Arctic drilling forces tough choices

WASHINGTON — Monday night, Rep. Dave Reichert headed to a private reception on Mercer Island thrown by constituents who wanted to thank him for supporting environmental issues — including his opposition to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

But much earlier in the day, at 5:04 a.m. in Washington, D.C., the freshman Republican from Auburn voted for a bill that would open the refuge to drilling.

He and the other Northwest representatives in Congress were forced to choose between opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil exploration or voting against a key military funding bill during wartime.

That's because the ANWR provision had been attached to the $453 billion defense appropriations bill, which guarantees paychecks to troops serving in Iraq, a 3 percent military pay raise and money for major weapons procurement.

The bill, which also includes money to clean up after Hurricane Katrina, passed the House 308-106.

A 10-hour Senate debate over the bill could start today, with a vote by Wednesday.

Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton, opposes ANWR drilling but supported the bill because of the military pay issue, and because it includes millions of dollars for Pentagon contracts in the state, for Stryker brigades at Fort Lewis and for the Trident submarine missile conversion program at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyards.

Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens, also an ANWR opponent, voted for the bill, too. His district would get millions in Pentagon money and his anticipated election opponent next year is a retired Navy officer.

But Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, whose district includes Fort Lewis and is home to many active and retired military personnel, voted against it. In an interview, Smith castigated the House for "sticking ANWR into the defense bill."

"It has no place there," he said. Smith, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said he supported an earlier defense bill that didn't include ANWR.

He also rejected the argument that voting against the final appropriations bill would stop paychecks going to soldiers in Iraq. "If we had blocked this bill with ANWR in it, we would have come back immediately with another defense appropriations bill to replace it. We would not have shut down."

Democrats Jim McDermott of Seattle, Jay Inslee of Bainbridge Island and Brian Baird of Vancouver also voted against the bill. Republicans Cathy McMorris of Spokane and Doc Hastings of Pasco were for it.

Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, one of the most powerful members of Congress, worked behind the scenes over the weekend with Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, to attach ANWR drilling to the defense spending bill.

Stevens says opening ANWR to drilling will increase the nation's energy supplies and reduce reliance on foreign oil. He and other supporters also say oil can be removed without damaging the environment.

Stevens defended sticking ANWR into the defense bill, shortly after Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington denounced it as "a sweetheart deal around federal laws" by the oil industry and its congressional allies.

Cantwell and other senators complained that adding ANWR to the defense bill could violate a key congressional rule prohibiting unrelated additions to budget legislation.

"A lot of Republicans have told their leadership that they oppose this move," Cantwell said in an interview. "But I don't know if that will translate into votes."

The Senate and House must agree on a final defense spending bill by Dec. 31.

Cantwell is leading the Democrats and some moderate Republicans in the charge against ANWR drilling, and the group is threatening to filibuster.

She said she intends to debate the "secret" manipulation of congressional budget rules and "Machiavellian" maneuvers that led to ANWR landing in the defense bill after being pulled from earlier legislation.

The House previously tried to stick it in a wider budget bill aimed at cutting the deficit.

"This is an affront to the process, a backdoor way of doing things," she said. The House's work on the defense bill technically ended Friday afternoon with an agreement by House leaders from both parties. ANWR was not in the bill at that time. But later members heard that Stevens and Young wanted to add the ANWR measure.

"I hung around all this weekend, waiting to see what they were doing," Cantwell said.

The buzz about ANWR intensified Sunday, but Democrats complained that they were not allowed to see what language had been inserted in the measure.

"We were finally told we had a package at 1:30 in the morning," said Smith, the Tacoma Democrat, and "then we voted on it only three hours later.

"It could be weeks before we find out all that was stuck into the bill after we had all agreed on its contents on Friday afternoon," he added.

At 2:13 a.m. Monday, Reichert was formally told about ANWR's inclusion in the defense bill. He had already asked House Speaker Dennis Hastert not to include ANWR in the wider budget bill, and had written House leaders last week opposing any more maneuvering on ANWR.

Reichert joined 20 other Republicans around 3 a.m. in a procedural vote against adding ANWR to the defense bill. This infuriated some House chiefs, including Young, who chairs the House committee that hands out billions for highway construction, including $200 million this year for the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Reichert said he learned that Young asked his staff to round up the names of the GOP members who voted to remove ANWR from the defense bill.

"I guess we'll see later about fallout from that," Reichert said.

"There are some who may want to retaliate a little bit, but I have aligned myself with some friends who I hope will prevent that," he added.

Once ANWR became a part of the defense spending bill, he said, he couldn't vote no.

Reichert's chief of staff, Mike Shields, said it was impossible to vote against a defense appropriations bill while the nation is at war. "We saw in the election last year that you have to support the troops," he said.

Meanwhile, Reichert looked forward to Monday night's Mercer Island reception, which proceeded as planned.

Heather Weiner, who works with the advocacy group Earthjustice, said the gathering was organized to thank Reichert for his work on various environmental issues, such as helping to keep more oil tankers out of Puget Sound, and for trying to stop ANWR drilling — though she noted things had not worked out quite as they had planned.

She added that Reichert did try to keep ANWR out of the defense bill, "and that was tough to do."

Reichert said, "They could cancel the event. But they haven't."

Alicia Mundy: 202-662-7457 or amundy@seattletimes.com