September 19, 2006: Oman Free Trade Agreement Passes

The Oman Free Trade Agreement passed fairly easily with 62 votes (32 nay, 6 nv).  Quite a few democrats joined Republicans in approving the agreement.  These democrats included Clinton, Murray, Cantwell, Kerry, Landrieu, Lieberman, Salazar, and Obama.  A handful of Republicans voted to reject the agreement.  These included both senators from Maine (Snowe and Collins) and both senators from North Carolina (Burr and Dole).  Coburn also voted to oppose the agreement.

After a two-hour lunch break, the Senate returned to consider the nomination of Alice Fisher for Assistant Attorney General. Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY) recited Fisher's bio and included his endorsement. Fisher is a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General who has worked on counter-terrorism and corporate fraud cases. She had a hand in implementing the PATRIOT Act and co-wrote the Sarbanes Oxley corporate governance act. In 2003 she went into the private sector as a partner at Latham and Watkins, a big corporate law firm. Bush appointer her to Asst. Attorney General as a 2005 recess appointment. It's unclear (to me) why she needs the approval of the senate now.

[14:29]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein says she meant to vote "Nay" on Roll Call Vote number 250 (the Oman FTA). Now it has 62 votes. Back to a quorum call.