Tuesday, November 13, 2007: Hutchison pleas for Senate to pass Veterans' Bill; Elsewhere, some AMT talk

[20:01]
The Senate just adjourned until 9:30 tomorrow morning. Maybe some votes on Farm Bill amendments tomorrow. There are over 100 but how many will actually come to a vote?

[20:00]
Saxby Chambliss (GA) just said that they would start voting on amendments to the farm bill in the morning.

The Senate is about to close, says Reid.

[19:04]
Tom Harkin (IA) has been talking about the farm bill for a long time. There haven't been any votes.

[14:14]
The Senate is on lunch recess but it should be back shortly.

[11:01]

Veterans' Bill is Stalled

Several senators have given speeches on the floor this morning. Most notably, Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) pleaded with Senate leadership to bring the Veteran Affairs '08 appropriations conference report to a final vote on the floor of the Senate. Earlier this year, the Senate passed its version of the VA bill. Subsequently, the Senate and the House agreed to a final version of the bill in conference (i.e. the conference report).

Instead of simply voting on that conference report, Senate leadership last week awkwardly attached the VA conference report to the Health and Labor Appropriations '08 conference report, resulting in a defeat of the bulky, omnibus package. Senate leadership figured it was the only way to get the President to sign off on the massive Health and Labor spending bill. But Hutchison raised a point of order, essentially arguing that the gluing together of the two bills was a violation of Senate budget rules. When a senator raises a point of order, 60 senators must vote to waive the point of order. But there weren't sixty senators willing to waive the point of order to the whole thing fell apart like a rickety rickshaw.

Now the VA bill is back on its lonesome wondering what's going to happen next. Undoubtedly Reid & Co. are going to try to graft it onto some other hapless, veto-bound piece of legislation. If nothing works out, though, Reid will eventually relent and allow the VA bill to pass the Senate before Christmas so that Bush can sign off on it.

[10:12]

Senate confirms Dow

The Senate has gotten right down to business, voting on the confirmation of Robert M. Dow Jr. to be a federal district court judge for the northern district of Illinois. This is not a controversial nomination. Dick Durbin (IL) just spoke in support of Dow. The Senate will confirm him and then move into a period of morning business. Byron Dorgan (ND) will speak about the Farm Bill.

Indeed, the Senate confirmed Dow 86-0.

[10:04]
Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) says that he will be talking to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) this morning to determine what will happen in the Senate for the rest of this week. Reid is probably referring to whether there will be any progress on finishing the farm bill. Reid mentioned that there is a lot of work to be done this week and he hopes "that it doesn't spill into next week." The Senate is supposed to begin a Thanksgiving Recess at the close of business Friday.

AMT Talk

Now McConnell is talking about the urgent need to pass an Alternative Minimum Tax fix. McConnell says that if the Democratic proposal is an AMT tax cut cloaked in a bunch of tax hikes that such a bill is "dead on arrival in the Senate."

Reid responds. Hey, we are paying for our legislation now in this Congress. We are going to fix the AMT by the end of the year but "we're gonna do it the right way, we're gonna pay for it."

There is no dispute that the AMT needs to be fixed i.e. scaled back by April 15th. It is becoming an enormous burden for more and more middle class families.

However, under "pay-go" when Congress passes legislation that spends new money or cuts a current revenue stream, that loss of money in turn must be made up by cutting other spending or finding new revenue. So, Democrats would stifle the virulent AMT but they would raise other taxes to pay for the AMT cut. What taxes senators would raise is unclear. Republicans should have the 41 votes they need to filibuster any proposal that does not represent a true compromise. Recall that there are 49 Republican senators. Eight could defect and the filibuster would still remain in place.