It's that time of year! No, not the holidays. It's the season on Capitol Hill when Congress hashes out, at the very last minute, a spending bill to (usually) avert a government shutdown. Appropriators in the Senate have produced a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package that supporters hope to approve by Friday, when a temporary measure to keep the government open sunsets. The Senate vote could come as early as late Wednesday night. And because government is always a local story on some level, they are hurrying to finish before the Washington, D.C., region is slammed with a winter storm that could jam planes, trains and automobiles just when lawmakers hope to make it home. The pressure is especially high for this lame-duck Congress, as the House will flip to a Republican majority in January and President Joe Biden will face more friction over his emissions-cutting, renewables-deploying climate agenda. So what have appropriators produced for their curtain closer? Few surprises amid a modest boost for clean energy, conservation and environmental efforts: — More than half the spending bill goes to defense. Roughly $773 billion would go to domestic spending. That's a 5.5 percent increase from last year's enacted numbers, meaning EPA and the Interior and Energy departments would get a final boost from the Democrats. — The bill also takes on issues including agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, funding for the water crisis on the Colorado River and $1 billion for Puerto Rico's battered electricity grid. — It also includes a provision that would keep the greater sage grouse from being listed as an endangered species. The declining bird struts on lands rich in oil, gas and mining interests, and an Endangered Species Act listing would make drilling far more difficult. Whether to bar a listing leads to perennial partisan fisticuffs. — And sorry, world: The bill doesn't include any of the $1.6 billion that Biden had requested for the United Nations Green Climate Fund. Final hurrah for the Democrats? Passing the omnibus bill would be the last major act from this Democratic Congress, after a two-year run that produced significant measures for the grid, offshore wind, energy storage, electric vehicles and other climate-minded priorities, including last year's infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act. GOP hardliners have fought the omnibus, while Republican appropriators say it's the deal they can get. "This process was far from perfect, but ultimately it allowed Republican redlines to be adhered to," Senate Appropriations ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said in a statement this week. He added, "We need to do our job and fund the government." The rapidly approaching Friday deadline comes as Congress readies for a prime time address Wednesday night from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, following a White House session and news conference, underscoring the global upheavals occurring outside of Washington's partisan wrestling matches. The omnibus bill has not ignored the backdrop of the Russian war. Ukraine could see $45 billion in emergency aid if it's passed — $7 billion more than Biden had requested. It's Wednesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Heather Richards, subbing in today for the great Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net. Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: POLITICO's Wes Venteicher digs into a "climate collision course" in California, where a new tax on refining is the latest volley in pitched battle over energy. The state's oil industry is on one side, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and a host of climate policies are on the other.
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