GOP senators have been outraged over the inability to offer any amendments to big-ticket items like the budget deal and the National Defense Authorization Act.
"I can't remember … when there was a bill the size of the Defense authorization bill up, and nobody gets to offer amendments," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in December.
In the Senate, the majority leader gets the first crack at filing amendments to legislation that comes before the body. When Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) calls up legislation, he frequently offers several minor or technical amendments to the bill right away.
That process is known as "filling the amendment tree," and it usually blocks Republicans from offering up their own proposals for changing the bill. Republicans say Reid has used this tactic much more often than other recent Senate leaders.
Four times in the last few weeks, Senate Republicans have tried a new way of attacking Reid's procedural move. Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) developed the idea, and was the first to try it out in December.
During debate on the House-Senate budget agreement, Sessions made a motion to table Reid's filling of the amendment tree. He made that move to protest language in the budget deal that cut $6 billion in military pensions over the next decade, language that both parties have since said they would try to eliminate in some future bill.
"This motion will remove the filling of the tree, and it will allow the Senate to vote on this amendment to strike the military retiree pay cut, and other amendments, perhaps, but this amendment in particular," Sessions said. "I believe that is in the tradition of the Senate. I believe it is extremely important."
Sessions also confirmed with the Senate parliamentarian that passage of his motion to table Reid's filled up amendment tree would allow senators to offer their own amendments.
Predictably, the Senate rejected Sessions's tabling motion in a mostly party-line 46-54 vote, although Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), who faces a difficult reelection race this year, voted with Republicans.
Since December, three others have tried Sessions's tactic. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) tried it in December, followed by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) earlier this week. Also this week, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made a similar motion to table the filled amendment tree, and that attempt failed as well.
"I have an important amendment that I would like the Senate to debate and vote on," McConnell said before the vote. "The Reid motion to commit is currently blocking the consideration of those amendments."
While Republicans are 0-4 so far, a Senate aide said they would keep trying as a way of putting pressure on Democrats to defend their limits on amendments.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/195776-gop-trying-to-chop-down-reids-amendment-tree
No comments:
Post a Comment