August 3, 2006: Pensions Bill Passes; Family Prosperity Act Falls; Defense Bill Postponed

Recap: The Senate did not finish the FY 2007 Defense Spending Bill.  Stevens wanted to finish it but there was too much pressure to get to the estate tax bill and the pensions bill before August Recess.  Going into the early morning, the Senate recorded votes on the estate tax/min wage/extenders bill, a.k.a. The Trifecta, a.k.a. The Family Prosperity Act, and the Pensions bill.  The Trifecta did not survive a cloture vote, receiving only 57 yeas.  The Pensions Bill passed overwhelmingly, 93-5.  As it turned out, this was the last meeting of the Senate before commencement of the August Recess.  The Senate Returns on September 5.  Stevens and Frist and Inouye agreed that the Senate would finish the Defense Bill first thing upon returning from Recess.  Here's how it went down...

The Senate returned to work this morning at 9:45 edt.  Sen. Ted Stevens (AK) has the floor.  He is the Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.  He says, The Senate has a long day before it.  The Senate will see a considerable number of votes today, he says.    Accompanying him on the floor is Sen. Daniel Inouye (HI), the Subcommitte Ranking Member.

We've got to finish this bill today, Stevens says.  And I will apply Rule 16 to any amendment that isn't germane, he says.

[9:05]

Sen. Tom Coburn (OK) has asked that the Kennedy Amendment be set aside so that he can offer one.  No objections.  His amendment sets a spending limit on the amount of money the Dept. of Defense spends on conferences.  Sen. Coburn says that $66m was spent on defense conferences, including numerous conferences in Florida, Hawaii, etc.  Couldn't we do some of this by video conference, wonders Coburn.  

Stevens seems unwilling to support this amendment.  It is too broad, he says.  We have to go places to meet with representatives from other countries, from NATO, he says.  The limit is not reasonable, says Stevens: We're the last superpower of the world, we've got troops in 120 countries, the cost of travel is going up all the time.  I offered to conference with the House to set a reasonable limit but Sen. Coburn would not accept a reasonable limit.  Stevens asks that a vote to table the amendment be taken.  The vote to table Coburn's amendment on conferences is set aside for the time being, apparently because the Senators are not yet ready to vote this morning.  

Sen. Coburn now brings up another amendment.  This concerns making public the justifications that each department submits to Senate subcommittees when making budget requests.  Sunshine is the best thing we've got, he says.

Sen. Stevens makes a point of order on this amendment.  Sen. Coburn says he's talked to the Parliamentarian and that there's a defense of germaneness.  Sen. Stevens makes a point of order.  Sen. Murkowski sitting in the chair says the defense of germaneness is valid.  Germane means more than relevant but having a precise relationship to the subject of the bill, says CSPAN2.  It looks like this amendment will go to a vote by the Senate, but that vote will be delayed until other amendments are voted on.  

Sen. Norm Coleman (MN) wants seven minutes.  Stevens doesn't really want any interruptions but he isn't going to object now.  He will object later, he says.  He wants the Coburn amendments cleared out by 11:00.  (Not going to happen.)  Coburn's got TWO MORE amendments.

Sen. Coleman is speaking about the minimum wage increase.  The big issue remains the Tip Credit—i.e., counting tips toward the minimum wage.  He says the Tip Credit provision in this bill only applies to future increases in the minimum wage, not to the current provisions.  What he's got is the Dept. of Labor saying that It is going to construe the Tip Credit Provision as not having any effect on how Tips are counted toward the minimum wage in the seven non-Tip Credit States.  In other words, the seven states that prohibit employers from counting tips toward the minimum wage floor WILL NOT BE AFFECTED by this bill.  The only effect will come if/when those states raise their respectiv minimum wage  in the future.  

Take California, a non-Tip Credit State.  Let's say the minimum wage there is $6.00.  As such, a waitress there must be paid at least $6.00/hr NOT INCLUDING tips.  If she makes another $6.00/hr in tips, big deal, the employer cannot rely on that to reduce the employee's wage below $6.00/hr.  This bill will allow that employer to count tips toward the minimum wage ONLY if a state takes action to raise its minimum wage after passage of this bill.  

Now, let's look at a state that allows employers to use the Tip Credit provision.  Let's say the min wage is $6.00/hr.  If an employer can establish that an employee receives $6.00/hr in tips, under this bill he does not have to offer that employee the $6.00/hr salary.  He can offer something less.  I am not clear on whether he can offer $0 in salary or whether there is still some floor the employer must meet.  Perhaps this varies by state.  

In any event, the non-Tip Credit states do not want their employers to count tips toward salary and it appears that the Dept. of Labor, through its avowed application of the bill, will side with the non-Tip Credit states.

[10:44]

OK, back to Coburn and Stevens.  They are debating a third Coburn Amendment and Coburn has just agreed to limit the effect of his language "To this Act" which induces Stevens to drop his opposition to it.

