The debate on FISA in going on now and can be watched on CSPAN-2. A source in Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office has provided me with the following outline (edited a bit for clarity):
Right now there is no agreement in place whether various FISA amendments will be subject to a simple or super majority.
The expected first vote that will take place today will be on the Senate Judiciary Committee version (the better version), which will take place around 2 pm EST. It will be a GOP motion to table that amendment subject to a simple majority.
In other words, the Judiciary bill will be dropped at this point if two Democrats vote to table it. Trust me, this will happen.
The way the procedure is set up right now Senator Reid is making the Republicans filibuster on the floor today. If the Republicans want to impose 60 vote threshold on Dodd/Feinfold’s amendment (which Senator Reid supports as he remarked on the floor today) they will have to filibuster and run the time.
Reid has set it up so a united Democratic caucus can pass amendments. Too bad they are not united.
- Right now the Senators are debating the bill that came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) as an amendment to the version that started from Senate Intelligence Committee (SIC) which doesn’t contain the immunity provision
- There is no agreement in place on whether a vote on the SJC version will be subjected to a 60 vote threshold.
This doesn’t matter because the Judiciary Bill will be tabled and not put to a vote.
- At 2 pm EST today the Republicans will move to table the SJC version which will be subjected to
simple majority- Senator Reid will oppose that motion to table
- If the motion to table SJC version is successful, we will revert back to SIC version which is the base bill
- At that point we are going to have debates on various amendments to that base bill:
- Senator Dodd/Feingold will be submitting their amendment against immunity which Senator Reid will support
- Senator Rockefeller/Bond will have their own amendments which includes their modifications from the Senate Intelligence Committee which includes an amendment submitted by Senator Wyden
- Other Senators will also look to submit various parts of legislation that came out of SJC as individual amendments
- Currently there is no agreement in place on whether roll call votes on those amendments will be subject to super majority or simple majority
- Senator Reid is on record saying he will not facilitate any agreement wrt to Super Majority. From the floor today:
As I have said before, if there are senators who don’t like these amendments and think they should be subjected to 60-vote thresholds, these senators are going to have to engage in an old-fashioned filibuster. These amendments are by and large germane, and I believe they should be adopted if a majority of the Senate supports them- Again that remark from this am is directed towards Republican Senators.
- At any point during the debate Senator McConnell may file cloture to cut off debate on the entire bill
Enjoy.