December 8, 2006: Senate Goes to Wee Hours; Passes Tax Extenders, Offshore Drilling, Vietnam Trade; Confirms a Judge

Summary: Not adjourning until the early hours of Saturday morning, the Senate stayed up late to pass a raft of legislation highlighted by an omnibus tax-extenders bill which included:

• an approval of normalized trade relations with Vietnam
• off-shore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico
• an increase in the amount and nature of duty-free apparel coming from Haiti
• a government hand-out to coal companies in the form of the govt's assumption of healthcare costs for retired miners
• tax credits for college tuition, state and local sales taxes, and corporate credits for research and development costs
• a provision to prevent a 5% cut in payment rates to physicians under Medicare
• an increase in the amount a person can contribute to a health-savings account

The Senate also approved the conference report finalizing a nuclear trade deal with India and passed the continuing resolution for FY 2007 spending that will keep the federal government alive until February 15th.  Also clearing the Senate was a House-passed bill making it illegal to obtain someone's phone records without that person's approval, a response to the Hewlett-Packard scandal.  Earlier in the day, it confirmed a Bush nominee, Kent Jordan, to take a vacant seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.  The military appropriations bill, which looked like it was going to be conferenced, never made it to conference because leadership said there wasn't enough time to go to conference.  The Senate of the 110th Congress will convene on January 4th and try to get the government's books back in order.

Highlights:  Leadership says they'll go into the weekend if they have to...agenda is tax extenders, Judge Jordan for Third Circuit, continuing resolution to keep government spending at current levels, offshore drilling, and final approval of US-India nuclear trade...an "earmark-laden" tax-extenders bill is coming to the Senate from the House, says Senator Gregg (NH), and it is full of special-interest pork...He says it is the largest budget-buster ever put forth by a Republican Congress...Gregg observes that the Republican party's hypocrisy on the issue of fiscal responsibility cost it the election, and that the party hasn't learned anything...Jordan is confirmed 91-0...Coburn says that our country "is gonna drown in debt"...The Senate awaits legislation from the House...If the continuing resolution does not pass both Houses by midnight tonight, the government will shut down...


[20:04]
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is now saying that the military spending bill she fought for this week, winning conference appointees, WILL NOT be conferenced because the House felt there "was not enough time" to be conferenced.  Thus, what looked like the only appropriations bill moving this week has lapsed into coma.  She says that there is enough money in rainy day funds to keep things going in the interim but by the time Feb 15 hits, there's gonna be problems.


[19:31]
Senate awaits legislation on tax extenders, muddied by a bunch of pork, coming over from the House.  The legislation also contains offshore drilling, doctors & medicare, and a bevy of other things.  Also, the House must pass the continuing resolution to fund the government.  The Senate must then pass that by midnight to avoid a government resolution.  Senator Tom Harkin wants to offer an amendment to the CR, although he is saying it will probably get tabled.  He says, there's no point in even offering it.  His amendment would help fund Head Start programs.  He's saying maybe he'll just call for a roll call vote, and if it passes, the House will have to come back in.  Hah!  That'd be something.  I say do it, do it Tommy!



[17:42]
Senator DeWine is still offering up his tributes to fallen Ohio servicemembers.  He has probably spent over two hours today doing so.  I think he is almost done; the most recent eulogy he has offered was for a soldier that died this past October.


[14:11]
Senator Byron Dorgan says Coburn is right about the government's out-of-control deficit and we need to figure out a way to pay for all of the military spending on Iraq and Afghanistan.  The dollar is slipping because we have an enormous and growing trade deficit.  Dorgan goes on to talk about an Indian healthcare bill.  He says that the Native Americans on reservations need health care, an obligation that is ours because we have a trust responsibility for the Indians, that they don't get near as much health care support as prisoners in this country.  Don't get sick after June 1 on a reservation, he says, because it's well known that the money runs out by then.


[14:09]
Family caregivers bill passes by a voice-vote (Clinton's voice the most audible).


[13:59]
Senator Coburn is talking about a healthcare bill that is coming through Congress concerning family caregivers in the country. Coburn says it is a great bill, with laudable goals, and he is allowing it to come before the Senate at this late hour because of its worthy goals.  But how, he wonders, are we gonna pay for it?  He says that the Senate is not grappling with the tougher issues of waste, fraud, and duplication in government spending.  That there are other bills and laws out there that would allow the goals of the family caregiver bill to be accomplished.  That what we're doing with a bill like this is adding to what he calls "the birth tax," that is, the $400,000 worth of debt that each new child born into the U.S. will owe thanks to the deficit.  The tax-extender bill is even worse for the deficit, he says, echoing the sentiments of Senator Gregg.  There's lots of waste, fraud, and abuse, he says.  We are letting the people down by not rooting it out.

