WASHINGTON – Northwest senators Thursday won approval of a budget resolution they said should make it easier to block the Bush administration’s plan to tap surplus revenue from the Bonneville Power Administration.
Lawmakers have complained that the plan could force the BPA, which supplies nearly half the electricity in the Pacific Northwest, to increase rates to consumers.
The budget language, co-sponsored by Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Patty Murray of Washington, along Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, drops a Senate rule requiring a 60-vote majority to block the administration’s plan. Under the new language, approved unanimously by the budget panel, a simple majority in the 100-member Senate would be needed to block the proposal.
Under President Bush’s budget proposal, some surplus revenue from the BPA would be used to pay down the federal debt, instead of lowering electricity rates for Northwest consumers.
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