To help ensure its approval by moderates, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have removed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore oil exploration from a major $50 billion budget reconciliation plan.

On Wednesday, Nov. 9, Republicans in the House Rules Committee voted to remove the two provisions from the plan. The move is expected to help the bill, HR 4241, gain approval without problems when it reaches the House floor for a full vote.

“We’re taking ANWR out,” Burson Taylor, a spokesperson for Sen. Roy Blunt, R-MO, told Congressional Quarterly. “A number of moderates will now vote for the package.”

However, the move sets the stage for a larger battle when the bill is negotiated with the Senate version of the bill, approved by a vote of 52-47 Nov. 3, which still contains the provision to allow ANWR drilling.

Supporters in the Senate of ANWR drilling said the measure – which would add $2.5 billion to the federal budget – would lower U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

“Opening ANWR is sound public policy that would serve the country well many years into the future,” Pete Domenici, the Republican chairman of the committee, told Reuters.

Opponents of the bill, however, said it would be devastating to the wildlife refuge, and should not be lumped into a larger budget plan.

“I think the addition of this policy decision into the budget reconciliation is reason enough for the Congress to vote this budget down,” Brian Moore, a spokesman for the Alaska Wilderness League, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. “There’s no reason why this irresponsible budget should pass. It’s bad for Americans of all economic levels except for the 2 percent of the wealthiest Americans who also happen to be oil company executives.”