Now, the Fourth Coburn Amendment: requiring an analysis of the total cost of earmarks on Defense Appropriations and an analysis of how those earmarks will help the Dept. of Defense.  He believes earmarks are siphoning away funds from other key national security priorities...  (I faded out for a bit)

[11:04]

The Senate is now voting on whether to table, i.e. kill, the Coburn amendment that puts a $70m cap on spending for Defense Dept. conferences.

[...]
[13:24]
The Senate has been in a quorum call for awhile.
[16:51]

The Senate is voting on another of the Coburn Amendments, this one requiring an analysis to ensure that defense budget funds are actually being used for projects assisting U.S. defense and troops.  This Amendment passes 98 to 1.

[16:54]

Sen. Stevens brings up a manager's package, i.e. a lot of amendments including modifications.  These have been approved on both sides and he asks for them to be considered and adopted en bloc.  No objection.

[16:56]

Sen. Gordon Smith (OR) is speaking on the Tip Credit.  He refers to the bill as a minimum wage/death tax compromise.  He wants to explain the Tip Credit.  He says that no one's wage will go down.  If a state's current minimum is higher than the federal minimum, the state minimum holds fast against passage of the bill.  In Oregon, he says, the min. is $7.50/hr. and it will remain $7.50 under passage of the bill.  He has a letter from the U.S. Dept. of Labor which he says explains what the Tip credit will mean.  The Dept. of Labor would protect those employees in the seven no-tip credit states, the letter says; it would not read the act as requiring tips to count toward the minimum wage.  In these seven states, the Tip Credit would kick in only if the state raised its minimum wage in the future.  For example, if a non-tip credit state in two years raised its minimum wage one dollar, employers could count that employee's tips toward that one dollar.  No worker's minimum wage will go down as a result of this bill, he says.

Sen. Sessions is bringing up an amendment, co-sponsored by Sens. Chuck Hagel (NE) and Ben Nelson (NE).  This amendment will restore funding for "non-nuclear global strike capabilities"...a "prompt strike weapon"...he wants it to be feasible to use sub-launched ballistic missiles with non-nuclear warheads to provide the president with strike capabilities in urgent situations.  This Trident missile can strike anywhere on the globe, launched from a submarine, within thirty minutes, without including a nuclear explosion.  The Amendment earmarks $77m for its development.  The thing is, Sessions says, we have missiles that we can launch from subs on a moment's notice—but the missiles that are most capable of reaching distant targets in a matter of minutes are nuclear.

The Sessions Amendment has its opposition.  Sen. Jack Reed (RI) voiced concern that our enemies might not know whether the missile we'd just launched from our submarine was nuclear or not nuclear.

Sen. Inouye also opposes it.  He says, These Trident submarines carry 24 tubes.  Right now, those are all nuclear tubes (missiles).  How would Russia or North Korea take it if they saw a missile flying in its direction.  His concerns seems to be that we'd have missiles flying over numerous countries if, e.g., one of these subs fired a non-nuclear missile at Osama bin Laden.

Nor does Sen. Stevens support this amendment.  He says some analysis needs to be done first — a review of political and international factors.  Money is tight and he wants to fund only those efforts that have been fully analyzed.  He also cites the possibility that launching a non-nuclear missile still could be overly provocative.  It could lead to risky strikes, he says.

At [17:54], the Senate moves into a quorum call.  Mr. Akaka...

At [18:24] the Senate is voting on the Sessions Amendment.  It doesn't seem to have much support.  The voting is mixed, with bipartisan support and opposition.  Not too many folks are voting for it.  Prior voted for it but then changed his vote.  It looks like military Repubs support it but even then, it doesn't have Stevens's support, so...Cornyn, Graham, DeMint, that's about it.

Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid (NV) just got a little hot under the collar, seeming to say that Stevens was trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes by shutting down the ability to offer amendments.  Stevens had called for a third reading of the bill, which would end the period for offering amendments.  Stevens says all you have to do is object to the third reading, if you want to stay and debate then let's stay and debate.

Reid says, I wanna get along with everybody.  That gets laughs.  Reid says, I wanna finish this bill, I wanna finish the pension bill, I wanna do the extenders.  

Now there's talk about finishing this Defense bill when they come back from Recess.  Some of my senators are leaving, Reid says.  They don't need to be here to vote on cloture. I'm sorry the defense bill wasn't brought up sooner, he says.  If the distinguished senator wants to stay here all night, that's fine.  We have a list of finite amendments...these two good managers...we'll finish the bill, it'll take no more than two days when we get back here...we're not trying to do anything other than just move along.  

Now Sen. Frist, the Majority Leader.  Everyone knows what business we've got to get done, and what we're seeing here is we've got a lot to get done in a short amount of time.  He is trying to set things out.  Defense appropriations, trifecta bill tomorrow morning, then we have to deal with pensions.  I think we've made good progress.  We have some pending amendments.  He suggests working hard for the next four or five hours, going to the trifecta bill tonight, voting on it, then voting on the pensions bill tonight, getting it all done, three hours, four hours.  He wants a response from the Dem. Leader.

