The Journal reports today on a Democratic math problem that we noted yesterday: the president’s party simply lacks the votes to break a GOP filibuster of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the No. 1 priority of the labor movement that’s headed for its official introduction later this afternoon.
The Journal states that six senators who previously supported EFCA are now up in the air on the bill, although only four fence-sitters are named — the exact same four we reported yesterday, Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Mark Pryor (D-AR).
The uncertainty surrounding their votes means that we’re unlikely to see EFCA come up in the Senate until May or June, giving labor unions more time to lock up support and Minnesota’s Al Franken more time to win his court case and get seated in the Senate.
Late Update: Here comes more proof of the Dems’ uncertainty on EFCA … Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), who had previously voted to break a GOP filibuster of the bill, told HuffPo today that he’s opposed to Employee Free Choice in its current format.
Late Late Update: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered a rosier prediction to reporters after today’s party luncheon, predicting that “frankly, [the votes are] there” to break a GOP filibuster of EFCA. As Reid put it:
Now, remember, these are procedural votes. These are not votes on the substance of the bill. There may be somebody who simply — they don’t believe it’s right to hold up legislation like this. And so I think getting 60 votes on the procedural aspects of it, I think, it certainly doable. And then we’ll look and see if we can get enough votes to pass it. I, certainly, think we can.
