before this body and be addressed once and for all.”

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), he said, has kept ANWR from coming to the floor. “We have that right” to debate the issue, Murkowski insisted, adding that “all we want is a vote” on the issue.

Congress passed legislation to open up ANWR in 1995, he recalled, but President Clinton vetoed it. “It’s not going to be vetoed by the White House this time around.”

Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) on Wednesday filed the House energy bill, H.R. 4, on the Senate floor to be attached to the Democrat-crafted economic stimulus bill. But the fate of the amendment is clouded now after Senate Republicans late Wednesday blocked the $73-billion stimulus package from coming to a vote.

Craig’s H.R. amendment is “still pending,” said an aide to the senator, but the “outcome is uncertain.” Another aide told NGI “things are so fluid right now” with respect to the amendment.

At a Capitol Hill press briefing Wednesday, Craig said he would continue to press ahead with the H.R. 4 bill if the Democratic stimulus package survived, which it doesn’t appear it has. But if a “truly bipartisan” stimulus measure emerges, he noted he would withdraw his amendment on the condition that Daschle would give Republicans a date-certain to debate energy after the Thanksgiving break. He suggested that Republicans then might try to attach H.R. 4 to a pending farm bill.

Craig’s amendment excluded the $34 billion tax title of H.R. 4 in an attempt to make it more acceptable to Democrats. However, it still calls for about 2,000 acres of the coastal plain of ANWR to be opened to oil and gas exploration and production.

Despite this late push by Republicans, Capitol Hill observers aren’t betting on an energy bill emerging from Congress this year. “It’s unlikely,” said one, but he quickly added it’s “possible.”

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.