Thursday, February 7, 2008: Senate amends House stimulus package, passes it, sends it back; FISA votes later tonight

Senate done with roll calls today; FISA waits until Tueday

[18:17]
There won't be any more roll call votes today. There won't be any votes tomorrow either. Reid suggested that the Senate would finish FISA on Tuesday. We'll see. They still need to debate and vote on the retroactive immunity amendments. That's going to take some time.

Feingold's 'reverse targeting' also falls well short of 60 votes

[17:54]
Feingold says that FISA pretends to outlaw reverse targeting but that it does not actually do so. Reverse targeting is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, contends Feingold. It is the attempt to listen in on a target by listening in on someone with whom you suspect your target will communicate. FISA does not effectively prohibit this tactic, he says.

Rockefeller (WV) says that the restriction would prevent the gov't from wiretapping a foreign city that the U.S. is getting ready to invade.

60 votes needed.

Here they are so far:

Republican yeas:
Democratic nays: Feinstein, Johnson, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lincoln, Rockefeller, Salazar, Pryor

This isn't going to pass. 38 to 57 it falls. The Amendment is not agree to.

This will be the last vote today. There will be no votes tomorrow. Reid suggests that the Senate could finish its work on FISA on Tuesday.

Feingold 'use limit' amendment falls

[17:10]
This amendment to FISA makes clear that a FISA court has the option not to admit evidence gathered by the U.S. gov't in a case against an American where the evidence was gathered illegally. However, the amendment says that information can always be used against non-citizens, even if gathered unlawfully; and, if the information pertains to terrorism it can also always be used.

Kit Bond (MO) and Jay Rockefeller (WV) rise to oppose it. Bond says that the amendment would prevent the gov't from using and disseminating important information for no reason. I always thought that if the government obtained information/evidence unlawfully it could not be used to prosecute a person. Perhaps the Feingold amendment goes further to say that such unlawfully obtained information cannot be made public?

60 'ayes' needed for passage.

Here are the votes (so far):

Republican yeas:
Democratic nays: Pryor (AR), Rockefeller (WV), Inouye (HI), Johnson (SD), Lincoln (AR), Bayh (IN), Carper (DE), Lieberman (CT), Landrieu (LA)

I'm going network and calling this thing. It doesn't pass. There aren't enough libertarian Republicans in the U.S. Senate. There are other ways to prove that you're not soft on terrorism. Not even Specter (PA) voted for it.

It falls 39 to 56. Neither McCain, Clinton, or Obama voted.

Votes on Two FISA Amendments later tonight

[17:03]
I'm not sure which amendments will get the roll-call votes. Apparently two other amendments are set to pass tonight by voice vote. More work on FISA tomorrow.

Senate passes a stimulus package

[16:46]
Now that the package has passed the Senate, albeit with a few alterations, it will return immediately to the House. It is possible the House will pass the very same package this evening. It would then be ready for the President's signature.

Numerous Republicans voted "no" on the final package. They include: Enzi, Barrasso, Craig, Crapo, DeMint, Sessions, Allard, Murkowski, Shelby, Corker, Hagel, Inhofe.

Yeas 81, nays 16. The bill passes. It will now be sent to the House.

The Senate has agreed to an amendment to the House's stimulus package, 91-6

[16:11]
The senators are now voting on a bipartisan amendment adding a few things to the House-passed package. Chiefly, the Senate will add rebates for senior and war vets to the package. The House will take up the Senate-passed version later tonight.

Here are the votes:

Yeas: Most senators
Nays: Allard (C0), Craig (ID), Coburn (OK), Hagel (NE) ...

John McCain (AZ) arrives to vote "aye." He is fresh off his informal coronation as the Republican Party 2008 presidential nominee, seeing as how Mitt Romney dropped out. It looks as though many senators are extending their hands in congratulation to McCain. I do not believe either of Barack Obama (IL) or Hillary Clinton (NY) have voted...

Amendment passes 91-6. The House stimulus package is amended. Now the Senate will vote on the bill. Once this passes, it will go over to the House immediately.

