The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday the legislation to stop the Bush administration’s policy of adding oil to the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The move comes on the background of historic high fuel prices. Oil traded at a record near $126 a barrel on Tuesday. The average price of regular unleaded gasoline nationwide hit a new high of $3.73 per gallon angering the US citizens.

After a 97-1 vote for the bill in the Senate, the 385-to-25 House of Representatives vote in favor of the bill was more than enough to override a possible presidential veto of the measure.
Bush had threatened to veto the bill arguing that this measure wouldn’t work. After the Senate and House vote, White House aides said the President won’t veto the bill, but still said Bush believes the impact of the measure will be minor.

Lawmakers agreed with Bush to a certain degree saying that the measure will lower the gas price with just a few pennies per gallon. However, it is wrong to keep filling the emergency stockpile, which is 97 percent full anyway, while the crude oil is reaching record highs.

"We are buying the most expensive crude oil in the history of the world and storing it," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who endorsed the bill.

"When American consumers are burning at the stake by high energy prices, the government ought not be carrying the wood."

Both presidential hopefuls, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, made a detour and voted for the measure. Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, also backed the measure.