February 5, 2008: Vote on Senate stimulus package will be tomorrow at 17:45

Before Senate recesses, Reid asks for nine Republicans to step forward on Senate stimulus

[19:22]
The Senate will reconvene tomorrow morning at 9:30. At 17:45, senators will vote on the Finance committee's version of a stimulus package (that exists in the form of an amendment). Reid suspects that other roll-call votes could happen earlier in the day, assuming some deal on FISA is reached.

Have fun watching the votes come in tonight (and tomorrow morning).

Senate stimulus faces cloture vote tomorrow evening at 17:45

[19:11]
Reid asked for consent to hold such a vote. McConnell, reserving the right to object, proposed instead that if cloture was not invoked on the Senate stimulus package that there would then be a vote on a Stevens amendment that would add checks for seniors and the military disabled as well as fixing the illegal immigrant loophole. Reid objected. But McConnell did not then object to the Reid request. That was a bit surprising.

So, that's a vote on the Finance committee's version of an economic stimulus plan, which differs in various ways from that passed by the House in January. That plan is actually in the form of an amendment. It needs 60 votes for cloture to be invoked and debate therefore limited on the amendment (assuring its passage).

Dodd introduces his amendment striking the immunity provision from pending FISA bill

[17:25]
He will take a brief moment today to offer the amendment while saving time to debate it in full on another day (tomorrow?)

Dodd says that opponents of striking telecom immunity from the bill claim that doing so would cause these companies financial damage. That argument is so offensive that I hardly feel the need to refute it. (But he does, to wit:) The idea that the financial health of these companies should take precedent over the rule of law is terribly offensive. It should never be the case.

This isn't about "a bunch of Democrats going after a Republican adminstration," says Dodd. If this were a Democratic administration, I'd be standing here with just as much passion as I'm standing here today.

Bond denies that Bush Administration ever instituted an illegal wiretapping program

[17:20]
I wonder then why the Senate is trying to rewrite FISA to accommodate warrantless wiretapping.

Bond and Feingold have been going back about Feingold's amendments. Bond says that the AG and the DNI have said that Feingold's amendments would make it impossible for them to carry out the necessary intelligence collection. But at the same time, Bond says that the substance of Feingold's amendments is already contained in the language of the FISA bill now on the floor. I don't see how both can be true.

Bond says that Feingold's concerns do not address anything that has actually occurred. Feingold says he sent the DNI a classified letter voicing concerns about violation of FISA that occurred since last August.

Feingold introduces an amendment banning "bulk collection"

[16:56]
Chris Dodd (CT) is co-sponsoring this amendment, No. 3912. Feingold says that even the new FISA legislation allows the gov't to capture ALL international communications, to or from the United States "for no good reason." He calls it a "communications dragnet" and notes that it "raises serious constitutional questions."

At what point do we draw the line? At what point does the Constitution mean something?

Feingold says that the Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has said that bulk collection is "desirable."

So, the gov't would have to certify to a court that it is collecting only the communications of foreign targets and that a foreign intelligence purpose for collection exists.

He challenges anyone who opposes the amendment to stand on the floor and explain to Americans why bulk collection is necessary.

Here's Kit Bond (MO) to respond. Bond says Feingold is raising all kinds of concerns that the underlying bill already addresses. And he says, "And the Constitution already addresses it." Unfortunately, the Constitution is not a self-executing document. he goes on to say, We are not collecting all of these communications, he says.

And, Bond says, that the bill already bans reverse targeting.

Feingold introduces amendment targeting reverse targeting

[16:49]
Reverse targeting is the idea that because FISA requires a court order to target an American on American soil, the gov't might instead wiretap the phone of someone overseas whom the gov't believes will be in contact with the American in question.

Russ Feingold (WI) is introducing an amendment to the FISA legislation outlawing the practice of reverse targeting by the U.S. gov't when the true target is an American on American soil. In those cases, the gov't has to go to court to get a warrant for surveillance.

There's not much going on this afternoon

[15:50]
There just isn't that much happening in the Senate this afternoon. The Democrats are trying to burn a bunch of post-cloture time that Republicans are demanding be used (Senate rule allows for x number of hours, maximum, of debate post-cloture).

So Patty Murray (WA), Debbie Stabenow (MI), Ken Salazar (CO), and now Byron Dorgan (ND) have talked about the Senate version of the stimulus package. Most of them have given chart presentations. In the case of Dorgan and Murray, they gave similar speeches last week.

Senate recesses until 14:15

[12:25]
The Senate has recessed until 14:15. It was not a pretty morning in that august deliberative body, some say the world's greatest. The U.S. Senate.

Byrd struggles to deliver speech on civility amongst senators

[12:22]
Robert Byrd (WV) is saying that senators are supposed to address one another in the third person, not the second person. So as to cut down on tempers flaring between two senators. For example, "Is the senator from West Virginia aware...?"

But Byrd, whom I have not seen speaking on the floor yet this year, had a hard time delivering this admonition.

Reid makes unanimous consent request to move to FISA, McConnell rejects

[12:03]
Minority leader Mitch McConnell (KY) says that the stimulus package and FISA are intertwined by the issue of how move forward "fairly." He wants to work on them, he says. But we need to agree on a process for dealing with them. So he objects.

Reid responds with a reference to Orwell's 1984. You got out of that book talk of a time when people say one thing but really mean something else. Why in the world can't we do FISA legislation today? I'll give you a reason. The other side wants to stall. They want this legislation to be done at the last minute, to give conferees little time to work on it.

All we're gonna end up doing today is standing and looking at each other. Reid is saying that Democrats have to wait "until time runs out" to file cloture on the Senate stimulus package. At least let us use some of that time to debate FISA amendments.

What is happening here is that Senate rules say that there is a maximum amount of time post-cloture for debating legislation (including amendments). Republicans are forcing the Senate to use up all of that time. It is a type of filibuster.

Senators, please come to the floor

[11:57]
The Senate is in the midst of voting on a motion to request the presence of absent senators. The Democrats all seem to be voting for it along with a good amount of Republicans. I'm not really sure what the point is, though.

The motion is agreed to, 73 to 12. The vote establishes that a quorum is present.

Reid says that the point of the vote was to move the process on the stimulus package forward. He now says that the next big vote on the Senate stimulus will be one hour after the Senate convenes on Thursday.

Precap:

Yesterday, majority leader Harry Reid (NV) seemed to think that the Senate could vote on FISA amendments this morning.

However, as I look at the Senate schedule, it appears that the Senate will convene at 10:00, at which time it will begin a period of morning business. Thereafter, it will resume consideration of H.R. 5140, the Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act of 2008.

It was H.R. 5140 itself that survived a cloture vote yesterday in the Senate. But H.R. 5140 is the House version of the stimulus package, not the Senate's version. The Senate's version exists as an amendment to H.R. 5140.

Republicans appear to be requiring that the Senate spend a certain amount of post-cloture time on H.R. 5140 (i.e. the maximum amount of time) thus preventing the Senate from moving to anything else, e.g. FISA. A vote on the add-ons that the Senate wants to become part of the package won't come until Thursday.

Senate rules regarding post-cloture time for debate prevent Democrats from calling up a different piece of legislation for debate in the meanwhile. In essence, Democrats want to get to a vote on their version of the stimulus ASAP. Any time they spend on FISA is that much more time they must wait to get the stimulus package moving. It's a real pickle.