February 13, 2007: Cloture on Funding Resolution Today

[15:05]
Budget resolution survived a cloture vote 71 to 26.


[12:59]
The Senate is at lunch right now and will be until 14:15 est.  It's been another quiet day in the Senate.  Coburn (OK) talked about AIDS screening; Byrd (WV) gave an overview of the budget resolution (he is the chair of the appropriations committee); and Smith (OR) pleaded that Oregon continue to receive the "safety net" of federal funds it has received in recent years.

Smith offered more information on why Oregon needs the federal funding.  As he was saying yesterday, the federal government owns about half of Oregon.  There used to be a program where Oregon's localities received 25% of all the money made on timber taken from Oregon's forests.  However, when the Spotted Owl controversy blew up in the eighties and nineties, it became harder to log in Oregon, meaning that the 25% royalties were no longer coming in.  Recognizing this, Oregon began to receive money under an act whose terms are set to expire.  

Interestingly, Smith seemed to be trying to revive the Spotted Owl argument.  He said that scientific studies have begun to show that the threat to the Spotted Owl comes not from humankind but from nature.  It is the Bard Owl that began to wipe out the Spotted Owl because the Bard Owl, not native to Oregon, eats the Spotted Owl.   And, he said, now that the U.S. does not get timber from Oregon, it gets it from Canada, which is clearcutting plenty of lands in which the Spotted Owl made its home...


Preview & Review:

Earlier start today (10:00 est).  The Senate will vote on cloture this morning for the continuing resolution that is funding the government for 2007 in lieu of an FY 2007 budget.

Not too much talk yesterday about the budget, except for Oregonians Smith and Wyden.  Apparently Oregon is on the cusp of losing a bunch of federal funding.  They point out that much of Oregon is federally owned.  Because Oregon cannot tax the federal gov't, Oregon relies on payments in lieu of taxes (PILTs).  For some reason, a big chunk of these payments is set to expire unless the law is changed or renewed before the end of the year.

Otherwise, there was talk on Iraq yesterday, with the bloc of sometimes-moderate Republicans pleading for more Senate debate on the Warner resolution.  Their point was: Hey, just because we failed last week to reach a deal allowing for debate, why is there this sense that we've passed on our chance to debate Iraq in the Senate?  We've got all year to debate Iraq, says Snowe (ME), it's not getting any better over there, and we've been there four years now.