The Energy Department is suspending its plan to buy low-priced oil to restock the nation’s emergency Strategic Petroleum Reserve after Congress chose not to provide funding for the purchase in its emergency pandemic relief package.

The department withdrew a solicitation Thursday for buying 30 million barrels of oil from U.S. producers, which would have been the first round of purchases for a total of 77 million barrels — the full amount of open capacity in the SPR.

That doesn't mean Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette is abandoning President Trump's order to fill the oil reserve in order to help U.S. producers struggling from a historic price crash. But he needs Congress to allocate $3 billion in funding in order to proceed, and he's calling on lawmakers to do it in future rounds of legislation responding to the coronavirus.

"Small- to medium-size American energy companies and their employees should be provided the same relief being provided to other parts of our economy, and the Secretary calls on Congress to work with the administration to fund the president’s request as soon as possible," Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes told the Washington Examiner.

Brouillette had been confident Congress would fulfill his $3 billion request for SPR purchases in the package approved by the Senate Wednesday night, but it was removed from the final bill after Democrats and Republicans haggled over energy and climate-related provisions.

Administration officials say restocking the SPR won’t halt the price crash rocking the shale industry, but they say it makes sense on energy security grounds and would benefit taxpayers. Congress has been selling off oil from the reserve in recent years to fund unrelated priorities, but a sustained period of low prices represents a good opportunity to fill the SPR back up, the administration says.

"President Trump’s directive to buy oil at a competitive price for the SPR is a common-sense move benefiting taxpayers and supporting our nation’s economic and national security interest," Hynes said. "The American energy sector is a major driver of our nation’s economy, and it is being significantly harmed by the impacts of COVID-19 and international market manipulation."