House Dems fail to honor a 48 hour public review agreement
WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 13, 2009 -- With Republicans crying foul, the House and Senate Democrat majorities today steam-rolled the epic spending bill through, after it had been available for viewing less than 16 hours.
On Tuesday, the House unanimously agreed to delay action on the bill until it had been posted online for viewing at least 48 hours. The 1000 page document was posted last night at 11:00 p.m.
This morning, after only 10 hours of overnight public availability, the House began debate on the bill, and at 2:24 p.m. This afternoon, a passing vote of 248-183 was recorded, just 14 hours after the bill was posted.
Among those complaining about both the fiscal soundness of the measure and the failure to honor the 48 hour review period was Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX).
"The biggest spending bill in the history of the world, and the rule says we can't even have the bill read out loud here on the floor so the.... American people know what we are doing to future generations." Gohmert said, speaking on the floor of the House. "We lost 1,200 in east Texas yesterday. Why? Because the hope and change that people voted for in the President has come to doom and gloom. They have held on to avoid letting their workers go, but now for the last month they have heard the Democratic proposals and what they see is no hope. No hope left in this bill."
Other Republicans pointed to a $50 million line item for the National Endowment for the Arts and $300 million tapped to update the federal auto fleet with more fuel-efficient vehicles as examples of needless spending.
"When you look at some of the spending in this bill, it will do nothing about creating jobs," said House Minority Leader John Boehner.
House Democrats, though, hailed the bill as the kind of swift and bold action that President Barack Obama had called for in his Inaugural Address.
"The American people are feeling a great deal of pain, they have uncertainty about their jobs, about health care, about the ability to pay for the education of their children, and sad to say — in our great country — even the ability to put food on the table." said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "And so, today, we have passed legislation that does take that “swift, bold action” on their behalf."
In the Senate, voting began late this afternoon. Republican Senators opposed passage strongly, with 38 voting to kill the bill, but three, Arlen Spector (R-PA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) voted in favor, giving Democrats the 60 votes needed for passage.
On her vote in favor of the bill, Snowe released a statement this afternoon calling herself a key architect in crafting the $789 billion compromise, and saying the bill is more fiscally sound and will create or retain 3.5 million jobs and provide tax relief for 95 percent of hard-working American families.
"Today, Washington sent a strong signal to the American people that this Congress is, indeed, committed to getting our economy back on the road to recovery," said Senator Snowe. "Facing one of the worst economic downturns in our nation’s history, inaction was not an option. Economists across the ideological spectrum have agreed on one truism – that fiscal stimulus is necessary to provide the positive jolt our economy urgently requires."
Texas Senator John Cornyn (R), taking exception to the debt the bill will cause Texans and the rushed manner in which it was passed, issued the following statement after casting his 'no' vote:
“A stimulus bill would have been a good idea if it had been focused on the right priorities—fixing housing first, providing taxpayers with meaningful, broad-based tax relief and eliminating redundant and ineffective Washington programs. Instead, we saw Democrats in both chambers redefine ‘stimulus’ to mean nearly anything any of them desired. Many programs in the bill are wasteful and unnecessary. The bill will use taxpayer money for things like golf carts, art projects and company cars for federal employees.
“While proponents like to highlight that the bill will provide Texas with $10 billion in government programs, the bill spends money we don’t have—in fact, Texans’ share of the national debt will increase by $90 billion. This doesn’t seem like a good deal to me.
“As a staunch advocate of open government and transparency, I take serious issue with the fact that Members of Congress and the American public had less than 24 hours to look at the conference report before the final vote."
Senate passage is anticipated late tonight, when Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), is expected to provide the 60th vote needed for passage. Brown, returning to Washington after attending the funeral of his mother, was expected to arrive about 10:30 p.m.
Assuming Brown casts his vote as expected, the final vote count in the Senate would be 60-38. All 38 'no' votes came from Republicans.
In the House passage of the bill, no Republican representatives voted for passage. Seven Democrats crossed party lines to vote against the bill.
Obama won't get to claim the bipartisan support he had hoped for, but he can a claim a victory. The bill could be on his desk as early as tomorrow.
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