Forget about asking Santa Claus. Members of Congress already can guess what they’re getting for Christmas: a nice, long working holiday in Washington, D.C. — at least if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gets his way. According the U.S. Senate website, the “tentative schedule” (italics theirs) for the remainder of the legislative year is one big “T.B.D.”
Like parents scrambling for Tickle Me Elmos a decade or so ago, the White House and Reid are currently jostling senators for votes in support of Obamacare, with the hope of passing a health-care bill before the winter recess. Time, however, is not on their side. Take one glance at the Senate calendar, and it’s clear that early spring, not the Yuletide season, is when President Obama should actually expect this lump of coal to arrive on his desk (if it arrives at all).
Here’s why.
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1. Veterans’ affairs. The Senate has been off since Tuesday afternoon, thanks to the Veterans Day recess. It will reconvene on Monday. Reid wants to get moving on health care, but the Senate doesn’t like to rush, especially when it comes to vets. According to senior aides, the Senate will be busy with its consideration of H.R. 3082, which appropriates funds to military construction projects and the Department of Veterans Affairs, until at least Tuesday. Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) is already preparing to offer two related amendments for Monday night. So there goes early next week.
2. Judicial nominees. Just before wrapping up Senate business on Tuesday, Reid filed a cloture motion to end debate on the nomination of Judge David Hamilton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. That cloture vote won’t happen until at least 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, meaning the final vote will probably be as late as Wednesday evening. And, according to the Senate’s executive calendar, many other nominations are also due for consideration. So forget about Tuesday and Wednesday.
3. The (lack of a) bill. If Reid is able to patch together a health-care bill behind the scenes and put it online for at least 72 hours, he can set up a vote on a “motion to proceed” to the House bill, which he could use as a stand-in for his own for the time being. Reid has indicated that he hopes to do this, but it’s far from certain that he’ll be able to. And even if all the stars align, aides say, the vote on whether to proceed would come at the end of next week at the earliest. Reid spokesman Jim Manley says that Reid might file a motion to proceed as soon as Tuesday, November 17. Still, Reid and other senators are said to be not very enthusiastic about the House bill. Whether they will be willing to use it as a shell in order to move debate forward next week is unknown.
4. The CBO. Reid has told Democratic senators that he will not bring a health-care bill to the floor without a formal cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. As Roll Call reports: “The CBO score is expected by the end of this week, but once Reid sees the estimate, he may seek tweaks to the bill that could delay the final score.” Democrats such as Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana have indicated that they won’t vote on a bill unless they know the costs. If Reid senses that on-the-fence Democrats are leery of offering up a “yea” vote due to cost worries, then he could postpone debate and wait until better CBO numbers emerged on a future draft of legislation.
