By Coral Davenport and Aliya Sternstein, CQ Staff

The House for a second time defeated a Democratic bill to require energy companies to explore their existing oil and gas leases or lose them.

The “use-it-or-lose-it” bill (HR 6515) was the Democratic leadership’s response to a drumbeat of Republican calls for legislation to open up new public lands and offshore areas to oil and gas drilling.

It was a retread of a measure (HR 6251) that Democrats rushed to the floor ahead of the July 4 recess under suspension of the rules, an expedited procedure requiring a two-thirds vote for passage. The 223-195 vote on that bill June 26 fell 56 votes short of that target.

Democrats closed the gap a bit this time around, but the 244-173 vote in favor of their revised bill was still 34 votes short of the two-thirds majority required for passage.

Democratic leaders revised the legislation in a bid to pick up more support from oil-state Democrats and from GOP members. On the first bill, 19 Democrats voted “no.” That dropped to 11 members this time. The number of Republicans voting “yes” climbed from 11 members on June 26 to 26 on Thursday. But the added support was not enough to push the bill through.

Among the new provisions in the latest version were ones designed to expedite oil and gas production in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, a 20-million-acre territory already open to oil and gas exploration, speed construction of an oil and gas pipeline from Alaska, and bar export of Alaskan oil.

The White House issued a veto threat against the bill on Thursday in a statement of administration policy declaring: With gasoline prices at historic highs, it is unimaginable that Congress is considering legislation that would, among other things, reduce domestic oil supply by chilling investment and placing new restrictions on how exploration can go forward.”

Republican Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio said he supports the new provisions on Alaskan oil, but has slammed Democrats for introducing the bill under suspension of the rules, which bars amendments. Republicans say they will not let up on any opportunity to offer an amendment on increasing offshore drilling, which Boehner says appears to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., “running scared.”

Pelosi countered that “there are 68 million acres in the lower 48 states where drilling is allowed,” much of which is offshore. The Alaska territory covered by the bill, she added, is “a bigger area” than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Republicans want to open to drilling.

Senate Stalled

A similar partisan dynamic is stalling energy legislation in the Senate, where Democrats and Republicans are at a standstill on a measure (S 3268) to tighten regulation of energy futures trading. Democrats acknowledge the measure is only a short-term, partial solution to the rising cost of gasoline, but Republicans have threatened to thwart action on the bill, unless GOP members are allowed to offer amendments that would open new areas for oil drilling.

Republicans objected to a motion by Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., to move forward on the bill. Republican aides said they still had no indication from Reid that amendments would be permitted. Democratic aides said Republicans would have to let the Senate take up the bill before amendments could be proposed.

Democratic leaders Wednesday unveiled a package that they say would stop Wall Street traders from gaming the oil markets by boosting staffing at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and expanding CFTC oversight. The bill would force traders using offshore markets to abide by the same rules as those trading on U.S. exchanges. It would limit the number of futures contracts an investor can own but not go so far as to increase margin requirements, which are the security deposits a trader must place. Nor does the bill authorize the CFTC to directly regulate foreign markets.