Senate Fails To Advance FY 2009 Omnibus; Debate To Continue Next Week

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 09 Mar 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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Senate Democrats came up short of the 60 votes needed to advance an overdue $410 billion fiscal year 2009 omnibus spending bill (H.R. 1105) Thursday night, the New York Times reports. The Times reports that the delay of the bill was "an embarrassment for Democrats and a striking, if temporary, victory for critics of so-called earmark spending initiatives" -- including Senate Republicans and two Democrats, Sens. Evan Bayh (Ind.) and Russ Feingold (Wisc.), who opposed the measure (Herszenhorn, New York Times, 3/6). According to the Washington Post, the omnibus measure combines nine spending bills from Congress' 2008 session that were not passed on schedule. The bill provides "generous budget increases across departments," including HHS, and would "make a series of significant policy changes," the Post reports (Murray, Washington Post, 3/6). The total cost of the bill represents an almost $20 billion, or 5%, increase over the Bush administration's last spending requests. The bill covers more than 12 Cabinet-level departments and agencies, as well as the country's contribution to global health and foreign aid programs abroad, Politico reports (Rogers, Politico, 3/5). According to CQ Today, the Senate rejected all 12 Republican-backed amendments on Thursday, including Sen. Roger Wicker's (R-Miss.) anti-United Nations Population Fund amendment. The amendment failed by a 39-55 vote (Krawzak/Clarke, CQ Today, 3/6).

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday night canceled the final procedural vote that would have cleared the way for the bill's passage. He said that debate on the bill would continue at least through Monday while the Senate considers further amendments and he tries to secure at least one additional vote needed to break a Republican-led filibuster (Washington Post, 3/6). The Times reports that no GOP amendments are expected to be approved, but "several will be devised to hurt Democrats politically" (New York Times, 3/6).

In the event that the bill does not pass the Senate next week, the Post reports that the federal government would continue operations at current funding levels (Washington Post, 3/6). The "ability of the diminished minority to delay the bill signaled growing unease" among members of both parties in Congress "over the levels of government spending in recent months and the staggering increase in the federal deficit," according to the Times (New York Times, 3/6).

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