Yesterday, the Senate continues the amendment process for the FY 2016 budget with seven roll call votes.
Student Loans
The first was an amendment from Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on student loan refinancing; the amendment was her Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act.
to make college more affordable for middle-class families by allowing borrowers with outstanding Federal and private student loans to refinance at the equivalent interest rates that were offered to Federal student loan borrowers during the 2013-2014 school year and to fully offset the cost of such a program by requiring millionaires to pay at least a 30 percent effective Federal tax rate
The bill failed
46 to 53 on a party line vote.
Clean Water
The Senate voted on two amendments related to clean water.
The first, from Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), aimed at ensuring regulatory certainty at the EPA:
keeping the Federal Water Pollution Control Act focused on protection of water quality, to establish bright lines for Federal jurisdiction, and to create clear and unambiguous exemptions for features that the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency or the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, claim they are not seeking to regulate
The full amendment text is not currently available.
It passed 99 to 0.
The second, from John Barrasso (R-WY), was aimed at restricting the EPA.
Here is the core part of the amendment text:
ensuring that Federal jurisdiction under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.) is focused on water quality, which may include limiting jurisdiction based on the movement of birds, mammals, or insects through the air or over the land, the movement of water through the ground, or the movement of rainwater or snowmelt over the land, or limiting jurisdiction over puddles, isolated ponds, roadside ditches, irrigation ditches, stormwater systems, wastewater sytems, or water delivery, reuse, or reclamation systems
The amendments are somewhat similar, as is often the case with sequential budget amendments. Each party will offer its own amendment on an issue, with obvious differences in approaches.
It passed 59 to 40.
Four Democrats joined the Republicans here:
Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Joe Manchin (D-WV)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Climate Change
Bernie Sanders (I-VT) offered an amendment to recognize that climate change is real and caused by human activity and that Congress needs to take action to cut carbon pollution.
It failed 49 to 50.
Two Democrats--Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and Joe Manchin (D-WV)--voted against it with the Republicans.
Five Republicans joined Democrats in voting for it:
Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Rob Portman (R-OH)
Medicare
Michael Bennet (D-CO) offered an amendment to create a point of order against legislation that would privatize Medicare, cut guaranteed benefits, increase out-of-pocket spending, or turn Medicare into a premium support plan. In other words, this would create an obstacle for any such legislation (including a budget) by requiring it to have 60 votes for passage.
This failed 46 to 53.
Two Democrats--Time Kaine (D-VA) and Mark Warner (D-VA)--voted against it with the Republicans.
Two Republicans--Susan Collins (R-ME) and Dean Heller (R-NV)--voted for it with the Democrats.
Sequestration and Spending
Patty Murray (D-WA) offered an amendment to restore higher spending levels and eliminate the gimmick used by Senate Republicans to evade sequestration cuts for the Pentagon via the Overseas Contingency Operations (aka "Pentagon slush fund") budget.
Here's what the amendment would do:
(1) restore a below-sequester level cut of $9 billion to nondefense discretionary spending in 2017
(2) replace sequestration in 2016 and 2017 and increasing funding above sequester levels by a total of $148 billion for the 2 years
(3) increase defense and nondefense discretionary spending above sequester levels by equal amounts
(4) eliminate the overseas contingency operations gimmick contained in the committee-reported resolution
(5) offset the net increase in defense and nondefense discretionary spending by closing tax loopholes.
It failed on a party line vote of
46 to 53.
Israel
Tom Cotton (R-AK) offered an amendment reaffirming the Senate's unwavering support for Israel, particularly in preventing the United Nations and other international institutions from taking “unfair or discriminatory” action against Israel.
It passed 99 to 0.
Debate on the budget will end at noon today, and then the Senate will have a long sequence of votes on amendments ("vote-a-rama") and then a final vote on the budget. There are currently 62 amendments pending. I am not sure if all will receive a vote.