Wednesday, November 14, 2007: Farm Bill is stalled; No votes on it today or tomorrow

[17:20]
No more roll call votes today. The Farm Bill is stalled.

[17:19]
Sam Brownback (KS) wonders why the Senate doesn't just start voting on amendments. His point is: "OK, we've shut down the open amendment process because we're afraid that it'll take too long to get this bill done if senators can offer amendments on any issue. But we've been on this bill now for ten days and we haven't had one roll call vote so why not just forge ahead and start voting?"

[17:13]
The Farm Bill is stalled in the Senate because senators cannot reach an agreement about how many amendments they can offer to the bill. Reid last week shut down the amendment process by "filling the tree" because he feared that Republicans would offer a litany of non-germane amendments including amendments on immigration and the estate tax.

Republicans have responded with enough votes (41) to filibuster any further procedures on the bill.

Reid and Mitch McConnell (KY) are on the floor now engaged in some back and forth. McConnell wants Reid to take the tree down. Reid says he's not ready to do that just yet. Reid says, Send us five amendments that you really want.

They are now agreeing to have each side put forth a "serious" list of amendments to work from and maybe get some progress on the bill. Those amendments would then be subject to second-degree amendment.

Reid sent a cloture motion on the bill to the desk just fifteen minutes ago. That means a cloture vote on the bill is possible on Friday. However, when Reid sent that motion to the desk, it sounded like the Dorgan/Grassley amendment would not be subjected to a cloture vote, apparently because there weren't enough votes for it to pass a cloture test.

Right now, though, it's clear that this farm bill is not going to get done before the Thanksgiving recess.


[16:00]
The Senate passed 95-0 a Head Start reauthorization bill.

[15:07]
The Senate is on recess until 15:30.

Precap:

The Senate convenes at 9:30 for an early start on the Farm Bill. Senators have offered over 100 amendments to the bill but recall that Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) "filled the tree" on the bill last week, meaning that further amendments to the bill cannot be voted upon unless Reid opens the tree. Reid used a Grassley/Dorgan amendment, No. 3508, along with some other sham amendments, to fill the tree (check out senate amendments 3509 to 3514, all of which Reid offered to "change the enactment date" of the bill).

So, the Grassley/Dorgan amendment, as of right now, is the only farm bill amendment that is going to receive a vote. That vote could occur today. The amendment puts a price cap on so-called "safety net" farm payments. It also institutes certain eligibility requirements for potential recipients of these safety-net payments, namely that a recipient has to be "actively engaged in farming with respect to the farming operation." The safety net payments are like an insurance payout, payable in theory to those farmers who have taken a hit in the pocketbook due to bad weather or world events.