October 31, 2007: The Senate agrees to proceed to debate on S-CHIP

[17:50]
The Senate has adjourned until 10:00 tomorrow. The next procedural vote on S-CHIP is scheduled for 1:00 a.m. Friday morning unless leaders agree to a different time.

[16:59]
Now Mike Enzi (WY) on why he just voted against S-CHIP. He says that the new bill is no different than the old bill and "that it still stinks."

Enzi is in line with the Bush Administration in asking for a bill that requires that the first 90% of children to receive benefits under the bill be at or under 200% of the poverty line. Enzi says that over-privileged children are awarded benefits under the bill before under-privileged kids through an approach called "income disregard."

He also has a problem with the fact that some adults are still covered under the bill, although he concedes that the bill will transition adults out of S-CHIP and into Medicaid with time.

He says that the bill will award health coverage to some illegal immigrants because its identity verification requirements are not stringent enough.

He says that the idea of paying for the S-CHIP increase with an increased tobacco tax won't work because to pay for the program year-after-year, the amount of smokers in the U.S. would actually have to increase. At the same time, he says, we are trying to get people to stop smoking.

[16:55]
Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) is giving a speech about torture. It is a little over-the-top. Talking about light and barrios and referencing Churchill.

"I feel it is my duty to push toward this moment, and with the strength that God has given me, to push toward the light."

But his point about torture policy is fair. It is to ask, "What path is our country going to choose?"

Whitehouse says he is torn on the Mukasey nomination for Attorney General, but it sounds like he is leaning against supporting Mukasey due to Mukasey refusal to deem waterboarding a torture technique. Yes, he is going to oppose the nomination because he does not want to "go down the dark stairway."

[16:45]
The S-CHIP bill cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate as 62 senators voted to return to floor debate on the measure. The vote was 62-33, with no Democrats opposing the motion to proceed to the bill and fifteen Republicans voting aye, including Alexander (TN), Collins (ME), Coleman (MN), Corker (TN), Hatch (UT), Stevens (AK), Grassley (IA), Snowe (ME), Specter (PA), Roberts (KS), Sununu (NH), Lugar (IN), Smith (OR), Domenici (NM), and Murkowski (AK).

Senators Bond (MO) and Hutchison (TX) appear to have changed their tune on the bill, if one considers that they voted in favor of it a month ago.

Warner (VA), Bayh (IN), Obama (IL), Biden (DE), and Wyden (OR) did not vote.

Precap:

Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) said yesterday that he planned to hold a vote for cloture on the motion to proceed to the S-CHIP bill. This vote was scheduled to take pace not earlier than 18:00 this evening. It would require 60 votes for passage. Last month, the measure had the support of 67 senators.

When cloture on a motion to proceed is achieved, senators are no longer able to offer amendments to the bill.

Yesterday, though, Reid expressed disbelief when his unanimous consent request to move this cloture vote to follow completion of the Farm Bill. Republican leadership objected to the notion of agreeing to schedule a cloture vote on a bill the terms of which were not yet known. So, the cloture vote on the motion to the bill remains set for tonight.

It is still quite possible that Senate leadership will agree on some other way to proceed to the S-CHIP bill, in which case the Senate would not vote tonight on cloture.