Earlier in the day, Republicans House members expressed dismay at the congressional leadership for not making the text of the bill available sooner for members and the public to review.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Update: At eighteen minutes past midnight this morning, the House of Representatives voted to approve a stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government running until December 3. The bill had earlier passed the Senate at 7:51 p.m. on Thursday evening.

The text of the bill, called a continuing resolution, had not been made available online until after 6:00 p.m on Thursday, less than two hours before the Senate voted. It was posted by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The vote in the Senate was 69 to 30, with one senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, not voting. The vote in the House was 228 to 194 with 10 members not voting.

Only one House Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao of Louisiana, voted for it. Eleven Republican senators voted for the bill, and one Democrat, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, voted against it.

The 11 Senate Republicans who vote for it were: Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Robert Bennett of Utah, Kit Bond of Missouri, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine, Charles Grassley of Iowa, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Richard Lugar of Indiana, and George Voinovich of Ohio.

(CNSNews.com) - Although Congress is expected to vote tonight on a last-minute stopgap spending measure that will fund the entire federal government through Dec. 3--thus allowing members of Congress to avoid votes on the full fiscal year 2011 appropriations bills before the November election—the 25-page text of the special bill, called a “continuing resolution,” was not posted online until after 6:00 pm today.

Earlier in the day, Republicans House members expressed dismay at the congressional leadership for not making the text of the bill available sooner for members and the public to review.

“We’ve called for three days, 72 hours, to allow not just members of Congress but the media and the public to read the bills before they vote on them but obviously that’s not going to happen here,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R.-Va.).

When asked whether she thought members would get a chance to read the bill and know what was in it before the House voted on it, Rep. Michelle Bachman said, “No, which has been typical of all the legislation that Speaker Pelosi has put forward before this Congress which I believe is one strong reason why the American people are rejecting Speaker Pelosi and the way that she has run this House--because we quite simply haven’t had the time to read the legislation.

“She famously said we have to pass the health care bill to know what’s in it,” Bachmann added. “Well, that’s usually what happens around here unfortunately. The American people deserve to know what’s in these bills and certainly the American people’s representatives need to know what’s in these bills.”

“I have not seen the whole thing but hopefully we will, I will have time to go through it before we vote probably sometime later tonight,” Rep. Joseph Cao (R.-La.) said on Wednesday afternoon when asked whether he would read the bill before voting on it.

“I’ll be trying,” Rep. John Carter (R.-Tex.) said, when asked whether he would read the bill before voting on it. “It depends on when they give it to us. You know, if they give us 15 minutes, it’s going to be a little tough.”

Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) countered that Congress had been discussing the bill for weeks.

“There’s been lots of discussion,” said Levin. “It isn’t as if they are passing something that nobody in the House has never seen. I haven’t been in all of the discussions but they’ve been going on for weeks and weeks."

The Senate Appropriations Committee did post a two-page summary of the bill on its website earlier on Wednesday. One of the details of the bill revealed in that summary was: “Provides $193,400 for the survivors of Robert C. Byrd, the late Senator from West Virginia.”

Senate Appropriations Committee Spokesman Rob Blumenthal explained to CNSNews.com why that measure was included in the last-minute spending bill.

“A deceased Senator is removed from the Senate payroll as of the date of death,” said Blumenthal. “The Employee Benefits Section of the Senate Disbursing Office ascertains any benefits due to a beneficiary previously identified by the Senator, or the widow or widower or other relevant survivors. The Senate Handbook indicates that ‘[i]n the next Appropriation Bill, an item will be inserted for a gratuity to be paid to the widow(er) or other next-of-kin, in the amount of one year’s compensation.’ By statute, a death gratuity is considered a gift.”

With only one day left in fiscal 2010, Congress had enacted none of the 13 appropriation bills designed to fund the various agencies of the federal government. If no continuing resolution were passed, the government could not spend money after midnight Thursday when fiscal 2010 ends and fiscal 2011 begins.

President Obama sent a budget proposal to Congress in February that called for $3.8 trillion in spending in fiscal 2011. That budget would require the government to run a deficit of $1.34 trillion next year, according to the estimate produced by the Congressional Budget Office.

(from http://www.cnsnews.com)