Saturday, December 16, 2006

Burns Says, "Turn The Cameras Off"


Outbound Montana Senator Conrad Burns suggested in his farewell speech on December 7, 2006 that they should "turn off that eye" that covers Senate floor action. He says that the Senate is best in executive session, when the camera is off, and that the level of debate and deliberation in the Senate is not as good as it used to be.

I am wondering why our public representatives would be afraid or hesitant or unwilling to engage in public debate. We pay these folks' salaries. There is plenty of time for them to cut deals and have arguments behind doors. But bills and amendments thereto should be debated out in the open so that the constituents can assess whose position is the most appropriate for the country or that voter's district. It is also true that even if the cameras went off, any debate not in executive session would still be printed in the Congressional Record, so it's not like none of the debate would be recorded.

The cameras in the Senate and the House are a public service, and allow me to be more informed about our leaders and the issues facing our country. What I would suggest instead is that the Senate step up and actually engage debates and not worry about who is watching. Burns, an Abramoff crony, is probably worried that the wrong special interest is going to get hold of a tape where he says what he actually believes, and that he would turn someone off and lose a campaign contribution.

Plus, you know, the public is still allowed to come in and view debate in-person on the floor, and the press is always there taking notes. So I don't see what Burns's point is. These Senators, especially the cadre characterized by the outbound likes of Frist and Burns, need to worry more about passing basic spending bills than making sweet farewells and suggestions that the public be cut off from its deliberative body's debates.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Johnson In Intensive Care


Just saw on a cable news channel that Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) was taken to the hospital after possibly suffering a stroke. South Dakota is a red state with a Republican governor.... If a South Dakota senator is incapacitated, the governor can appoint a temporary replacement regardless of party affiliation.

Dems Will Not Address FY 2007 Budget


Leaders of the incoming House and Senate Appropriations Committees, Wisconsin Representative David Obey and West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, have announced that Congress will not attempt to pass government spending bills (i.e. an FY 2007 budget) when the 110th Congress convenes in early January.  Basically, the Dems do not want to spend time passing the bills and will instead begin to work on their various agendas.  This means that only the departments of Defense and Homeland Security will have budgets for FY 2007.  The rest of the government's departments and agencies will continue to be funded at FY 2006 levels (or less!), as agreed to in a series of so-called "Continuing Resolutions."  The outgoing Congress passed a CR funding the government up until February 15, 2007.  The new Congress will likely pass another CR when it comes back in January, which will fund the government up through September 30, 2007.

The only plus here is that the absence of government spending bills also means a moratorium on earmarks—in other words, government spending will not rise in FY 2007 via earmarks on appropriations bills.  On the other hand, goverment workers are hit hard because the CR will represent a freeze, pegging government spending to FY 2006 levels, and salaries must remain where they are at within a particular department, unless those departments can figure a way to redistribute funding internally.

It is likely that the White House and various members of Congress will still attempt to move money from one Department to another.  How this will be done is unclear.  Already there is acknowledgement that the Veterans Administration will need funding above and beyond 2006 levels, in order to fund rising costs for veterans' medical care.

Friday, December 08, 2006

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).

Thursday, December 07, 2006

December 7, 2006: von Eschenbach Confirmed; Frist Farewell


Summary: Debate precedes cloture vote on von Eschenbach nomination for permanent FDA Commissioner...von Eschenbach is currently serving as acting FDA Commish... Grassley says he is voting against cloture because von Eschenbach's FDA has not been cooperative with Congressional inquiries, that "A vote for cloture is a vote against oversight"...Vitter of LA opposes von Eschenbach on the basis of the Administration's refusal to consider re-importation of drugs from Canada...Cloture vote underway at 10:36...Pretty much everyone votes for cloture...Cloture motion is agreed to 89-6...Frist says farewell... Talent eschews farewell speech to  call for more military spending, what he calls "recapitalization"...the vote on von Eschenbach's nomination is now taking place...von Eschenbach wins nomination...Senator Burns says they should turn off the cameras in the Senate because the debates aren't as good anymore...

[16:07]
The only votes against von Eschenbach are coming from Republicans, especially conservatives.  Santorum, Talent, DeWine, Voinovich, Vitter, Grassley, Brownback.  Is it possible that the Democrats secured from von Eschenbach a promise that he as FDA commish would move forward on Plan B?  Consider that Clinton, who vowed to vote against von Eschenbach as recently as August voted for his confirmation.  Something here doesn't add up.

