Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) AP A Republican senator is claiming House GOP leaders shelved work on an energy bill just before their holiday recess in order to make it to a fundraiser in New York.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said the House was not able to hold a vote on the bill because they wanted to attend the National Republican Congressional Committee's “Bright Lights and Broadway” fundraiser, the Alaska Journal reported.

“The Speaker said ‘We’ve run out of time’ because they wanted to get on the party train,” Murkowski told the Alaska Journal.

The bill, which senators spent two years working on and would have been the first energy reform bill in a decade, aimed to expand energy production and simplify federal regulation.

According to a statement from Murkowski, a measure regarding the expansion of liquefied gas exports still needed to be deliberated. Several senators wanted this provision included in the final bill, but it was later removed by the House, Murkowski said.

Earlier this month, House Speaker Paul Ryan released a statement saying “the conferees were not able to come to agreement on various outstanding issues in time for the House to consider a conference report.”