Today in Washington D. C. - May 12, 2008

The Senate: At 5:30 PM, the Senate will resume consideration of the flood insurance bill (S.2284). The next votes are scheduled for Tuesday, when senators will vote on energy amendments to the flood insurance bill, the GOP proposal, and a Democrat amendment to halt the filling of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Both amendments will require 60 votes for adoption. Later, the Senate will vote on final passage of the flood insurance bill. After completing work on that bill, there will be a vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to another collective bargaining bill (H.R. 980).

The House: Expected to finally take up the supplemental war funding bill on Wednesday and could also consider the long-delayed conference report on the farm bill. Blue Dog Democrats had forced a postponement of House consideration of the supplemental troop funding bill last week when they balked at the inclusion of billions in new entitlement spending in the bill. Now, the line they’ve drawn in the sand on spending will be tested. As noted in another ARRA News post, Blue Dogs like Arkansas Rep. Marion Berry may have been compromised their vote for personal farm subsidy money. Democrats could have saved themselves a lot of grief by simply deciding to pass funding for the troops without playing politics with the bill.

From Senate & News Sources: The last few days have featured two interesting interviews with Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell: The Wall Street Journal reports on McConnell’s discussion of the power of 49 GOP senators to shape or block legislation in the Senate and a number of conservative legislative successes despite being in the minority. In the The Washington Times, McConnell addressed the Democrats’ dangerous agenda.

Roll Call writes today, “Senate Democrats might be facing the greatest challenge of their brief majority as they battle on two fronts to pass legislation this year — taking on an all-but-certain Republican filibuster and tackling a fresh and prolific round of veto threats from President Bush.” The story also quotes Democrats complaining about Republicans instead of talking about how they plan to modify their policies to actually get bills passed. If their agenda consists entirely of ,“more taxes, more regulation and more litigation,” Democrats are not going to find a warm reception from Republicans in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Republicans continue to point to Democrat failures on key issues. Tomorrow there will be defining votes on energy proposals. Democrats are going to have to go on record supporting or opposing developing American energy and American jobs. Later today, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Kit Bond (R-MO) will appear at the Brookings Institution to discuss the economic and national security implications of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The failure of House Democrats to agree to a vote on this agreement is costing American companies billions in tariffs and leaving a key U.S. ally in limbo while Hugh Chavez issues threats.

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