House leaders scrap vote on Energy-Water spending bill

By Andres Picon | 07/24/2024 06:30 AM EDT

The development likely spells doom for the $59.2 billion legislation.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann speaks.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), chair of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, worked Tuesday to whip enough votes for his fiscal 2025 bill. Andrew Harnik/AP

House Republican leaders canceled a planned vote on their fiscal 2025 Energy-Water spending bill at the eleventh hour Tuesday night, sending the chamber’s appropriations work into a tailspin.

Lawmakers said opposition from Democrats and a number of Republicans — including key members like Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah), founder of the Conservative Climate Caucus — forced them to pull H.R. 8997, which funds the Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers, moments before the scheduled vote.

The decision came after hours of amendment debate that may have been in vain. The development likely spells doom for the $59.2 billion legislation.

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“There’s no sense to put out a bill when you don’t have the votes, and right now we don’t,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told POLITICO’s E&E News as lawmakers streamed out of the House chamber.

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