Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) today predicted that a proposal to divvy up most of the potentially $20 billion in Deepwater Horizon spill Clean Water Act penalties among the five Gulf Coast states probably will be ready for a committee vote in two weeks.

The decision to postpone today's scheduled vote came as senators are still working behind the scenes to iron out the details of a bill that could send 80 percent of the anticipated penalty windfall to the five Gulf states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Unless Congress takes action, the money would flow by default to a federal trust fund to pay for future oil spill cleanups and likely be siphoned off for other purposes unrelated to cleanup or recovery from last summer's massive oil spill.

"Time is of the essence, and we must move forward with this legislation because it's my experience that the longer things hang out there, the tougher it is to get a resolution," Boxer told the panel this morning. "We can always do additional changes on the floor. We can all work together on that."

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) this morning moved to postpone the scheduled vote on the spill penalty-sharing bill he introduced with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), citing a few still-unresolved differences over details of how the penalty money should be subdivided among the five Gulf states and other provisions.

"Nobody wants to do this quicker than all of the Gulf senators, so I share that mindset, but we are extremely close to working out every wrinkle and having very broad consensus," Vitter said.

Gulf state lawmakers fear that unless they can unite behind a single bill, proposals to divert the anticipated penalty money to environmental and economic recovery projects in the region will fail.

The sticking point has been how to subdivide the 80 percent among the five states. Vitter and Landrieu want the bulk of the money to go toward environmental restoration since Louisiana's eroding coastal marshes suffered most of the visible damages.

Other states are pushing for a more even distribution and flexibility that would allow them to put money toward projects deemed important to economic recovery from the spill, with some state lawmakers suggesting that money be made available for highway interchanges, port dredging and convention center construction.

Boxer said the final measure would strike a balance. "It's a balance between economic restoration and environmental restoration with enough flexibility for the states, so that they have room to move," she said.

Enlisting full Senate support may mean building in perks for those outside the Gulf. For example, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) told the committee he wants to see some of the money go toward an initiative he has proposed to study, restore and conserve U.S. ocean waters and coastal areas.

"I'm prepared to support it, and to rally support for it very energetically, so long as it has that national component to it," Whitehouse said this morning. "It will certainly help the Gulf states enormously, and it will also help our understanding of our oceans, if we move forward in this way."

Two Republican senators from Alabama, Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions, had objected to Boxer's public declaration weeks ago that a consensus had been reached (Greenwire, June 29). Today, Sessions thanked Boxer for her personal leadership on the issue and said a deal was close.

"I salute you for moving fast with it," Sessions said. "It's better than delaying. It really is. But I do think with a little more time we'll get an agreement."

Boxer said encouraging comments regarding the progress in the talks had prompted her to put off today's vote.

"I thought the least I could do was defer probably two weeks or so," she said.