[15:52]
Von Eschenbach will be confirmed as the new FDA Commissioner.  Plenty of Dems have already voted in the affirmative (Bingaman, Bayh, Boxer, Wyden, Rockefeller, Feingold, etc.)  Vitter and Inhofe against.

[17:49]
Roll call vote on von Eschenbach's nomination is taking place.


[16:07]
Outgoing senator James Talent (MO) eschews a farewell speech to soliloquize on the appropriate level of military spending.  He calls for increased military spending and says the military needs an overhaul, hasn't been buying enough ships, choppers, submarines, etc.


[15:26]
It's over with, 25 minutes of taxpayer money wasted on heating the senate chamber.  Everyone got a chance to say a little speech and say how much great work Frist did in the Senate.  Is it true?  Was it sardonic?  Some might say.  Ironic considering the complaints earlier this week from fellow Senators of both parties about not getting enough work done before adjournment.  Soon-to-be House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD) has already said the House is gonna have to work harder next year, and the chamber will go to five-day work weeks.  I don't know why it is everyone feels he has to make a speech when someone is leaving.  It would be impolite not to.  That's the only reason most people do it.  Sometimes people really wanna make speeches, and sometimes the speeches are deserved.  I found it interesting that Pete Domenici, who has over 13,000 votes in the senate, a number only seven other senators have ever reached, and who said that the failure to pass FY 2007 budgets was a failure of the Senate's basic responsibility under the constitution, never shook Bill Frist right hand on right hand but sort of just held out his left hand and put his four fingers daintily into Frist's right hand.  Twice Domenici did this, the second time after giving his tribute to Frist and saying something about not believing that Frist was gonna go back to bein a country doctor, instead that Frist was gonna go on to do something better, he had a feeling, and they would go duck hunting together, but Frist better not shoot too well, and was all the while holding some files in his right hand.

[15:01]
Frist says farewell, makes a speeh, gets applause.  Now Minority Leader Reid is paying tribute to Frist.


[14:32]
Soon, Majority Leader Frist will say his farewell to the Senate.  Vice President Cheney will accompany Frist into the chamber. The Senate is still set to adjourn at the end of this week, without passing 8 of 11 spending bills for FY 2007, a failure veteran senators Mikulski and Domenici have asserted is an abdication of the senate's most basic responsibility.  Goodbye to all that!

[11:18]
Cloture motion is agreed to 89-6.  Enzi thanks the chamber and asks that the Senate proceed to the confirmation.  Enzi thanks Senator Ted Kennedy (MA), who is the top Dem on the Health Committee.

[10:38]
Significant yes votes: All but one of the Democrats voting (Baucus)
Significant no votes: Vitter, Grassley, DeWine, Santorum, Voinovich,

[10:36]
Roll call vote for cloture motion on confirmation of von Eschenbach as permanent FDA Commish is underway...

[10:21]
Senator Robert Bennett (UT) says it's hard to certify that drugs coming across the border are "safe."  Bennett says a certain percentage of drugs coming back are not in fact drugs made in the US, but manufactured elsewhere (note: he is saying that they are unsafe, only that the dosage is not the same, and that they are not US-made).  He supports von Eschenbach.


[10:18]
Enzi responds.  Vitter has been a real leader on this issue.  But, again, von Eschenbach does not have full authority.  Drug importation is not currently legal, and we should not hold up his nomination for that reason.  Vitter says, no, under current law it is possible to import drugs as long as it's "safe."  So Enzi backs off what he had just said, and says, What if you were in this catch-22?  Von Eschenbach could have, under current law, made a safety certification but did not.


[10:07]
Senator David Vitter (LA) says he will vote against cloture and that he, too, another Republican, has a public hold on the nomination and the reason: that von Eschenbach's FDA has blocked a safe re-importation policy for drugs from Canada.  OK, so that's three reasons now for opposition: re-importation of drugs from Canada, Plan-B, and checks and balances within the three branches of government. (Is it just me or are some Republicans finally standing up for some issues that they believe in, have probably always believed in, but you never woulda known it.)  In fact, he says that Congress will soon pass a "full-blown" re-importation from Canada policy.  Vitter himself got an amendment passed this summer that would have implemented a re-importation plan.


