November 14, 2006: Veterans Funding

The Senate passed a $90b veterans funding and military construction bill.  Incoming budget commmittee chairman Conrad began to exert his influence by winning consideration for a farm relief amendment.  Outgoing budget committee chairman Gregg said it was a daytime robbery of the treasury.  Frist said the agriculture bill, and Conrad's amendment, would be debated tomorrow.

The Senate is definitely back in action today.  There is a big Veterans funding bill coming through the chamber and already there is some bicep-swinging by the Democrats, fueled by their recent wins.  For instance, Sen. Kent Conrad (ND) wanted to bring up an amendment, which the Republicans must have been blocking (Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) was on the floor managing the bill for the majority) and Conrad was P-O'ed.  He wanted a vote on his amendment and he wasn't getting it.

At one point the Senate was is in a quorum call and he asked that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with but then Hutchison objected—which I've never before seen—and so the quorum call kept going and you could see on CSPAN-2 where Conrad went over to Hutchison and he raised his palms up saying, What the heck?  They worked something out, and Conrad dispensed with the quorum call, going on to say that the farmers and ranchers of the country deserved some emergency funding (drought, floods) and that the Senate typically allowed such emergency funding to be stapled onto the backs of large spending/funding bills, such as the bill on the floor. Conrad's amendment is worth $4.9 billion.  Then he goes, "If they're not gonna allow this to come to a vote, then things are gonna get real tough around here."  Translation: Conrad is the ranking member of the Budget Committee and he stands to be the chairman of this committee come January and it is not a good time to ruffle his feathers.

He called for comity (a state or atmosphere of harmony or mutual civility and respect) and complained about being repeatedly denied a vote on emergency funding for farmers and ranchers.  He then referred to the election and asserted that voters had spoken in favor of this kind of emergency funding.  But outgoing budget committee chairman Judd Gregg (NH) said that Conrad et al. were in fact not listening to the voters' plea for fiscal responsibility, and such an amendment was a daytime robbery of the Treasury. So, ah, things are already getting a bit snippy in the Senate.  That was it, back into quorum call.  Later, it would become clear that his amendment would come up for a vote during consideration of the agriculture appropriations bill tomorrow.

The afternoon then became a very long vote calling forth absent senators to the floor.  Basically, it was a motion to charge the Sergeant-in-Arms to bring absent senators to the floor.  It seemed like the vote itself took over an hour.  It passed 95-1.

In any event, at 18:07 there are plenty of Sens on the floor.  OK, here is Conrad.  He is asking Frist's staff to go get him and bring him to the floor "so we can resolve this."  Conrad still hasn't gotten his amendment voted on.  It has faced a point of order (killing it if not germane) and a Rule 16 motion (no further amendments increasing the amount of appropriations unless allowed under already existing law).  Nonetheless, it sounds like there is a deal pending where Conrad will step off and pull back his amendment as long as the agriculture approps bill is brought up tomorrow, in a tight time frame, with limited amendments.  Apparently, this would be a deviation from the schedule, and is somewhat telling of the pull that Conrad is now brandishing.  He is thanking folks for agreeing to go to the ag bill tomorrow.  Assuming that deal is in place.

Whoa, now, Domenici is stepping in, the senior senator from NM, and he is saying, Hey we've got a bill, energy and water, and soon-to-be Sen Maj leader Reid (NV) is a co-sponsor, and Domenici will object UNLESS the energy and water bill follows the ag bill in the queue.  I'd say there is some scheduling chaos in the Senate and to me it looks like Frist has no control, even less than before.

Frist is back.  He has been in discussions and he confirms that the ag bill will come up tomorrow.  That means that this vets bill's gotta be done tonight.  Debate on ag emergency relief tomorrow, more germane there.  Want to get to energy and water bill.  But lots of appropriations bills outs there (10) and he intends to get to it "very very quickly as well."  Not good enough for Domenici, he wants a unanimous consent request, too.  A "UC."  Otherwise he will object.  Frist says, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna have chairmen all over the place comin at me, and I need some flexibility.  Frist doesn't want to do any UC's, doesn't want an "overall sequencing" of bills.

All of this is being worked out on the floor.  Conspiracy theories are dying like stranded plants in a dry desert.  Conrad is thanking everyone.  He has gotten what he wants.  There's your future budget committee chairman, no doubt.

He withdraws his amendment and now it's back to Hutchison.  She is gonna start clearing some amendments with voice votes...

By the close of business, the Senate approved the nearly $90 billion budget for veterans' health care and military construction projects. According to the Wall Street Journal, this bill will grow by about $42 billion to include "spending for housing and health-care benefits for the active military."

The WSJ continues, "As part of the same package, senators added language guaranteeing that the inspector general for Iraq would remain operating until 10 months after 80% of the funds appropriated for the relief and reconstruction effort there have been expended.  That date is expected to be near mid-2008 -- or about a year longer than current law allows the IG to operate."