East Texas

Lawmakers sped for the exits Friday as Congress was to begin a five-week recess after a summer session noteworthy for bitter partisanship and paralysis on the issue topmost in the minds of many voters: the cost of gasoline.

After the House officially adjourned and the House had stopped its TV feeds to C-SPAN, a few dozen Republicans remained on the floor giving impassioned speeches about Democrats decision to adjourn without a vote on their energy plan.

“Americans can’t just adjourn for five weeks from outrageous energy prices, so Congress should not leave until we get the American people some relief they deserve,” said U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler. “The only way that the United States will see relief is to increase our energy supply. That means bringing these solutions to the floor of the House for an honest, open debate and a fair vote like Americans and bi-partisan members of Congress have demanded.”

Republicans have been pressing to allow oil exploration in areas that are currently off limits, including the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. They have been relentless in their assault on Democrats over the topic, even though opening the Outer Continental Shelf to new exploration wouldn’t likely put any oil on the market for a decade or more.

Democratic leaders have been resolute in blocking new offshore exploration, even as oil patch members and moderates in the party support the idea. It’s clear that if a vote were allowed, new offshore drilling plans would be allowed.

Democrats believe they can weather the criticism since voters are hardly sympathetic to the big oil companies pressing to lift the drilling restrictions. They perform better than Republicans in opinion polls on energy — despite the shift in opinions favoring offshore drilling — as well as on most other issues.

As its last major act, the House passed by a 409-4 vote its first spending bill, a $72.7 billion measure awarding generous increases to veterans programs and military base construction projects.

But the battle over energy has largely shuttered the annual appropriations process, the 12 bills funding Cabinet agency budgets that are supposed to be passed by the Oct. 1 start of the 2009 budget year. The House and Senate chairmen of the Appropriations committees shut down panel deliberations to avoid votes on lifting the offshore moratorium, which has been in place for about two decades.

The spending measure that passed Friday is just one of a handful that even has a chance to become law before Congress adjourns for elections. It awards generous increases for veterans medical care and military base construction and base closures. It is easily the most bipartisan of the 12 annual appropriations bills since it funds politically sacred veterans’ accounts, despite exceeding President Bush’s already generous budget increase for veterans and military construction by $3.4 billion.