Supporters of a provision to allow oil drilling in the Alaskan Natural Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) last week stepped up their efforts to secure President Bush’s active support for restoring the provision to the House-Senate conference report on a spending-cut bill.
ANWR was included in the Senate version of the bill, but removed from the House version. Asked by Human Events Political Editor John Gizzi how the President had responded to the personal request of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R.-Alaska) for his help in securing passage of the ANWR provision, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan replied: “I think he made very clear what we have said publicly, which is we support the provision and believe it’s another step we can take to build upon what we’ve already done to help address the root causes of high energy prices.”
Pressed by Gizzi as to whether Bush will lobby members of Congress for the ANWR provision during the conference process, McClellan said: “We are working with Congress to get it passed.”
