Having successfully dealt with a controversial amendment, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday successfully voted to end debate on the fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill, setting it up for a vote as early as Thursday.
The $37.5 billion legislation passed smoothly through the committee process, as Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) were able to hold off any controversial amendments until the floor debate.
However, an amendment from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), demanding the Obama administration refrain from using any taxpayer dollars to fund U.S. purchases of heavy water from Iran, derailed the bill in late April. He submitted the amendment following reports that 32 tons of Iranian heavy water, with a purchase price of over $8 million, was headed to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee under the nuclear deal Washington and several partner governments signed with Tehran.
The Senate voted twice in the last week of April and once Monday to end debate and move toward a vote on the spending legislation. All three motions failed due to Democratic opposition to the Cotton amendment.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in response to the failed motion to end the debate Monday on the full appropriations bill, forced cloture on the Cotton amendment. The vote Wednesday to invoke cloture on the Cotton amendment failed 57-42 and the senator then withdrew the amendment, paving the way for a vote on the full bill.
