By CQ Staff

Scrambling to get out in front of a congressional mandate, the Department of Energy announced Friday it would suspend shipments of oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the rest of this year.

The action came two days after Congress cleared for the White House a bill (HR 6022) mandating a temporary halt in deposits into the reserve in a bid to relieve pressure on gasoline prices by increasing supplies.

“The Department’s action today underscores that President Bush had the authority all along to trigger lower oil prices. He should have taken this action months ago. It’s a shame that he needed to be compelled by Congress to help consumers. While the bill sits on his desk, the president is on bended knee in Saudi Arabia begging for more oil production. He should sign the bill as soon as he gets back and work with the Congress on a sound energy policy that ends our dependence on oil,” said Peter Welch , D-Vt., who sponsored the legislation along with 63 cosponsors, including three Republicans.

Bush has repeatedly assailed the bipartisan bill, saying oil should continue to flow into the reserve and be saved for a national emergency resulting in a major disruption of imports.

But both the House and the Senate passed the bill by votes comfortably exceeding the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. The White House never issued a formal veto threat against the bill.

The department said it was suspending bids received May 13 for delivery of oil to the reserve from July through December. “The modest fill rate of approximately 76,000 barrels per day through the royalty-in-kind contract would have begun on July 1, 2008, with deliveries of crude oil beginning in August 2008 and continuing through December 2008,” the department said.

The administration has been pushing to fill the reserve to its capacity of 727 million barrels. Since 2001, the department said, inventory has increased from about 540 million barrels to 702.7 million barrels. The oil is stored in salt caverns along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas.

The House passed the bill mandating a halt in deposits to the reserve on May 13 by 385-25. The Senate cleared the bill a day later.

Democrats have long opposed pumping more oil into the reserve when prices are high, arguing that it takes supplies off the market and pushes prices even higher. The measure heading to the White House would halt deposits as long as oil prices remain above $75 a barrel.