WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush, on a campaign to open offshore waters to oil drilling, said Wednesday that the Democratic-run Congress was letting down the American people by refusing to allow votes on the matter.

The president again pinned the prospect of oil drilling off the coastline — considered a long-term energy solution — to today’s high gas prices for consumers.

“The American people are rightly frustrated by the failure of the Democratic leaders in Congress to enact commonsense solutions,” the president said.

Bush acknowledged that development of oil resources in waters off the coastlines, an area known as the Outer Continental Shelf, would take time. But he said that only creates more urgency for Congress to lift its legislative ban on drilling in these protected waters before lawmakers leave Washington for summer break.

Bush has already lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling that had stood since his father was president. But that will have no effect unless Congress acts, too.

“All the Democratic leaders have to do is to allow a vote,” Bush said. “They should not leave Washington without doing so.”

The president gave essentially the same message on Tuesday to an audience of employees at a welding plant in Ohio. In his latest effort, his presidential prodding came with his Cabinet members standing behind him in the Rose Garden. He had just met with them on energy and other matters.

Both Congress and the president, plenty aware of American anger about gas prices, are scrambling to show some action.

Congress has been in a stalemate over energy legislation, with daily sniping between the parties over how to respond.