[10:00]
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) knows him and supports him.  She says that health cmte. supported his nomination unanimously.  


[9:59]
Senator Ted Stevens (AK) says the Senate should vote for closure, that he has dealt with Von Eschenbach previously and never had a hard time getting documents...


[9:58]
Enzi responds.  Von Eschenbach does not have the full authority to run that department, that he has had to rely on the Justice Department for advice and authority...So we need to take on the Justice Dept. through the Judiciary cmte., and that it will be different when Von Eschenbach has full authority...


[9:43]
Senator Chuck Grassley (IA) says he is voting against cloture (meaning von Eschenbach would not get an up or down vote) because he says that the FDA under von Eschenbach has not been cooperative with the legislative branch of the government.  Indeed, Grassley says he has himself put a hold on the von Eschenbach nomination.  He is pissed off about something.  My guess is that von Eschenbach does not come anywhere near the 60 votes needed for cloture.  Grassley is referring to a document request that Congress made, getting back 57 blacked-out pages.  That the Executive Branch is out of control, essentially.  Chuck is standing up for the Senate here.  "How are you gonna do oversight when you get answers like that?  That's an insult!"  But he is also saying to Democrats: You said during campaign commercials that Republicans fell short on oversight—how can you do oversight when you get answer like this?  Agency prerogative, refused contact with line agents, prosecutorial process, confidential communications, etc. as rationales for withholding agency information.  He is basically saying that the FDA has covered-up some aspects of its drug-approval processes.


[9:40]
Senate is underway.  Senator Mike Enzi (WY), chairman of the health, education, labor, and pensions committee is now arguing von Eschenbach's confirmation, saying that he understands why some of his colleagues oppose the president's choice, but that decisions shouldn't be made based on one issue or product.  He is talking about the Plan B pills. Von Eschenbach, as acting commish of FDA, has prevented Plan B from gaining over-the-counter status.  Sens. Clinton and Cantwell have vowed to block von Eschenbach for this reason.  


Preview:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said last night that the Senate today would consider the nomination of Andrew von Eschenbach to serve as FDA Commissioner.  Von Eschenbach has been acting FDA Commissioner for many months.  However, Sens. Hilary Clinton (NY) and Maria Cantwell (WA) said in August that they would block his nomination because he opposed the sales of Plan B over-the-counter.

In other news, the WSJ was reporting this morning that Congressional leadership was mushing together an omnibus year-end extravaganza bill that would combine everything from Vietnam trade to off-shore drilling to tax cuts.  Unclear where that off-shore drilling would occur under this omnibus bill.  The Senate approved Gulf of Mexico drilling already this year while the House bill allows oil companies to drill pretty much anywhere.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

December 6, 2006: Gates Confirmed; Defense Appropriations Bill Will Go To Conference w/ House


Summary:  Gates won an easy confirmation...Santorum said Iran is the enemy and that we must not negotiate with Iran but must confront it...several GOP senators including veteran Domenici griped about Frist's reliance on continuining resolutions to fund the government in FY 2007...Voinovich warned about the problems that not having budgets in place would cause...Hutchison made assurances that the defense appropriations bill would not be loaded up on in conference with the House and secured appointment of conferees, moving the bill to conference...it is the only thing moving in Congress right now...word began to circulate of a wild omnibus extravaganza bill, the last hurrah of this leadership, including Vietnam trade, tax cuts, and offshore drilling...


[15:54]
Sen. Rick Santorum sounds off.  He says our enemy is Iran, and has been since 1979 when it declared war on us.  He says the body count is the lead story every day, and has been for three years.  He says that Islamic Fascism is the problem, the real enemy, not people in caves, and that it threatens every continent "with the exception of Antarctica."  He says the Baker-Hamilton Report is a "prescription for surrender."  That there is no willingness to confront the problem.  He says that Robert Gates is not the appropriate choice for Defense Secretary but that we need someone who knows the enemy.  It's a Shia-dominated problem, he says, even though it was Sunnis that struck the most glaring blow.  That two of the persons planning to bomb up planes over the Atlantic were a mother and father who were going to carry their six month-old child in their lap. That "This is evil."  

[15:31]
Gates confirmed 95-2, with Sens. Jim Bunning (KY) and Rick Santorum (PA) the only votes in opposition.

