House Republicans are feeling emboldened after picking off the support of a handful of Democrats in passing their marquee energy package, challenging the Senate to consider their legislation in full — including its contentious oil and gas provisions.

Even though four House Democrats supported the bill, Senate Democrats including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have already publicly rejected the overall package. They have made it clear they are only interested in a slice of the GOP's sprawling agenda: making it easier to build projects by reforming permitting rules.

But that has not stopped House Republicans for making the case for the entire package as it heads to the upper chamber.

"It’s good to have this bipartisan victory,” Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) told POLITICO after the bill passed Thursday. “I hope the Senate will see how much the American people need this and take it up and pass it.”

Measures to mandate regular oil and gas lease sales on federal lands and repeal a fee imposed on oil and gas methane emissions as part of the Inflation Reduction Act are nonstarters for Democrats.

But Senate committee leaders are already preparing to begin deliberations on the permitting provisions of the energy package. Committee aides with both the Environment and Public Works panel and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmed to POLITICO they intend to hold hearings on permitting oversight.

Meanwhile, the top Republicans on the EPW and Natural Resources committees — Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), respectively — separately told POLITICO they are working on permitting legislation together and they hope to move legislation through those panels.

But even on the permitting issue, the parties remain just as far apart in defining their priorities as they were during last year’s effort by Sen. Joe Manchin, which failed due to opposition from progressive lawmakers wary of changing the rules for environmental reviews and Republicans angry at the West Virginia senator for supporting Democrats’ trademark climate law.

Republicans are interested in shortening project reviews and stymieing lawsuits filed against the projects under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970. Democrats mostly want to enable the federal government to streamline the process and more easily authorize new interstate power lines to connect an expected influx of wind and solar facilities to the grid.

“This may be one of the few things we can actually accomplish in this Congress,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). “But it's very clear [Republicans] are focused on pipelines. The challenge there is the entire energy system is re-orienting toward electricity and they are just out of step with where the economy and country are. That's hopefully where the Senate comes in and rebalances.”

The involvement of Barrasso — a close ally of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — is in stark contrast to last year, when both leaders opposed Manchin’s proposal and refused to negotiate on permitting.

“The Democrats are hamstrung with some of the things they want to do on their green energy proposals,” Barrasso said. “So the Democrats now realize what a nightmare and how broken the permitting system is in this country. So we are looking for bipartisan solutions to get permitting done so we can build projects.”

Despite the challenges in reaching a deal, lawmakers are facing pressure to act from a cross-section of interests, including the fossil fuel and renewable energy industries and labor unions. These groups all have a stake in building infrastructure projects of all types at a faster pace as the federal government looks to spend hundreds of billions of dollars through funding authorized under the bipartisan infrastructure and semiconductor subsidy and research laws, along with the Inflation Reduction Act.

Indeed, even as Biden and Schumer were dismissing House Republicans’ energy bill, they reiterated their interest in reaching a bipartisan permitting deal this year that helps reduce costs by making it easier for consumers to access energy, and ensures clean energy subsidies provided by the Inflation Reduction Act are not wasted.

“I’m glad that there are good-faith talks underway right now between both parties in both houses to figure out what sort of permitting deal is possible,” Schumer said in comments on the Senate floor earlier this month.

But a major roadblock to a deal remains Republican reluctance to give the federal government more power to permit transmission lines — a key priority of Democrats since many of those projects encounter delays at the state and local level.

“There is a significant cross-aisle debate on what we should be building,” said Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.). “We do not need to build more [liquefied natural gas] export terminals. We do need to build more transmission lines.”

On the other side, progressives — while open to bipartisan discussions — are loath to make changes to NEPA. Many House Democrats have dismissed the GOP’s offering to set deadlines for projects and impose limitations on the circumstances in which opponents can file lawsuits as a “gutting” of the public input process established by the nation’s bedrock environmental law.

“We are always willing to talk [on NEPA changes], but it can't be things that are going to hurt community input, that are going to disadvantage communities of color, that are going to set us backward on our clean energy targets,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “That will be our test. But we’ll put together our own set of proposals.”

As the debate plays out, some House Republicans are angling to force the issue by linking energy permitting to negotiations over the debt ceiling that has to be addressed this summer, seeing it as an issue ripe for bipartisan compromise that could win concessions from Democrats.

“Debt ceiling conversations obviously should include priorities of both sides and if that becomes a vehicle for moving things, there’s no doubt about it permitting is something that enjoys bipartisan support,” said Rep Garret Graves (R-La.), who wrote the major permitting provisions of the House GOP energy bill.

But senators of both parties are skeptical of that idea, not wanting to insert an unrelated policy debate into a high-stakes battle over the debt ceiling.

“It would be weird to do it on the debt ceiling,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who participated in permitting negotiations with Manchin last year. “I don't know if you could get the president’s support for it as a condition. I do think it's a little bit of a stretch.”