The Senate agreed Tuesday to move forward with a vote later this week on an amended $159 billion economic stimulus package that includes several key energy-related provisions, including $1 billion in additional subsidies for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and a one-year extension of renewable wind and solar tax credits. It’s not clear at this point whether the energy incentives will make it into the final stimulus plan.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he planned to file a cloture petition later Tuesday, setting the stage for a Senate vote either Wednesday or Thursday on whether to end debate on the stimulus package. A threshold of 60 Senate votes will be required to invoke cloture, which then would be followed by a vote on the stimulus plan.

“I would rather do it tomorrow [Wednesday] so we can do some other things on Thursday, but it’s up to the minority,” Reid said.

By 73-12, the Senate approved Reid’s motion to proceed with a cloture vote this week. Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky pressed to hold the cloture vote Tuesday, knowing that several Democrats, including presidential contenders Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL), were not available to vote. If Reid’s motion had failed, McConnell asked that the Senate proceed immediately with the Republicans’ competing stimulus package, which would provide economic relief to seniors and disabled veterans and bar illegal immigrants from collecting rebate checks.

McConnell’s request is “unfair and senseless,” Reid countered. The two Senate leaders traded barbs throughout the morning session over their rival economic stimulus packages.

Senate Republicans were steamed when Democrats presented them with a revised stimulus package late Monday. The plan includes much of what was approved by the Finance Committee last week — rebate checks for seniors and disabled veterans, extension of unemployment benefits, improvement of businesses’ ability to write off purchases of machinery and equipment, $10 billion in mortgage revenue bonds that can be used by states to refinance subprime mortgages, and extension of tax credits for energy efficiency and renewable energy (see Daily GPI, Feb. 1).

But the amended version went even further. It provides $1 billion to help low-income Americans heat their homes and raises the conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the loan limits for FHA-backed mortgages.

The lack of cooperation between Senate Democrats and Republicans is in stark contrast to the goodwill exhibited by House Democratic and Republican leaders and the Bush administration in negotiating the $150 billion House plan in a matter of days (see Daily GPI, Jan. 24). The House plan would provide rebates to individuals and tax incentives for businesses, but it does not extend tax credits for renewable energy or provide LIHEAP subsidies for low-income households.

“The last hurdle for the renewable extensions [and LIHEAP] as part of the stimulus effort is not inclusion in the Senate measure, but getting the House to agree to retain them in the expected conference. That is not yet assured,” said energy analyst Christine Tezak of Stanford Group Co.

“We are…hearing from Senate sources that the House may not agree to all the provisions the Senate has included or plans to add. At bottom, we’ve been told that the Senate’s proposal to extend the tax rebates to veterans and senior citizens may make it into a final conference report, but that the LIHEAP and renewable energy tax [credit] extensions may not.”

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