News
With one day to spare, the Senate Wednesday cleared a $463.5 billion spending measure to fund much of the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
The measure (H J Res 20) was easily cleared by the Senate, 81-15. The Democratic-written legislation, which President Bush is expected to sign, provides funding for programs covered by the nine unfinished fiscal 2007 appropriations bills.
“This final funding package is an example of how the Congress can work together, without regard to party lines or partisan positions,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., after the vote. “This legislation focuses not on Democratic priorities or Republican priorities but rather on national priorities.”
Yet several Republican lawmakers took to the floor before the vote to complain about the measure’s content as well as the fact they were being barred from offering amendments on some of their spending priorities.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., used a parliamentary maneuver known as “filling the amendment tree” to block other amendments, citing the need to enact the bill before the current continuing resolution, or CR (PL 109-383), expires Feb. 15.
By waiting until just before the deadline, Reid made it essentially impossible for Senate Republicans to vote against the spending measure without opening themselves to criticism that they voted for a government shutdown.
Although Reid had been negotiating with Republicans to let them offer some amendments, a deal never materialized.
On Wednesday, Reid acknowledged that some Republicans were dissatisfied. He said he would address some of the issues in the emergency war supplemental spending bill, which Congress will take up next month.
“I have made commitments to a number of people that we’re going to take care of these things on the supplemental, which should be here the last week in March,” Reid said. “I’ve told the distinguished Republican leader that [the supplemental] will be open to amendments.”
One issue that will undoubtedly be addressed is funding for base realignment and closures (BRAC), which is funded in the CR at $2.5 billion, or $3.1 billion less than Bush requested for fiscal 2007. Still, the funding level is $1 billion more than the fiscal 2006 total, as well as the level it would have been funded at had the legislation used the same formula as the current CR.
The stopgap spending measures crafted by the GOP majority held spending to the lowest of the House-passed, Senate-passed or the previous year’s funding level.
After GOP leaders in the 109th Congress left the 2007 spending bills for the Democrats to finish in the 110th Congress, members of the new majority decided to package the nine bills together and use fiscal 2006 as a baseline for funding, with a number of exceptions. They also excluded funding for new earmarks.
GOP Displeasure
Although Reid, Byrd and House Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey, D-Wis., have pledged to provide more BRAC funding in the supplemental, Senate Republicans criticized the delay.
Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a fiscal conservative, said, “This game with this maneuver in it is a sham for our grandkids and for anybody else that thinks we’re going to be fiscally responsible with your money.”
Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the ranking Republican on the Senate Military Construction-VA Appropriations Subcommittee, had led the charge for additional BRAC funding. She said Wednesday that there had been enough time to amend the measure. “We should have had time to do it right. We didn’t,” she said. “So we’re faced with the Hobson’s choice of shutting down government or trying to do this bill in the right way with no amendments.” A Hobson’s choice refers to having to take either what is offered or nothing at all.
Yet Hutchison acknowledged that Reid had at least attempted to negotiate with the House to allow an amendment to be offered. “I do believe that he tried,” Hutchison said.
The president’s plan to send more combat soldiers and Marines to Iraq also expected to come up during debate on the war supplemental. Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., on Wednesday unsuccessfully tried to offer his resolution (S Con Res 7) as an amendment to the CR. The resolution would express disapproval of the conduct of the war but would advise against cutting funds as a way to express opposition.
Warner’s resolution and the resolution being considered in the House this week (H Con Res 63) are non-binding. They are symbolic votes that Democrats hope will embarrass Bush and exert pressure on him to reconsider a troop increase. But the only guaranteed way Congress could cause Bush to withdraw troops, or at least not to add to them, is through funding. That opportunity will present itself with the fiscal 2007 war supplemental.
The measure (H J Res 20) was easily cleared by the Senate, 81-15. The Democratic-written legislation, which President Bush is expected to sign, provides funding for programs covered by the nine unfinished fiscal 2007 appropriations bills.
“This final funding package is an example of how the Congress can work together, without regard to party lines or partisan positions,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., after the vote. “This legislation focuses not on Democratic priorities or Republican priorities but rather on national priorities.”
Yet several Republican lawmakers took to the floor before the vote to complain about the measure’s content as well as the fact they were being barred from offering amendments on some of their spending priorities.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., used a parliamentary maneuver known as “filling the amendment tree” to block other amendments, citing the need to enact the bill before the current continuing resolution, or CR (PL 109-383), expires Feb. 15.
By waiting until just before the deadline, Reid made it essentially impossible for Senate Republicans to vote against the spending measure without opening themselves to criticism that they voted for a government shutdown.
Although Reid had been negotiating with Republicans to let them offer some amendments, a deal never materialized.
On Wednesday, Reid acknowledged that some Republicans were dissatisfied. He said he would address some of the issues in the emergency war supplemental spending bill, which Congress will take up next month.
“I have made commitments to a number of people that we’re going to take care of these things on the supplemental, which should be here the last week in March,” Reid said. “I’ve told the distinguished Republican leader that [the supplemental] will be open to amendments.”
One issue that will undoubtedly be addressed is funding for base realignment and closures (BRAC), which is funded in the CR at $2.5 billion, or $3.1 billion less than Bush requested for fiscal 2007. Still, the funding level is $1 billion more than the fiscal 2006 total, as well as the level it would have been funded at had the legislation used the same formula as the current CR.
The stopgap spending measures crafted by the GOP majority held spending to the lowest of the House-passed, Senate-passed or the previous year’s funding level.
After GOP leaders in the 109th Congress left the 2007 spending bills for the Democrats to finish in the 110th Congress, members of the new majority decided to package the nine bills together and use fiscal 2006 as a baseline for funding, with a number of exceptions. They also excluded funding for new earmarks.
GOP Displeasure
Although Reid, Byrd and House Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey, D-Wis., have pledged to provide more BRAC funding in the supplemental, Senate Republicans criticized the delay.
Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a fiscal conservative, said, “This game with this maneuver in it is a sham for our grandkids and for anybody else that thinks we’re going to be fiscally responsible with your money.”
Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the ranking Republican on the Senate Military Construction-VA Appropriations Subcommittee, had led the charge for additional BRAC funding. She said Wednesday that there had been enough time to amend the measure. “We should have had time to do it right. We didn’t,” she said. “So we’re faced with the Hobson’s choice of shutting down government or trying to do this bill in the right way with no amendments.” A Hobson’s choice refers to having to take either what is offered or nothing at all.
Yet Hutchison acknowledged that Reid had at least attempted to negotiate with the House to allow an amendment to be offered. “I do believe that he tried,” Hutchison said.
The president’s plan to send more combat soldiers and Marines to Iraq also expected to come up during debate on the war supplemental. Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., on Wednesday unsuccessfully tried to offer his resolution (S Con Res 7) as an amendment to the CR. The resolution would express disapproval of the conduct of the war but would advise against cutting funds as a way to express opposition.
Warner’s resolution and the resolution being considered in the House this week (H Con Res 63) are non-binding. They are symbolic votes that Democrats hope will embarrass Bush and exert pressure on him to reconsider a troop increase. But the only guaranteed way Congress could cause Bush to withdraw troops, or at least not to add to them, is through funding. That opportunity will present itself with the fiscal 2007 war supplemental.
