WASHINGTON—Republican demands to end the ban on exporting crude oil emerged as a final negotiating point Monday as White House and congressional negotiators moved toward completing a year-end spending bill and a tax-cutting package.
In a Monday evening conference call among House Republicans, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said bargainers were close to agreements on the spending and tax measures that he expected to publicly release Tuesday, which would set up votes later in the week. He said the bills would contain victories for both parties but provided few details, according to an official who described the private conversation on condition of anonymity.
In return for lifting the four-decade-old oil export ban, Democrats were seeking various environmental concessions, including extending tax credits for solar and wind energy production for five years, and reviving an environmental conservation fund. Democrats also were trying to block GOP efforts to roll back Obama administration environmental regulations, with Democratic lawmakers who traveled to the Paris climate talks returning energized to fight.
“It’s like they all went to an international pep rally and got all this emotional wind at their back,” GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said in a phone interview.
Government funding runs out Wednesday at midnight, but Congress may need to pass another short-term extension of a day or two to complete work on the $1.14 trillion government-wide spending bill. Negotiations have dragged on as the legislation has become an increasingly complex grab-bag for priorities and trade-offs large and small.
It’s also intertwined with another massive bill extending dozens of tax credits benefiting interest groups across the political spectrum, sparking intense lobbying on numerous fronts.
Congressional passage would mean lawmakers would then head home for the holidays, having done their necessary work in typically messy and last-minute fashion.
“Many of us in the Senate and the House and our staffs worked through the weekend and have made a lot of progress,” Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said on the floor as the Senate gaveled back into session at mid-afternoon Monday. “We’re not there yet.”
