Contact: Jim DiPeso, (253) 740-2066

The House Budget Committee made the right call on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while its Senate counterpart came down with a case of the political wobbles, Republicans for Environmental Protection said in response to committee approvals of 2006 budget resolutions.

Proponents of opening the Arctic refuge to oil drilling have been pressing for inclusion of speculative and unreliable oil lease revenue estimates in House and Senate budget resolutions as a means of circumventing Senate debate to authorize drilling in the refuge.

“The budget process should never be simply a vehicle to push through important policy matters that deserve to be debated on their own merits through the normal legislative process,” REP Policy Director Jim DiPeso said. “The House Budget Committee’s action to keep its budget resolution free of this important and controversial policy matter was fiscally responsible and should be commended.”

“The House committee, led by Iowa Congressman Jim Nussle, wisely excluded highly speculative estimates on how much oil leases in the Arctic refuge would return to the Treasury. In doing so, Congressman Nussle upheld the integrity of the budget process,” DiPeso said.

The Senate Budget Committee on the other hand, succumbed to political pressure from drilling proponents to include the speculative revenue estimates in its resolution, which, if successful, will both short-circuit debate and make a mockery of honest budgeting.

David Jenkins, REP's Government Affairs Director said, “It is truly unfortunate that our party’s leaders are willing to so fervently pursue degrading a natural treasure for a costly and questionable supply of oil that even the major oil companies have little interest in.” Jenkins added, “Instead of feeding our nation’s dependence on oil, which we will never be self-sufficient in and will always leave us at serious risk of price shock and supply disruption, our leaders must focus their attention on improving energy efficiency and diversifying our energy resource base,” Jenkins said.

“The Arctic refuge question touches on important energy and natural resource management policies, which should be debated on their merits. We are disappointed that New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg, the Budget Committee chairman, allowed the budget process to be misused in this manner,” DiPeso said.

“We are equally disappointed in Senator Peter Domenici, the Energy Committee chairman who pressured Gregg to include drilling revenues in the Senate budget resolution. Years ago, the same Senator Domenici spoke out against using the budget as a Trojan horse to force through policy proposals that fail to win support on their own merits. It’s a shame that Senator Domenici has turned his back on the Senate’s tradition of full and fair debate,” DiPeso said.

“Congress must debate the energy choices facing America on their merits, not resort to parliamentary tricks that play games with the budget numbers and short-circuit the normal legislative process where these matters should be decided,” DiPeso said.