House Republicans blocked Democrats on Thursday from requiring oil and gas companies to drill on the millions of acres of government land and water on which they already own federal leases.

Seeking to counter a push by congressional Republicans to lift a long-standing drilling ban on most offshore U.S. waters, Democratic leaders maintained the industry should first go after oil and natural gas in areas where they hold leases.

But the measure was defeated 223-195, short of the two-thirds vote required, with only a handful of Republicans voting for it.

Separately, lawmakers moved to help local mass transit systems cope with a rush of new ridership as people turn to public transit in response to high gasoline prices.

The House voted 322-98 to authorize $1.7 billion over the next two years to lower fares and expand operations as more riders flock to public transit. The transit measure, which must still be considered by the Senate, marks the first time federal money would be used to support local mass transit operating costs.

Democrats proposed the failed drilling mandate and the public transit help as lawmakers struggled to respond to public anger over $4 gasoline with the July 4th holiday and heaviest summer driving season approaching. As the House voted, oil moved into record territory at just over $140 a barrel, signaling that gasoline prices are likely to go higher this summer.

Opening the nation’s offshore oil and gas resources has dominate the congressional energy debate in recent weeks. Republicans argue the drilling moratorium, in effect since 1981 over most federal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico, has kept companies from increasing domestic energy production.

But Democrats counter that the fenced-off waters of the Outer Continental Shelf shouldn’t be opened to drilling, when leases already provided by the Interior Department in other areas, mostly the western Gulf and in Alaska, aren’t being exploited.

“We believe in use it or lose it,” declared Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., a key member of the Democrats’ leadership.

The White House said President Bush would veto the use-it-or-lose-it legislation if it came to his desk, calling “absurd” the claim that, with today’s oil prices, companies are not pursuing all the oil that they can recover economically.