The Senate is expected to begin debating the fiscal 2012 energy and water funding bill this week, congressional aides say.

The chamber will move to the bill after finishing work on a separate "minibus" package setting funding for the Agriculture and Transportation departments and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Votes are scheduled for tomorrow on several amendments and final passage of that legislation. Lawmakers agreed to cut off debate on the measure in an 83-16 cloture vote before leaving Oct. 21 for their one-week recess, indicating the bill should pass handily (E&E Daily, Oct. 31).

The Senate is then expected to take up a second "minibus" package that contains bills for funding energy, financial services, the State Department and foreign services, the aide said.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved an Energy-Water bill in September with $31.625 billion in discretionary spending for the Department of Energy, the Army Corps of Engineers and water programs at the Interior Department.

The committee postponed consideration of several amendments until floor debate, including proposals to set aside more money to repair flood-damaged levees in the Midwest and to reverse closure of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Approved in a 29-1 vote, the bill would spend $57 million less than was enacted in 2011 and $4.9 billion less than what President Obama requested.

The spending cuts in the bill prompted some grumbling among committee leaders. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, called it "just plain wrong" that water infrastructure construction money continues to be cut from year to year and "so short-sighted" that no new water projects would be started by the Army Corps (E&E Daily, Sept. 8).

The bills are likely to head to a House-Senate conference later this week if passed. Eighteen Senate conferees have already been agreed upon, the aide said.

The Senate's decision raises the stakes for a cross-Capitol battle over spending priorities leading up to the Nov. 18 expiration of a continuing resolution that has kept the government funded since September.

If House Republicans choose to engage with upper-chamber counterparts on clearing smaller-scale spending bills, that would escalate partisan battles over policy riders aimed at restricting or defunding Obama administration priorities -- such as renewable energy loan guarantees now under scrutiny in the wake of the Solyndra bankruptcy.

Should either the energy-water "minibus" or the transportation-agriculture "minibus" run aground during House-Senate negotiations, an omnibus plan ultimately could hitch a ride on a military construction and veterans' affairs bill that already has cleared both chambers.

In the event of insurmountable brinksmanship over policy riders, as well as the Interior Department-U.S. EPA spending bill which the House has yet to finish considering, another continuing resolution until the Christmas season -- or beyond -- is also possible.

Reporters Elana Schor and Paul Quinlan contributed.