The House expects this week to pass a stopgap spending bill with the Senate aiming to follow suit before the end of the month, as Congress tries to avoid a messy pre-election showdown that could shut down the government.

Democratic and Republican leaders earlier this summer reached a handshake agreement on the contours of a six-month continuing resolution (E&ENews PM, July 31). Aides said at the time that the bill would be free of new policy riders limiting U.S. EPA or Department of Energy regulatory efforts and would maintain overall discretionary spending at levels agreed to in last year's budget deal.

But the fate of an existing rider preventing DOE from enforcing light bulb efficiency standards remained in flux last week, House and Senate appropriations aides said.

"Traditionally, all previous policy items carry forward under CRs (unless specifically changed via 'anomaly')," Jennifer Hing, communications director for the House Appropriations Committee, said in an email last week.

The current fiscal year ends Sept. 30, meaning Congress must pass a CR before then to keep funding available past the start of fiscal 2013 or most government functions would halt. Lawmakers have said the CR would keep the government open through March.

"Anomalies" can be included in CRs to adjust spending levels or other changes from a previous year's appropriations bill. For example, a CR adopted for fiscal 2011 reduced funding for census programs that had been increased to pay for the prior year's decennial population count.

Anomalies are expected to be attached to the CR that will be introduced this week, but such changes remained in flux Friday. The changes are typically negotiated among the House, Senate and Office of Management and Budget before introduction of a CR.

No decisions had been made on the fate of the light bulb rider as of Friday, aides said. Text of the CR could be available as soon as today, and the bill is expected to hit the House floor by Thursday, leadership aides said.

A Democratic aide suggested the light bulb rider likely wouldn't survive because lawmakers are more interested in preventing a government shutdown and returning to the campaign trail than in picking more fights over energy policy. But all anyone could agree on last week was that nothing had been decided yet.

"Typically, continuing resolutions also continue various limitations and requirements on funding," said Lowell Ungar, policy director of the Alliance to Save Energy, which supports DOE's efficiency standards. But at the same time, he noted, Republicans have said they would pass a "clean" CR to avoid a protracted fight.

"The question is, what does 'clean' mean?" Ungar added.

Republicans succeeded last year in attaching language to the fiscal 2012 appropriations law preventing DOE from spending any money enforcing provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requiring light bulbs to use less energy. The standards went into effect for the first time at the beginning of this year, and U.S.-based lighting manufacturers say they are complying with them despite DOE's inability to enforce them.

Support for standards

The standards themselves are broadly supported by efficiency advocates, environmentalists and the lighting industry, but they became a target of conservative activists last year based on inaccurate claims that DOE was trying to "ban" incandescent light bulbs.

Supporters of the rules say that incandescent light bulbs are available that operate the same as traditional bulbs but comply with the DOE standard by using at least 28 percent less energy. All the rider accomplishes is to open the door to foreign companies to undercut U.S. suppliers by importing cheaper, less efficient bulbs without fearing reprisal for violating the law.

"This legislation will harm the domestic manufacturers who have already invested millions of dollars in U.S. plants to make new, upgraded incandescent bulbs by enabling the illegal importation of noncompliant products and thereby undercutting U.S. jobs," ASE and dozens of other groups, including manufacturers and environmentalists, wrote in a June letter to Congress, as the House was preparing to consider DOE's fiscal 2013 appropriations bill. "Incandescent bulbs aren't banned -- they're just better."

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association, which represents lighting makers among its members, opposes the rider and has agreed to comply with the standards regardless of what Congress does. Joseph Higbee, a spokesman for the group, said it is not planning any lobbying efforts at this point to urge Congress to strip the light bulb rider from the CR. Ungar declined to comment on ASE's plan for the coming weeks.