Alexander rebukes Boxer

[15:34]
Senators have been speaking about the stimulus package that the Senate will soon pass. Barbara Boxer (CA) listed the various proposals that did not make the final cut because Republicans were able to bring them down in yesterday's cloture vote. Lamar Alexander (TN) then asked why she felt it necessary, after the Senate had just reached a good agreement, to point out the things that didn't go through due to the fault of the Republicans. Boxer asks him to yield "since the senator mentioned me by name." She says simply, "I speak the truth." Alexander, who holds the floor, says that's all well and good but repeats his plea that senators "find the good and praise it."

Patty Murray (WA) follows. She shores up Boxer's statement by saying that it's OK for Democrats to voice their disappointment; that but for one vote, the full Senate package would have gone through.

What the Senate stimulus agreement does and does not contain

[14:53]
It does not contain an extension of unemployment benefits.

It does not contain money to beef up the low-income heating assistance program.

It does not contain an extension of expiring tax credits for investment in alternative energy projects, such as retrofitting a house with solar panels.

It does not contain some sort of housing revenue bond provision that went over my head.

It does not contain money for food stamps.

Reid just attempted to have separate amendments for unemployment benefits, low-income heating assistance, extension of environmental tax credits etc. brought up for separate votes. Judd Gregg (NH) objected to all of these requests. These things won't be in the bill.

Through process of elimination, it sounds like the Senate will be adding the following to the House-passed version of the stimulus package:

Checks for seniors on social security and checks for disabled veterans and their widows; a fix for a loophole that would have allowed illegal immigrants to get checks.

It's not clear whether the Senate tax rebate checks will be in the order of $500 per person ($1000/couple) as the Finance committee had proposed. Or whether the checks will be in the amount of $600/$1200 as the House agreed.

The votes will start around 16:10.

Reid has just introduced a bipartisan amendment to the stimulus package

[14:45]
The Senate is likely sometime today to pass an omnibus amendment to the House-passed version of an economic stimulus package. If that vote is successful — and it will be successful — the Senate will then vote on the bill. The bipartisan amendment is sponsored by Finance committee leaders Max Baucus (MT) and Charles Grassley (IA) and party leaders Reid and McConnell. However, I am unsure at this point what the amendment contains.

Reid said that senators were still wandering around town and for that reason the vote will not occur immediately. It should occur later today.

[14:06]
The Senate is back in a quorum call and has been for awhile.

Brown gives a speech about his favorite topic

[13:27]
Sherrod Brown (OH) is out on the floor. Now I'm thinking maybe the Senate was just in recess subject to the call of the chair. Normally when it breaks for lunch, it's out until 14:15.

Brown is talking trade. He says that what we have with China is not free trade, "it's a racket." He talks about how China has taken over the global paper market. There used to be paper made in places like my hometown, Chillicothe — once the state Capitol, he notes. What is manufacturing in our country gonna look like in the future? he wonders.

He is asking for a time out on trade agreements.

Senate recesses for lunch

[12:55]
I had to step away this morning but it appears I did not miss much. The Senate is currently on a lunch break. It doesn't seem as though there were any votes this morning. Reid said this morning that the Senate might not finish its version of a stimulus package until Tuesday. I have to think that there will be votes on FISA amendments this afternoon.

After yesterday's cloture vote failure, no agreement yet on stimulus package

[10:31]
There is no way forward yet on the stimulus package, says majority leader Harry Reid (NV). But he and minority leader Mitch McConnell (KY) are in discussions, as they will be throughout the day. Until a deal is reached, presumably.

And we have to finish FISA this week, says Reid. Stimulus might have to wait until tomorrow or maybe even Tuesday, he says.

The thing with the stimulus is this: Democrats had a package they wanted passed. It failed cloture yesterday. The Republicans now have a package they want passed. There is still a lot of middle ground between those two packages. The best way to do this is just to offer every distinct benefit as a single amendment and let the people (through their senators) decide on what makes the final cut. But the Senate never takes the easy way. Instead, they'll finagle in the cloak room until one big omnibus amendment takes shape and then that'll have to pass a cloture vote...

Meanwhile, if there is any chance of finishing FISA today, it's going to take all day and all night. It would take a vote-o-rama. Probably more votes in one day than the Senate has held all year, to date.

Opening with a prayer and a pledge

[10:29]
The Senate is just now beginning. With a prayer, as always. Today's guest prayer leader is Rabbi Cheryl Jacobs, from the Jewish Healing Center in Plantation, FL.

And now the pledge of allegiance.