At least for now, health care is the top priority for leaders on Capitol Hill and the bills intended to deal with climate change will have to wait.

Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer , D‑Calif., said this week that she no longer intends to move an energy bill out of committee before the Senate leaves for its summer recess Aug. 7. Instead, she said, the committee will debate amendments and vote on a bill in early September.

Several senators said they need the extra month to negotiate with moderates in both parties to reach agreement on a large and complicated bill. And they said the time demands of health care legislation need to be taken into account.

“Health care swallows up everything else for a while,” said Sherrod Brown , D-Ohio. Although the committees can still move on energy, he said, “I think in terms of floor time, the health care bill’s going to consume our attentions and our passion.”

“Health care is a huge, complicated issue and critical that it be done, and so is climate change,” added Debbie Stabenow , D-Mich. “Many of us are deeply involved in both, so at some point, you have to decide what we’re going to focus on.”

Majority Leader Harry Reid , D‑Nev., has agreed to extend by 10 days a deadline for all committees to finish their work on the climate change bill, giving them until Sept. 28.

“We don’t have to rush it through,” Boxer said. “We’ll do it as soon as we get back, and we’ll have it at the desk when Harry wants it.”

Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin , D-Ill., said the schedule Reid laid out “puts us within reach of finishing this year,” which he said remains the leadership’s goal. A Reid spokesman said the Senate will take up the bill in the fall and, if possible, send it to President Obama this year.

“We’re all so busy on health care, and we want to get some numbers back that help us in terms of explaining [the energy bill] to people,” added John Kerry , D-Mass., a Finance Committee member involved in the health care debate who also chairs the Foreign Relations Committee. “It’s purely procedural.”

The delay will give Boxer more time to work on legislative text, which she previously said to expect “in a matter of days.”

Boxer now says she may not introduce the bill until after the recess. It will be modeled on legislation (HR 2454) that narrowly passed the House in June that would cap greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming and create a system for buying and selling emissions permits.

“I’ll be releasing it as soon as it’s completely ready,” Boxer said.

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