[14:35]
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) has returned to the floor to request once again that the defense appropriations bill a.k.a. the military construction bill be submitted to conference and senators be appointed to that conference.  She made the same motion this morning but Senator Jim DeMint (SC) objected on behalf of the majority leadership.  It now appears that the leadership will acquiesce to this bill moving to conference committee ON THE CONDITION THAT the conferees "keep the bill clean."  
This military construction bill, which is really a suite of defense department appropriations, will now go to conference.  The question: Can Hutchison live up to her promise to "keep the bill clean"? Does she have such power?  Who wants to load it up?  In any event, compliments to Hutchison who says she will work all night to get this thing done.  At least someone is willing to do some work this week in DC.

[14:20]
Senator Pete Domenici (NM) joins the crowd of senators griping about the senate's inability to pass budgets for the majority of the government's departments for FY 2007.  He said it is Congress's "most basic responsibility" to approve government spending and it is shameful that the senate would rely on the crutch of continuing resolutions—"which we're relying on more and more around here"—to fund the government.  He can't figure it out.  It seems to be that the leadership has gotten lazy, that debating these bills would take too much time.  What else does Congress have to do?


[12:45]

It now appears that the Defense Appropriations Bill, a version of which has passed both houses, will not go to committee, and therefore cannot become law, because some senators believe it will become an omnibus bill once it hits committee.  In other words, it is the only bill moving in Congress right now and committee members will not promise to "keep it clean".  In other words, once it goes to committee it will be loaded up on because nothing else is moving.  So, there's some work to do on getting an agreement to take this bill to committee but also to keep it clean, and prevent it from becoming an omnibus chassis.


From earlier today:

The Senate opened at 9:30 est.  It is now in a period of morning business and will proceed to vote, as a body, on the nomination of Robert Gates for defense secretary.  As you might know, the senate armed services committee voted yesterday 21-0 in favor of the nomination.

Senator Jack Reed (RI) spoke first, saying a goodbye to his colleague Lincoln Chafee (RI).

Following him were adieus from Sens. George Allen (VA) and Conrad Burns (MT).

Now Sen. Richard Durbin (IL) is saluting the Iraq Study Group, saying it is clear from their report that we are ready to start pulling our troops out of Iraq.  He is adding some farewells, especially to Paul Sarbanes (MD).

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

December 5, 2006: Conrad Amdt. and Morning Business Speeches


Conrad finally got a vote on his amendment to the agriculture bill but it did not sustain a point of order...senators railed on Senate leadership for its inability to debate and bring up for vote the remaining appropriations bills...


The Conrad Amendment to the agriculture bill received 57 votes, three shy of the sixty it needed to sustain a budget point of order made against it.  Senator Kent Conrad (ND) said that three senators who would have supported his amendment were not present and he would be back for another vote on the amendment, either this week or in the next congress. I do find it interesting that Conrad got his vote for an appropriations bill (agriculture) that the Senate will not even be debating and voting on.

The process by which this amendment fell is complicated.  The point of order requiring the record vote was a point of order arguing that the emergency designation on Conrad's amendment violated the congressional budget act.  So the vote required 60 senators willing to waive the budget act's contrictures on what could or couldn't be called "emergency" spending.  The amendment received only 57 votes, and so the constrictures could not be waived, and the emergency designation was stricken.  But then Sen. Bennett (UT) raised what I might call a regular "point of order" and the amendment was ruled "out of order."  I believe that this "out of order" finding means that the amendment was not germane to the underlying bill, which I find a little hard to believe, considering the underlying bill is an ag bill.  

Now morning business speeches.  Both Sens. Arlen Specter (PA) and Robert Byrd (WV) have castigated the Senate leadership for its inability to bring the remaining appropriations bills up for debate.

Sen. George Voinovich wished his colleague and friend Mike DeWine (OH) goodbye, and then proceeded to rip his own party's leadership for passing off the responsibility of passing the appropriations bills to the next congress.  As Voinovich explained it, when the governments various agencies and departments operate under these continuing resolutions, the agencies themselves do not have a budget and have no idea whether they are overspending or underspending.  

As I understand it, the govt's agencies can keep track of their own spending, yes, but the government itself is not setting any limits to the spending or trying to tie spending to revenue, meaning that the government as a whole could be over-spending, which could send it deeper into deficit.  It's a mess.  And Frist is now officially a total political failure.