Today in Washington D. C. - Dec 18, 2007

From Senate & News Sources: Senate will take up the omnibus spending bill to fund the government passed by the House last night. Clearly, this is not a bill Republicans would have written, but as The Wall Street Journal reports today, the bill “effectively surrender[s] 80% of what Democrats once hoped to add to the president's top line. . . . lawmakers are now prepared to cut $17.5 billion from prior House-passed bills, and most domestic agencies will grow at a less-than-inflation 2% rate.” The Politico, in a story titled, “Liberals lose big time in budget battle,” notes that “Under a veto threat, Democrats removed the reversal of a long-standing anti-abortion provision, abandoned long-sought provisions that would have loosened travel and trade restrictions on Cuba and deleted a line item demanded by unions that would have required federal contractors to pay union wages in disaster areas like New Orleans.”

The House Democrat Omnibus bill (better than it could be is still terrible) is loaded with over 8000 pork funding items while it does not currently fund troops in Iraq which will have to be added. The House voted last night to include only $30 billion for Afghanistan operations but prohibited that money from being used for Iraq. The Democrat majority omnibus must include funding for the troops in Iraq. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell will offer an amendment today to strike the Democrats’ funding restrictions and replace them with a total of $70 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, with no strings attached. The White House has said President Bush will only sign the bill if Sen. McConnell’s amendment is adopted.

Sen. Harry Reid will decide which amendments are in order and could allow Iraq withdrawal amendments to be considered in addition to the McConnell amendment. If that is the case, Senators could vote once again on something similar to the Levin amendment, which requires a withdrawal to begin with a goal to be completed by a certain date. Also possible is the Feingold amendment which requires a withdrawal and sets a deadline for completion.

On The Floor: Senate reconvened at 10 AM today and used 90 minutes for senators to pay tribute to Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) who is retiring. Later today, the Senate will take up the House-passed Omnibus appropriations bill (H.R. 2764, formerly the State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill). Yesterday, the Senate invoked cloture (76-10) on the motion to proceed to the FISA reform bill passed by the Intelligence Committee (S. 2248). However, a filibuster by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) has forced Democrats to delay further consideration of bill into January.

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