Senate to vote Tuesday on catch-all spending bill
Lawmakers pass another stopgap measure to keep agencies running until Wednesday.
The Senate is on track to vote Tuesday on a $410 billion omnibus spending bill after Congress Friday passed stopgap spending legislation to continue funding most government programs at fiscal 2008 levels through Wednesday.
The need for the new continuing resolution came after Senate Democratic leaders Thursday night postponed a vote to cut off debate on the omnibus, realizing they did not have the 60 votes needed for passage.
The CR will give Republicans a chance to offer 12 more amendments, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., believes will be enough to win the 60 votes needed to cut off debate.
The current CR, which funds the programs covered by the nine fiscal 2009 spending bills in the omnibus, expires at midnight Friday.
The 12 amendments will be voted on Monday evening and Tuesday, when the Senate is expected to vote to cut off debate and then vote on final passage. In an indication Democrats expect the cloture vote to be tight, Reid said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who is spending most of his time in Florida as he fights brain cancer, will be on hand for next week's vote.
While the delay is designed to help ensure passage of the bill, it carries a cost for Democrats. Although the amendments will likely be defeated, the votes will be politically tough for many Democrats, GOP aides argued. For example, Republicans will force Democrats again to defend earmarks in the measure and take positions on hot-button issues like aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
Particularly uncomfortable will be a vote on an amendment by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., to repeal a provision giving members of Congress an automatic pay raise. Other amendments include a proposal from Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., which would strike language prohibiting the use of omnibus funds for the District of Columbia's school voucher program before it is reauthorized, which Republicans claim would kill the program.
The delay forced Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to back off their assertions that failure to pass the omnibus this week could force a government shutdown after the current CR expires. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Friday mocked that claim as "high drama at its best." Reid's struggle to round up 60 votes underscores the slog Democrats face getting the president's budget and other expensive bills through the Senate, as Republicans appear to make headway with moderate Democrats by hammering the majority for its spending plans.
GOP aides are faulting as "too expensive" a bill the Senate is preparing to take up that would allow bankruptcy judges to adjust principals of mortgages. Reid said Friday he decided to allow the amendments after multiple Republicans who had agreed to vote for cloture in an 8:15 p.m. vote Thursday told him they had changed their minds.
"A number of my Republican friends called me and said, 'We think we need more amendments. We know that we said we were going to vote to end debate, but we feel there's more debate [needed]; ... No one broke their word to me. It was just a misunderstanding," he said.