WASHINGTON — With the fate of the country’s financial markets taking top billing, Tennessee and Georgia lawmakers agree that other legislation mostly will take a back seat in this final scheduled week of the 2008 session.

Congress may convene in November for a lame-duck session to pick up any loose pieces, but members of both parties concede that with the elections just around the corner on Nov. 4, neither party will want to rock the boat.

“It is the goal of both (Senate party) leaders to be out of here Friday,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said. “We still have not voted on (a stopgap spending bill), we have not voted on a second economic stimulus, the Alternative Minimum Tax patch. The leaders are trying to run the clock out and make sure that nothing happens before the election.”

Congress began this three-week September session intent on passing energy legislation to address high gas prices but has been stymied by partisan battles.

The bipartisan “Gang of 10” in the Senate, which includes Sens. Corker; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., had been drafting a compromise energy proposal but now will hold off on unveiling the final version until November.

The bill, which includes some limited offshore drilling, now has 20 co-sponsors — 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans.

“Unfortunately, with the fiscal crisis unfolding, time to debate a comprehensive energy policy is not available,” Sens. Chambliss and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., the leaders of the group, said in a joint statement. “Instead, we will ... ask that (it) be among the first orders of business when Congress reconvenes.”

The House did pass a Democratic-sponsored energy bill last week, but even without the financial crisis, that bill was not expected to be adopted by the Senate.

Republicans had criticized the bill for not including enough drilling.

Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., one of a few dozen Democrats who does favor increased drilling, has criticized Republicans for politicizing the issue.

The congressional moratorium on offshore drilling expires at the end of the month, and Rep. Davis said he expects his party’s leadership to allow it to expire to get enough Republican votes to pass a stopgap spending bill that will fund the federal government into next year.

“The Republicans have made, ‘Drill, baby, drill’ a mantra for the last two months to fix their problems,” Rep. Davis said. “I think they’re about to get what they want.”

Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said Congress shouldn’t be adjourning without both chambers coming to a consensus on energy and sending a bill to the president.

But, in the meantime, Congress this week likely will vote on extending tax incentives for renewable energy. Rep. Wamp was one of the original co-sponsors of a bill containing those tax breaks that was included in energy legislation passed in 2005.

“One of the pieces of the ‘all of the above’ strategy is to encourage and incentivize as many sources of energy as we can,” Rep. Wamp said.

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