Coburn Omnibus coming up for cloture vote

July 28, 2008 by
Filed under Bush Powers, Capitol Hill, Clueless, Deserved, Double Standards, Idiot Ideas, Legal Ramblings, Money, Uncategorized

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The “Coburn Omnibus” (or the “Tomnibus,” as the NYT has more cleverly dubbed it) is due for its first procedural test this afternoon, with a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to consideration of the bill (now designated S. 3297, the “Advancing America’s Priorities Act”). Yes, that means a cloture vote on the question of whether or not to start debating the bill.

If that doesn’t tell you something right there about the level of Republican obstructionism, maybe this will: the cloture vote may be preceded by a motion to instruct the Senate Sergeant at Arms to establish a quorum. Meaning that there’s some significant chance that Republicans will try to prevent this from coming to a vote by hiding out in their offices (or elsewhere) in order to deny the Senate the quorum needed to vote on whether or not they should begin debate on a bill made up of 30+ other bills that one guy has blocked, even though most of them passed the House with 400+ votes in favor.

So what’s in this thing, anyway? Here’s the list of included measures (italicized bills have Republican lead sponsors:

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Registry Act (S. 1382/HR 2295)

Christoper and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act (S. 1183/HR 1727)
Stroke Prevention (S. 999 – Cochran/HR 477)
Postpartum Depression (S. 1375/HR 20)
Vision Care for Kids (HR 507/S. 1117 – Bond)
Downs Syndrome support (S. 1810 – Brownback/HR 3112 – Sensenbrenner)
Emmitt Till Unsolved Crimes (S. 535/HR 923)
Mentally Ill Offender Treatment (S. 2304 – Domenici/HR 3992)
Star-Spangled Banner and War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission (S. 1079/HR 1389)
Drug Endangered Kids (HR 1199/S. 1210)
Runaway and Homeless Youth (S. 2982/HR 5524)
Child Pornography Prosecution (HR 4120)
Enhancing Child Pornography Prosecution (S. 2869 – Vitter/HR 4136)
PROTECT Our Children Act (S 1738/HR 3845)
Paul Simon Study Abroad (HR 1469/S 991)
Reconstruction Civilian Management (HR 1084/S 613) – Lugar
OPIC Reauthorization (HR 2798/S 2349)
Tropical Forest Conservation (S. 2020 – Lugar/HR 2185 – Kirk)
Funding for victims of torture (HR 1678 – Smith (NJ)/S 840 – Coleman)
Museum of the History of Polish Jews (HR 3320 – Smith (NJ))
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (S. 1446/HR 401 – Tom Davis (VA))
Preservation of Records of Servitude, Emancipation, and Post-Civil War Reconstruction (HR 390)
Pre-Disaster Mitigation Act (HR 6109/S. 3175 – Lieberman)
Broadband Deployment (S. 1492/HR 3919)
Ocean Exploration, Mapping & Research (HR 1834 – Saxton/HR 2400/S. 39 – Stevens)
Hydrographic Services Improvement (S. 1582/HR 3352 – Young (AK))
Coastal and Ocean Observation System (S. 950 – Snowe/HR 2342)
National Sea Grant College Program Amendments Act (S 3160/HR 5618)
Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring (S. 1581/HR 4174)
Realtime Writers Grants (S. 675/HR 1687) (passed House in Higher Ed bill)
Smithsonian construction bill (HR 5492)
Captive Primate/Animal Safety (S. 1498/HR 4933)
The Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network Continuing Authorization Act (S. 2707/HR 5540)
Beach Protection Act (S 2844/HR 2537)
Appalachian Regional Development Act (S. 496 – Voinovich/HR 799)

So what’s Coburn’s problem? Well, his story all along has been that he’s such a gosh-darned good budget hawk, and these bills will… zzzzz… increase the deficit.

But the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reminds us that Coburn’s making an amateur mistake:

The Congressional Budget Office has reviewed S. 3297, a bill to advance America’s priorities, as introduced on July 22, 2008. The bill includes numerous provisions that would affect health care, criminal statutes, laws to protect wildlife and the environment, international aid programs, efforts to promote commerce, ocean research, and other government programs.

Most of the bill’s provisions would specifically or implicitly authorize increased appropriations for purposes specified in the bill. By themselves – that is, in the absence of subsequent legislation – those authorizations do not cause changes in federal spending or revenues.

That is, Coburn’s objecting to the costs of authorization bills, which only designate an outer limit to how much money can later be spent… by appropriations bills. The budgetary impact of authorization bills, therefore, is zero. Only bills that actually spend money count against the budget. Coburn was hoping no one would notice, I guess.

Ten Republican Senators have bills in this package: Thad Cochran (MS), Kit Bond (MO), Olympia Snowe (ME), Ted Stevens (AK), David Vitter (LA), Sam Brownback (KS), Pete Domenici (NM), Dick Lugar (IN), George Voinovich (OH), and Norm Coleman (MN).

So here’s the question going into the vote: Will Senate Republicans flip on their own legislation, just to back up the paranoid theories of a crazy doofus whose main concern in life (besides crossword puzzles) appears to be the growing menace of teenage bathroom lesbians?

If last week was any indication, yes they will. Senate Republicans are intent on putting their most vulnerable colleagues through the wringer, apparently insisting on blocking any bill that doesn’t drill for oil in your Aunt Bertha’s daisy patch.

They may be, it turns out, That. F-ing. Crazy.

Tune in at 4 p.m. EDT to find out.