Republicans at work
After being repeatedly stalled by various Republican obstructions placed in its path, the Senate is voting today on
as many as 10 amendments to its two-year, $109 billion transportation bill. Voting is scheduled to start at 2:15 PM ET. A vote on the overall bill is expected next week after another 20 amendments are considered.
Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday morning that his effort at gathering votes to pass a five-year, $260-billion transportation bill have not succeeded. In its place, the House may take up the Senate bill when it passes.
Many of the Senate amendments are only marginally or not-at-all related to the bill's usual concerns: highway and bridge construction and repair, mass transit and related matters. They include, for instance, expansion of drilling on the outer continental shelf, immediate approval of the entire 1661-mile Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, delaying implementation of new Environmental Protection Agency boiler rules, and putting a ceiling on all discretionary spending in the 2013 budget that begins Oct. 1.
Last week, after rancorous debate, a public outcry and grassroots pushback, the Senate narrowly rejected a GOP-initiated amendment to the transportation bill that would have allowed employers to choose on religious or moral grounds what kind of health-care services their workers' insurance plans would cover, including contraceptive care.
Subsequently, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sought to invoke cloture on other amendments having nothing to do with the transportation bill:
"These amendments deal with clean water standards, deal with clean air standards," Reid said.
"Nothing in this bill should deal with having Americans having to breathe more mercury, more lead. And then just for good measure, how about some arsenic?" he complained. "The amendment that I've looked at from my friend from Louisiana [Sen. David Vitter (R)] calls for drilling for oil any place there's water. Next they'll be going to Lake Meade outside Las Vegas."
Cloture votes to end debate on two amendments failed to gain the 60 votes needed, however. That fact led Reid to agree Wednesday night to allow debate on amendments offered by both Democrats and Republicans so that the Senate could move off the dime on the overall bill.
Bottom line? The old transportation bill passed in 2005 expired in 2009 and funding since has been handled by extending the spending at the same levels as in that bill.
The House bill that Boehner has not been able to twist enough arms to vote for has been the target of right-wing foes who say it would spend too much, even though it is 9 percent less than the 2005 bill even before inflation is factored in. Environmental advocates and others also objected to the House bill because it eviscerates support for mass transit and would pay for road repairs and upgrades with revenue from new oil drilling on public land, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The question is whether Boehner can corral enough votes for that from his right flank to approve the Senate bill if and when it passes. It would be a bad idea to bet the rent check on that.
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If you can stand to listen to the likes of Republican Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota make claims that there are "millions of miles" of oil pipelines in the United States, check in on the debate here.