The first bill the Senate passed this year was the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (S.1). The House passed their version of the bill later in the year. But Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) used procedural tricks to prevent the Senate from participating in a conference with the House to reconcile the differences in the two versions of the bill. No bill can become law until the House and Senate vote on and pass identical versions. DeMint was single-handedly preventing this from happening.
DeMint’s concern was that tough earmark disclosure rules that were in the Senate bill would be stripped out during the conference reconciliation. The only way to get around DeMint’s obstruction was to hash out the differences between the two bills informally (out of conference) and then have the House and Senate vote again on identical versions. If both bills are identical, there is no need for a reconciliation conference. The House passed their bill this morning by a 411-8 veto-proof margin. The Senate will now move to pass the bill before the August recess.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has vowed to keep his chamber in session over the weekend and into August recess to pass the bill if necessary.
The bill doesn’t do everything I hoped it would. But that’s politics.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) lent the new bill his endorsement, which Democratic leaders hope will tamp down any lingering concerns among members who fought for the strongest possible reforms. Feingold issued two separate statements yesterday, the first unequivocally hailing the legislation’s lobbying provisions.
Of the earmark anxiety, Feingold said: “Congress must not let people who oppose reform change the subject. Right now, the simple question senators must ask themselves is whether we want to change the way Washington does business or not.”
The original Senate vote was 96-2 so a filibuster shouldn’t be a problem…and certainly not a veto.
Last week Congress passed the 9/11 Commission recommendations bill with super-majorities. And they (somewhat disturbingly) passed the minimum wage hike within the Iraq Supplemental funding bill.
Slowly, but surely, the Dems are passing their legislative agenda.
