Monday, October 29, 2007: Senate Resumes This Afternoon

Barbara Boxer (CA) will control the first sixty minutes of the session, presumably to talk about the CA wildfires and/or this hubbub about Julie Gerberding. Ms. Gerberding, the head of the CDC, submitted written testimony to Congress last week but her testimony appeared to have been significantly censored by the White House. The testimony pertained to the impacts of global warming on public health. Boxer chairs the Environment and Public Works committee.

For its part, the White House seemed to say that it deleted six of 12 pages that Gerberding would have submitted because Gerberding went beyond the area of her expertise in parts of the written testimony. President Bush's science adviser, John Marburger, was behind the redaction. In his view, Gerberding's prediction that global warming would exacerbate air pollution-related diseases conflicted with findings by a UN panel studying the same issue. It is ironic that the White House would ever find fault with a finding because it conflicted with the conclusions of the UN.

From a Constitutional standpoint, it is worrisome that the White House would interfere with Congress's ability to gather information so as to shape better public policy and write the best legislation possible. True, Gerberding is a member of the Executive Branch and therefore serves "at the pleasure of the President." However, she is also one of the country's foremost experts on public health. It is wrong to deny her opinion to Congress — a.k.a. the People's Branch, or as Robert Byrd (WV) would say, "The Congress is the People. The people!"

Gerberding has since said that the official (edited) testimony more or less said what she had intended to say and that the editing did not affect her statement. Boxer has nonetheless demanded that the White House turn over all versions of Gerberding's written testimony including drafts.

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There won't be any votes today. Tomorrow, the Senate will vote for final passage of the Amtrak Reauthorization bill.

Once that's done with, it appears that the Senate will return to consideration of the S-CHIP bill. The House passed more or less the same S-CHIP bill that President Bush vetoed earlier this month. The most natural place for the bill to be amended in compromise is the Senate. One of Bush's closest allies in the Senate, someone like Jon KYl (AZ) could offer as an amendment to the bill the terms that President Bush would agree to. The Senate could then vote on that "counteroffer."

Otherwise, you have to wonder why the Senate would spend more time on this bill that still has not shown the ability to get an override vote in the House.