We have a number of amendments pending, says Reid.  People feel strongly about them.  We're not gonna finish the Defense bill tonight.  I know people wanna get work done, we've been willing to move this bill for a long time.  We have about 50 amendments on our side, he says.  With all due respect, I know your job's harder than mine, but we can't finish the defense bill tonight, it just won't happen.  No one has to file cloture.  We'll finish the bill in two days when we get back here.  Maybe we need the break, to find out where we need to go when we get back, because things are moving very rapidly.  

They are talking: they come back on Tuesday, they can finish it that Wednesday.  We need to have a tight agreement on how we'd finish this bill, says Frist.  Stevens wants to talk.  He doesn't want to be disrespectful of anybody.  I think I consider everyone on this floor my friend.  He says, the Men and Women Overseas, they're not taking August off.  Me and Inouye could finish this bill tonight if we had cooperation, he says.  I am gonna be super-critical if this bill doesn't get to the President in time.  

Frist says, if the Chairman and Ranking Member think this bill can be done tonight, we should think about getting this bill done tonight.  It's gonna be hard, but if we march through the amendments, that's what we should do.

Now Reid.  Where was my friend from AK when we were spending all the time on gay marriage and other things?  We don't run this Senate.  It's not our fault that the defense appropriations bill isn't moving forward.  There's too much to do, he says.  If we don't do this pensions bill, there's two airlines that're gonna dump their pensions.  We've got a lot of other things to do besides the Defense Bill.  We won't finish these amendments even if we stay here all night.

Frist says, Let's turn the floor back over to the managers, Reid and I will confer, we'll still vote on the Family Prosperity Act at 9:30 tomorrow morning.  

Sen. Kyl asks for the order and calls up a vote on his amendment.

Right now, the SENATE IS IN CHAOS!!

Amendment passes by voice vote.  Stevens has a package to put through.

[20:29]

It looks as though Frist has moved the schedule up.  There is going to be a vote on the trifecta a.k.a. the Family Prosperity Act a.k.a. the estate tax/minimum wage/tax extenders bill TONIGHT.  The Defense Bill seems to have been set aside until after the August Recess.  The vote on the trifecta will be a cloture vote after 15 minutes for each side.  If the cloture vote is not agreed to, the Senate will move along to consider the Pensions Bill.

Sen. Reid moved that the Extenders be extracted from the trifecta and voted on separately.  Frist objected to that and therefore shot it down.

[20:53]

Sen. Chuck Grassley (IA) spoke for 15 minutes in favor of the trifecta.  Now Durbin is saying it's appropriately called a trifecta because it's a high-stakes gamble and because there are more losers than winners.

Sen. Durbin spoke for the minority for 10 minutes.  Then Sen. Conrad (ND) spoke for the minority for 10 minutes.

Sen. Reid now has the floor.  He says, The Majority Leader has dubbed this trifecta bill the "Family Prosperity Act."  It should be called the Prosperous Family Act, he says.  Sen. Reid says that the Leadership has been missing in action on every major issue facing the country.  He also calls it the "Defecta" instead of the Trifecta.

Sen. Patty Murray (WA) spoke briefly about the tip provision.  She had a letter from the Washington State Bureau of Labor citing its initial interpretation of the bill.  To wit, tipped employees would see a decrease in income under the Trifecta measure because the min wage tip provisions in the trifecta appear to nullify Washington state's provisions prohibiting employers from counting tipped employees' tips from counting toward their hourly wages.  

The question is, When we have a letter from the Federal Bureau of Labor citing its interpretation of the bill, Do We Care what someone in the Washington State Bureau of Labor says?  That's unclear....

Now Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) is speaking.  Now he's done.  Now Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.  She says, How can Reid call this a do-nothing Congress?  We've got a bill combining several measures that this body has worked on for years, and we're ready to pass it.  She says, It's not just the wealthiest Americans that are liable to the current estate tax provisions.  The Democrats are making excuses, she says.

Sen. Jon Kyl now.  He takes up the letter from the State of Washington official.  Kyl cites again to the Federal Dept. of Labor official, again interpreting the bill as not affecting the current wages of tipped employees in the seven states.

Now Sen. McConnell (KY).  He says, What we're hearing from the other side is "Block and Blame."  Each of the three components of the trifecta is supported by a bipartisan majority.

The Motion to Proceed vote is coming up, it will be at 21:40.  Frist is now summing it up.  

Now they are voting.  Majority needs 60 votes to bring debate on the bill to a close.  The notable votes:

—Yays: Nelson (FL), Byrd, Lincoln, Nelson (NE)

—Nays: Voinovich, Chafee

The motion was not agreed to.  There were only 57 votes to end debate.

[23:14]

The Pensions Bill passed 93-5.  The Senate is now wrapping up.  A few Senators including Dodd and Frist have taken some time to speak about austism.  They might have just passed a bill on austism, by voice vote.

I gotta admit, I crashed.  The Senate was still working, passed midnight eastern.  They seemed to be passing some resolutions by unanimous consent...