House Republican leaders abruptly stopped work on an energy reform package — effectively killing it — because they were in a rush to go to a party, Sen. Lisa Murkowski is charging.
Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, tells the Alaska Journal newspaper that House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chose to adjourn the House on Dec. 8 to attend a holiday party in New York instead of rounding up votes for final passage of the legislation.
She claims Ryan and other House Republicans had tickets for a train ride to New York City for the party.
"The speaker said, 'We've run out of time' because they wanted to get on the party train," Murkowski said.
According to The Hill, the National Republican Congressional Committee was scheduled to hold its annual "Bright Lights and Broadway" fundraiser in New York City that weekend. The House adjourned for the holiday recess without bringing a comprise version of the energy bill to the floor.
The bill had been stalled on a proposal in the Senate version to expand liquefied natural gas imports, the Hill reports. Senators had insisted it include this measure, while the House had removed it.
"Everything was sacrificed; so we have to start all over," Murkowski told the Alaskan newspaper.
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