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Morning Briefing: Senate Nears
Final Vote on Interior Spending Bill
Thursday, September 24, 2009
7:45 AM |
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The Senate
yesterday
inched closer to a final vote on the $32.1 billion FY 2010
Interior and Environment appropriations measure (H.R.
2996), after defeating a proposal by Sen. Claire McCaskill
(D-MO) to designate the $10 million in member projects -- a.k.a.
earmarks -- for the $20 million
Save America's
Treasures program as competitive grant funding. The public piece of the initiative,
administered by the National Park Service, was initially
designed as a competitive grant program. |
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"So if your state
doesn't get an earmark, either in the House or in the Senate
in the bill, then the chances of your state getting any of the
money out of this program have been cut in half," McCaskill
said during a floor speech. "I just think that competition is
a good thing, and this isn't about a bureaucrat somewhere
sprinkling fairy dust and supplementing their judgment for the
judgment of Congress," she went on to say. The McCaskill
amendment fell on a procedural vote of
72-26. The Senate also
rejected a procedural motion offered by Sen. David Vitter
(R-LA) to prohibit the use of funds to delay the
implementation of the Draft Proposed Outer Continental Shelf
Oil and Gas Leasing Program. A final vote on the Interior
spending bill is expected by week's end, followed by debate on
the Defense appropriations
bill (H.R.
3326).
In other
appropriations news, Democratic lawmakers are leaning towards
attaching a month-long continuing
resolution (CR) to the FY 2010
Legislative Branch spending measure
(H.R.
2918). The House appointed its conferees yesterday
evening, an indication that a final version has been drafted.
A formal conference markup on H.R. 2918 is scheduled for Thursday morning.
Since none of the twelve FY 2010 appropriations bills have
been enacted into law, the CR will continue funding the regular
operations of all cabinet-level departments after FY 2009 ends
on Sept. 30.
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The House yesterday
cleared a three-month funding extension of
surface transportation programs
beyond their scheduled September 30 expiration (H.R.
3617) on a
335-85
vote. "Right
now, the only impediment to the implementation of a long-term
surface transportation authorization is a lack of political
will to make the necessary choices and implement the reforms
that will set the nation on the path to building a surface
transportation network that meets the needs of the 21st
Century and beyond," said House Transportation and
Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-MN). The bill now
goes to the Senate and is expected to pass quickly.
The House also sent
the Senate a one-month funding extension for programs under
the Small Business Act and
the Small Business Investment Act
of 1958 (H.R.
3614), and a three-month extension of
Federal Aviation Administration
operations (H.R.
3607). In addition, the chamber cleared for the
president's desk the
Defense Production Act
Reauthorization (S.
1677), legislation aimed at modernizing the president's
authority to require companies to set aside their commercial
business obligations and fulfill government contracts first in
order to meet national defense needs (among other provisions).
Today the House
takes up the Medicare Premium
Fairness Act (H.R.
3631), a bill that would apply a consistent Medicare Part
B premium next year. H.R. 3631 will "protect seniors and
people with disabilities from unfair increases in their 2010
Medicare Part B premiums," according to the House Ways and
Means Committee, which shares jurisdiction over the
legislation with the Energy and Commerce Committee.
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© Copyright
Capitol Hill Reports, Inc. (2009). No claim to original government
works.
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