July 22, 2008 – 6:42 p.m.
The long-simmering showdown between Sen.
Coburn, R-Okla., is on the verge of getting the floor time he has been demanding to debate some of the dozens of bills he has been blocking.
And Reid is maneuvering to move dozens of relatively low-profile measures so that he can go into the August recess with proof that the Senate is not a black hole into which legislation falls, never to be seen again.
The Nevada Democrat is trying to do that by moving a roughly 400-page amalgamation of unrelated, narrowly tailored bills.
Many of the bills included in the package that Reid introduced Tuesday already have passed the House by wide margins.
All have at least one Republican cosponsor, and a GOP senator is the chief sponsor of nearly one-third.
“These bills address important American priorities, have broad — virtually unanimous — bipartisan support, yet, all have fallen victim to just one or two Republicans,” Reid said in a written statement.
The package (
The much trickier part of the equation for Reid will be navigating his way to final passage of the multibill measure before the August recess.
For months, Coburn has refused to allow the Senate to pass dozens of bills without first dedicating floor time to them, either for debate or to consider amendments he wanted to offer.
Reid plans to force Coburn’s hand by calling up the package in the coming days.
He has threatened to bring it up on July26, though one of his lieutenants suggested that day could be for debate but not voting — and therefore no inconvenience to most of Coburn’s colleagues.
Democrats, and some Republicans, would have preferred to pass each bill in the package separately, using unanimous consent to move the measures along without using up floor time.
And though it now appears that Coburn will get the chance to debate the bills and air his objections to the authorization of new federal spending, Democrats are not promising to allow any amendments.
“That’s not the way it works at this point,” said Majority Whip
Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the majority leader was willing to negotiate “an agreed-upon set of germane amendments with a reasonable amount of time for debate.”
However, Coburn spokesman John Hart said negotiations with Reid’s office had come to a standstill.
On the subject of amending bills, Coburn has many empathetic colleagues in the Republican Conference.
“We’re seeing the institution being run like the House of Representatives, where no amendments are allowed,” said
Minnesota Republican
But for Coleman and every other senator with a home-state interest in some part of the package, the real decision ahead is whether to back up Coburn, even if it means voting against the desires of constituents.
Coleman was among those who said they might ultimately vote for the package.
“There are probably a number of things in those bills that I’m very supportive of,” he said. “So we’ll have to see how it plays out.”
The upcoming floor debate could provide an opportunity for both parties to hammer on favorite election year themes.
Democrats will claim the package illustrates the extreme measures to which the majority must resort to move bills that would pass easily if Republican obstructionists would allow votes.
Coburn, meanwhile, contends that the proposal represents misplaced priorities, placing senators’ parochial wishes above important national issues and the need to be mindful of how the government spends taxpayers’ money.
Altogether, the package would authorize $11.3 billion in federal spending and would create more than 34 new federal programs, according to an analysis prepared by Coburn’s staff.
The Congressional Budget Office has yet to score the bill.
Alan K. Ota contributed to this story.