When Senate Republicans backed down on their threats to vote against the budget this year if drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve were included in the resolution, it appeared there would be no stopping the oil package. Now, as CQ Today's Midday Update (free email service) reports, a large group of Republican House members have issued a strong statement in opposition to the drilling that could help save the reserve.

Two dozen House Republicans, including three committee chairmen, want provisions opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling left out of a budget “reconciliation” package that will be assembled in mid-September.

In an Aug. 4 letter to House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo, R-Calif., Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, the lawmakers said they “would have serious concerns about any budget bill that contains provisions authorizing the development of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

Under the budget resolution (H Con Res 95), the Resources Committee must come up with $2.4 billion in savings over five years from programs under its jurisdiction by Sept. 16. That figure, equal to the anticipated receipts from oil and gas leasing in ANWR, represents the panel’s portion of a $34.7 billion reconciliation bill that will enjoy protection from a Senate filibuster.

While the House has approved drilling in ANWR in the past, GOP leaders have little room for error on budget measures, which typically pass with a two- or three-vote margin.