Today in Washington D. C. - April 23, 2008

On The Floor: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has again demonstrated Democrats’ mismanagement of the Senate. Democrats began this week pushing to use the veterans’ bill to extend benefits to Filipino citizens who fought in the U.S. Army in World War II. Republicans had no problem with most of the bill, but preferred the money to be used for Filipino vets to be spent on American vets. Note Yesterday's post on this topic. Yesterday, the Senate did vote 94-0 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the veterans’ bill, S. 1315.Reid complained that Republicans were stalling a veterans benefits package and then decided to postpone the start of the debate and delay the start of the Senate today until 5 p.m. in order to accommodate the schedules of his Senetors Obama and Clinton. Senate will reconvene at 5 PM today and resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 2831, the Ledbetter bill. At 6 PM, senators will vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to the Ledbetter bill.

Apparently, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would like to cast their symbolic votes for the Ledbetter bill, but Reid was faced with a dilemma: under Senate rules, a cloture vote on the Ledbetter bill would have to come one hour after the Senate reconvened today, but Clinton and Obama have campaign events during the day. So Republicans refused to allow a delay on the vote, “angered by Reid’s days-long procedural message assault,” which resulted in Reid’s decision to leave the Senate shuttered until 5 PM.

From Senate & News Sources: With regard to the bill to reverse last year’s Ledbetter v. Goodyear Supreme Court decision. The White House said, “this legislation effectively eliminates any time requirement for filing a claim involving compensation discrimination. Allegations from 30 years ago or more could be resurrected and filed in federal courts.” However, this bill is important to a number of powerful Democrat constituencies, including unions, women’s organizations, and others. As Roll Call notes, “While [Ledbetter] is a popular measure with Democrats and liberal interest groups, Republicans have more than enough votes to block it Wednesday, making the vote a largely symbolic one.”

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