November 7, 2007: With Farm Bill on Hold, Republicans Rough Up the Health and Labor Conference Report

[18:58]
The Senate has adjourned. It will begin its day tomorrow morning at 9:45. At that time it will resume consideration of Bush's veto of the water resources bill. A veto override vote will follow shortly.

[18:09]
Senators are speaking in favor of various projects contained in the water resources bill that Bush vetoed last week. Louisiana, the Everglades, Missouri's Rivers. The Senate will vote later tonight to override the veto. The vote will succeed.

[17:08]
There was just a funny moment on the floor. Majority Leader Reid took to the podium asking that the quorum call be terminated. Ken Salazar (CO), sitting as president pro tem, replied, "The Senate is not in a quorum call."

Reid said, "We're not? That's good news." That brought some chuckles. Then he suggested the absence of a quorum, which initiates a quorum call. Seconds later he asked unanimous consent that the quorum call be terminated. And someone objected! Everyone laughed, including Salazar. This kind of levity is not real common in the Senate.

Reid went on to say that the Senate might vote tonight to override the President's veto of the water resources bill. The House voted yesterday overwhelmingly to override the veto. If the override vote gets 2/3 of senators present, you will have your first George W. Bush veto override.

[17:00]

Coburn Trips Up Woodstock Funding

In an unusual occurrence, the Senate is now voting on a Tom Coburn (OK) amendment to the Health, Labor and Education Conference Report that would remove from the bill an earmark devoting money for the creation of a Woodstock Museum in New York. Recall that the conference report is the compromise bill that conferees from the House and Senate agree to once each house has passed a version of the bill. It is unusual for the Senate to vote on amendments to a conference report. Usually, there is just one up or down vote on a conference report. And, it's usually agreed to quickly. When the Senate amends a conference report, the amended version of the report then has to go back to the House and the House has to vote on the "new" version of the conference report.

So, the question is whether or not to remove the Woodstock funding from the bill.

Result: 56 ayes to 37 nays, the motion to amend is agreed to. Coburn sends the Woodstock Museum up in smoke. The ayes were mostly Republicans but a good number of Democrats joined in to cut the spending from the bill.

[16:35]

Hutchison Point of Order Undoes Attachment of VA bill to Health and Labor Spending

Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) offered a point of order to strike the VA appropriations package from the Labor, Health, and Education appropriations conference report. Congressional leaders had glued the separate bills together in hopes of saving the Health and Labor bill from a presidential veto.

The Senate was due to vote on the omnibus package today. This point of order is a procedural challenge to the attachment of the VA package to the Labor and Health package.

In turn, Tom Harkin (IA) has moved to waive the point of order. The senators are now voting on Harkin's motion to waive the point of order (i.e. to allow the package to progress despite Senate and budgetary rules preventing the marriage of such pieces of legislation). It takes 60 aye votes to waive the point of order. There are not 60 votes to waive the point of order. Thus, this awkward gluing of the VA bill to the Health and Labor bill will die in the Senate. It will not reach the President.

Result: 47 ayes to 46 nays, the point of order is sustained, the Republicans have managed to pull the VA bill off of the Health and Labor package.

Precap

The Senate will convene at 10:30 this morning at which time it will migrate as a body to the House of Representatives for a joint session of Congress to hear an address from the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Once that is finished, the Senate will proceed to consideration of the conference report to H.R. 3043, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill. Interestingly, Congressional leaders have gambled by attaching the Veterans Administration appropriations bill to the Labor and Health bill.

This is apparently in response to President Bush's avowal to veto the Labor and Health package. Sure, he supports the VA bill but is he willing to veto the omnibus package, putting much-needed funds for veterans on hold? And would he do it in advance of Veterans' Day, on November 11? The Democrats have engaged the President in a high-stakes game of chicken.

My guess is that Bush will veto the package. Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) said on the floor yesterday that if Bush did veto the package, Congress would peel off the VA appropriations bill and return it by its lonesome to the President. Bush doesn't have much to lose. The Democrats can't allow themselves to be seen as playing games with veterans' funding.