Finally, he says, we've got to quit nibbling around the edges on healthcare


[13:14]
Judge Jordan will be confirmed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.  No one is voting against him.  At 13:35, it is official, on a 91-0 vote.


[12:05]
Senator Mike DeWine (OH) continues his eulogies for all of the Ohio servicemembers who have perished in Iraq.  He has been doing this all week, and has made it his mission to eulogize each fallen Ohio soldier before the adjournment of the 109th Congress, at which time DeWine will no longer be a U.S. Senator, having been voted out in November.


[11:50]
Senator Judd Gregg, chairman of the Budget Committee, says there is a pork-laden tax extenders bill heading to the Senate from the House.  It contains some good, positive tax credits but it will add to the deficit, says Gregg, with items like the abandoned mines provision, which will transfer to the gov't the burden of caring for the health of old mine workers, which Gregg says, should be the burden of the coal companies.  This is kind of odd.  This is a tax cut bill, something Gregg normally likes, which he is saying is full of crap and is going to add to the country's already ballooning deficit.  Then there's something called the "doctor's fix" which will use "dollars which don't exist" and which he calls "an accounting gimmick" which if you did in the corporate world you would go to jail.  My question is, who are the leeches in the House coming up with this junk?  Our children pay for it, says Gregg.  The bill's just laden with earmarks, he says.  The music writers of America will get $3m out of this, from the taxpayers, on the debt.  It's got money for rum excises from Puerto Rico, it's got money from ethanol, which a finance bill coming through the Congress never lacks, he says.

Plus, there is a continuation of a tax deduction for sales and local taxes in states which DO NOT have an income tax.  So, as a matter of policy, he is saying that states can raise their sales taxes—let me say, Judd Gregg is making a lot of sense right now—and let the federal treasury subsidize the raise.  He says it is the largest budget-buster ever put forth by the Republican Congress.  And he says, the bill has been put forth in such a way that will prevent anyone from striking the pork from the bill.  He is lambasting the Republican leadership right now, saying their are harmign the Republican leadership.

The Republican membership, and the entire Senate, needs to step up and swallow hard and vote this thing down.  It's gonna hurt, but they need to stand up to this pork.  He says the leadership will "fill the tree" and therefore keep amendments from being added, and the final vote will be a vote to concur with the House.  Gregg says that the voters voted out the Republicans because they are fed up with the party's hypocrisy on the issue of fiscal responsibility.  He is so right.

Unfortunately, Gregg says that this porky tax-extenders bill will get enough votes in the Senate  (60).  He wonders how the Republicans, as a party, came to this, and he's sorry that the party hasn't figured it out yet.


[11:37]
Senator Patrick Leahy (VT) is speaking at length about the way the Senate has been allowed to vote on the confirmation of judicial nominees.  As he tells it, there are a handful of "consensus nominees" out there—Bush's own picks—that the Senate could quickly and easily confirm, to fill empty benches all around the country.  Case in point is Judge Jordan, who will be confirmed today, with probably no votes in opposition.  Indeed, says Leahy, the reason that the Senate has not considered more nominees is because Republicans in the Senate and leaders in the party have blocked the nominees from going forward.  And, he says, all of those nominees will not pass the Democratic-ruled Senate in the 110th Congress.  So he is asking that the President offer up consensus picks to the Senate, for easy confirmation, to fill the empty benches out there and ease the caseloads in places like western Michigan, for example.


[10:38]
The cloture motion is successful.  No one is voting no.  Now will proceed two hours of debate, divided equally to both sides, on the nomination after which time the senate will vote on confirmation.

[10:30]
Senate proceeds to a cloture motion on the nomination of Kent A. Jordan of Delaware for the Third Circuit.  Sixty votes needed to end debate.  Is it the sense of the Senate that debate should be brought to a close?  The Yeas and Nays are mandatory.... Mr. Akaka...

[9:30]
Senator Jim Bunning (KY) came out on behalf of the majority leadership and said that the Senate needed to get a few things done today including: tax extenders on various tax credits including college tuition, school spending by teachers, and the development and research tax credit; confirmation of Judge Kent Jordan; passing a continuing resolution to certify that government spending shall remain at current levels up through February 15, at which time a FY 2007 budget must be in place or a new CR must be passed; offshore drilling; and final approval of U.S.-India trade.  Bunning said that the Senate will work as long as it has to today, possibly even go into the weekend, to get these items done.  The Senate remained in a period of mornig business.


Today's Schedule:

9:30 a.m.: Convene and begin a period of morning business. Thereafter, proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of Kent A. Jordan, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit.

My understanding of Judge Jordan is that he is not highly controversial and has the support of both Delaware's senators (both Democrats).