The House this week could clear a $30.6 billion fiscal 2012 spending bill for the Energy Department, Army Corps of Engineers and Interior Department water programs.

The chamber is slated to begin consideration of the funding measure (H.R. 2354) as early as tomorrow, after the Rules Committee meets this afternoon to set conditions for floor debate. But a vote on final passage may not occur until next week.

The GOP-authored spending bill -- which provides $24.7 billion for DOE, $4.8 billion for the Army Corps and $934 million for Interior's Bureau of Reclamation -- is expected to pass easily in the Republican-controlled House.

But Democrats are sure to put up resistance to the more controversial provisions in the bill, such as the proposed steep cuts to DOE's renewable energy and efficiency programs, the $35 million in new spending for the shuttered Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, and a provision that would block funding for a new Obama administration policy aimed at expanding federal protections over wetlands and streams.

Republicans this year have led a charge against government spending as they look for ways to reduce the deficit. Funding levels in the current fiscal year's spending plan are significantly lower than in previous years and the administration's requests. And Democrats are opposed to many of the GOP spending priorities, like boosting spending for traditional energy programs at the expense of renewable energy and energy efficiency activities.

The proposed Yucca Mountain spending drew some sharp comments during an Appropriations Committee markup of the bill last month and could see some resistance on the House floor this week (E&E Daily, June 13). The Obama administration in 2009 pulled its support from the long-term nuclear waste storage site in Nevada, appointing instead a "blue ribbon" commission to study alternatives for storing the hazardous materials.

But Republicans over the past two years have blasted the move. Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) called it "a $15 billion hole in the ground that's completely dark now" at the markup last month. And the inclusion of $35 million for Yucca Mountain in the current spending bill has been seen by many as repudiation for the closure.

Democrats are also bristling at a provision that would de-fund a recent Obama administration policy aimed at expanding federal protection of wetlands and streams.

The administration moved to expand regulation of wetlands in April, when it released a controversial guidance policy for public comment. But Republicans and the farming, homebuilding and mining industries have blasted it as an example of regulatory overreach. Environmental groups oppose the de-funding language.

Other controversial provisions -- like language that would pare down Obama's request for Everglades restoration or a provision that would give industry seats on a DOE panel studying the safety of hydraulic fracturing and shale gas drilling -- could also face partisan bickering on the floor this week.