There was very interesting roll call in the Senate late yesterday afternoon. It was a vote to invoke cloture (i.e., end debate) on a bill to give FEMA some money to deal with disaster relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. Cloture votes require 60 votes to pass, which then allows a vote on the actual bill (requiring only 50 votes). The roll call was 53-33 in favor of invoking cloture, with 14 members not casting a vote either way. Failing to get 60 votes, the motion failed and much needed relief will be delayed. Harry Reid was rightfully indignant:
“Last night, Democrats tried to move forward on a measure that would have granted the Federal Emergency Management Agency additional funding to help communities devastated by natural disasters,” Sen. Reid said in an advisory.
“This ought to be the least political issue going – whether to reach out a helping hand to our friends and neighbors in their time of need,” he continued. “They have lost friends and loved ones. Their homes, businesses and livelihoods have been destroyed by acts of god. Their communities are under water or reduced to rubble.
“It’s in our power to help them. But last night Republicans overwhelmingly voted to prevent us from coming to their aid. They prevented us from getting disaster aid to American families and businesses that need it now.”
Now, I think we’re all getting used to the Republicans being heartless jerks, but I’m more interested in the people who didn’t vote. Here’s the list:
Bob Casey (D-PA), JimDeMint (R-SC), John Hoeven (R-ND), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bernie Sanders (I-VT),
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), David Vitter (R-LA), Ron Wyden (D-OR)
If all the Democrats had voted ‘aye’ the cloture vote would have had 59 votes. In other words, it still would have failed. But it would have been a lot more clear that it failed because of Republican opposition. It appears that some liberal Democrats wanted to force as many Republicans as possible to vote for cloture, and so they withheld their votes. Why else would Bernie Sanders who represents devastated Vermont, not vote for disaster relief for his state? I could ask the same thing about Bob Casey, whose state has been declared a disaster zone. And how can Mary Landrieu (D-LA), of all people, not vote for FEMA funding? It seems that they wanted to make a point.
As for the Republicans, there is a prominent do-nothing Tea Party caucus made up (roughly) of Sens. DeMint, Rubio, Coburn, Vitter, Lee, Paul, and Johnson. Sen. Inhofe joins them from time to time. These are the folks most likely to vote against disaster relief because they oppose all new spending of any kind. But half of them decided to abstain. You’d think it might be the more vulnerable, moderate members who would abstain. That could explain Murkowski, Kirk, and Hoeven’s non-votes.
Perhaps DeMint and some of his gang wanted to force as many of their Republican colleagues as possible to vote against disaster relief? I’m not sure why they would do that, but it can’t make them popular. In any case, if Bernie Sanders and the Democratic abstainers were trying to shame the Republicans into voting for disaster relief, it didn’t work. And the record now makes it look like they, too, didn’t mind delaying emergency aid.
Strange, indeed.
