The Senate plans to take a second look at the $10 billion omnibus lands bill Monday in an apparent attempt to get around some of the procedural hurdles that have stalled the measure in the House. The bill would take millions of acres of public lands in the West off the table for potential oil and natural gas development.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) Thursday filed cloture on a motion to proceed to consideration of HR 146, a battlefield-related bill to which the mega-lands legislation ( S. 22) will be attached. A vote to limit debate on the legislation will be held Monday “unless senators can reach agreement to pass it by voice vote,” CQ Today reported. But the odds are against that, given that Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), a staunch critic of the lands bill, is likely to block any attempt at a voice vote.

If the lands bill clears the Senate, after having been passed by the chamber in January, it would be sent to the House for a second bite at the apple (see Daily GPI, Jan. 16). The measure failed in the House (282-144) Wednesday, falling two votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the bill under the suspension calendar (see Daily GPI, March 12). House leaders offered the bill under the suspension calendar to avoid amendments.

The bill could clear the House on the second try if the Rules Committee agrees to a closed rule, which would ban amendments to the bill on the House floor. This would allow Democrat leaders to offer the bill under regular order, which would require only a simple majority (218 votes) for passage.

“We’re going to start the process over again here [in the Senate] with some changes and then send it back to the House. Next week we’ll move HR 146 (the battlefield bill) — a shell bill — which is already on the calendar, so it’ll come straight to the floor. What we’re basically doing is passing what the House tried to pass — we’re adding the hunting-access [amendment] to our bill. The House will then add whatever it needs to pass it, and then it’ll come back here” to the Senate, said a Reid aide.

“It’s tough to know” whether this strategy will succeed and the bill will clear the House, said Dan Naatz, vice president for federal resources for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

“You’re starting to see more and more policymakers in the House question” the lands legislation, he said. But, Naatz added, “the power of [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and the senate majority leader to move legislation is very difficult to stop.”

The lands package combines more than 150 individual land measures, which create new wilderness designations, wild and scenic rivers, hiking trails, heritage areas, water projects and historic preservation initiatives. Naatz estimated the broad lands bill closes more than 20 million acres of public lands to oil and gas development. It’s estimated that the bill would remove 331 million bbl and 8.8 Tcf in Wyoming from potential production.

“It certainly will be an uphill climb to stop this bad piece of legislation,” Naatz said.

©Copyright 2009Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.