The Senate today is continuing debate on a stand-alone Energy Department and Army Corps of Engineers 2012 spending bill after Democratic efforts to merge the measure with other funding bills stalled.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) this afternoon abandoned his plans to combine the energy and water spending language into a new "minibus" package with the financial services and state and foreign operations appropriations bills after Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) raised concerns about language related to trade with Cuba.

The chamber is now debating the energy and water measure as a stand-alone bill, but it remains uncertain whether Senate leaders will continue to push the $31.625 billion measure this week, as lawmakers are anxious to take up other legislation. That includes the first "minibus" of appropriations bills, which would set the 2012 budgets for the Agriculture Department; Commerce, Justice and Science; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and now also contains stopgap funding language to keep the government running after the current spending bill expires at the end of this week.

"Before we leave this week, the Senate needs to pass the continuing resolution contained in the conference report on the agricultural appropriation bill, which also included other appropriation matters. We can't allow the Senate to get tied up in knots in a way that would prevent us from getting that work done," Reid said on the Senate floor this afternoon.

Reid said he has also promised Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) that the chamber will move forward with a defense authorization measure this week.

But Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations subpanel, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), its ranking member, this afternoon were working to come to an agreement on amendments so the measure could move forward.

"We know what this week is like. We know the defense authorization bill has to come to the floor. We know there are other items that have to come to floor this week. And so therefore I hope that this effort is successful and that we are able to begin working on our bill," Feinstein said this afternoon.

The energy and water language, which funds the Energy Department, Army Corps of Engineers and Interior Department water programs, is heavy on spending for national security programs within DOE, but the overall allocation is lower than both last year's funding levels and President Obama's request for the current fiscal year.

Spending for DOE science and technology research programs would remain largely static compared with last year's funding levels under the Senate's spending bill, while water programs would receive a slight boost over last year's levels. The House this summer passed a $30.6 billion spending bill for the three agencies.

Clean Water Act amendment

Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) offered an amendment that would block funding to implement an Obama administration policy aimed at expanding federal pollution protections under the Clean Water Act.

The Barrasso-Heller amendment aims to block action on U.S. EPA-issued "guidance" instructing federal regulators to more broadly interpret the federal government's jurisdiction over streams and wetlands under the Clean Water Act. Administration officials and green groups say the move is necessary to clear up confusion created by Supreme Court decisions over the last decade, which only muddled the issue and prompted both conservative and liberal justices to recommend that the federal regulators weigh in.

EPA has said it plans to follow up on the guidance issued in April with rulemaking to further cement its interpretation of the law. GOP critics argue that the interpretation oversteps constitutional bounds and amounts to a federal power grab and an infringement on state and private property rights that will hurt business and slow economic recovery (Greenwire, Nov. 3).

The National Mining Association has launched an advertising campaign urging support of the Barrasso-Heller amendment alone with a website where users can submit prewritten letter to senators urging them to vote in favor of the measure.

"It has become apparent that the unelected bureaucrats running the EPA will use all options at their disposal to expand federal powers on private lands," the NMA website says.

The environmental and conservation groups National Wildlife Federation and Ducks Unlimited, meanwhile, issued statements condemning the measure. The administration policies, they argue, are essential to restoring pollution protections undermined by the Supreme Court decisions and subsequent "guidance" documents issued by the George W. Bush administration.

"The language in the Barrasso-Heller amendment will fundamentally diminish America's clean water legacy," said Jan Goldman-Carter, wetlands and water resources counsel for the National Wildlife Federation, in the statement. "American sportsmen unite in urging the Senate to reject this and any measure that would block agency action to secure our clean water and wetlands ecosystems."

More for the Army Corps

Feinstein and Alexander will offer a bipartisan amendment seeking an additional $1.2 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers for repair of levees and other water infrastructure damaged in this year's epic floods on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, Alexander said this afternoon.

The money would be in addition to the $1.045 billion in emergency flood-recovery money already included in the bill for the Army Corps, for a total of nearly $2.25 billion in flood recovery funds, Alexander said.

Army Corps officials have said that this year's flooding incurred $2 billion in damages to flood-control infrastructure, a figure that could rise to nearly $3 billion by the time a full, nationwide assessment is complete, according to the Congressional Record.

Appropriators earlier this year agreed they would provide more money for the Army Corps flood-recovery effort, but only for damages officially recognized and assessed by the administration. About $700 million of the additional $1.2 billion would cover the cost of damage to areas declared a disaster by the president or otherwise certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Alexander said.

The remaining $550 million would pay for sandbags and other preparedness measures before the next flood season, Alexander said. But they would have to be offset by spending cuts elsewhere, in order to comply with limits on disaster-recovery spending imposed by federal spending caps agreed to earlier this year.

"We'll have to find an offset to make sure it doesn't add to the debt," Alexander said. "We'll suggest one. It may be that other senators have better ideas."

He declined to say what cuts he would offer as a $550 million offset. "We'll make it when we offer it," Alexander said.