In the rush to close up shop for August recess, the Senate had one of its most productive days in recent memory Thursday. In a matter of hours, they passed a state aid bill, confirmed Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, confirmed dozens of other Obama nominees, including James Clapper as Director of National Intelligence, passed a border security bill, child nutrition legislation, and more.
Underneath all that, though, is a growing pile of initiatives that the Senate failed to take up. Here are the top items on the agenda the Senate didn’t check off before adjourning.
Energy
It’s all that’s left of what once was a much more ambitious climate and energy bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had hoped to pass a scaled back package of oil spill liability reforms, and clean energy incentives. He and other Democratic leaders claimed that each of the bill’s measures had bipartisan support. But Republicans nonetheless objected, most notably because they disagree with Democrats’ prescription for lifting the cap on damages, which currently protects offshore oil drillers.
Small Business Aid
The partisan rancor that led to the Democrats shelving this bill is much less substantive. The small business bill was comprised largely of tax cuts and other measures popular among both liberals and conservatives. But Republicans first objected to a provision in the bill that would have provided farm and disaster relief. So Democrats stripped it. Then they objected to the bill on the grounds that Democrats didn’t allow them to vote on enough non-germane amendments. Not wanting to eat up the days it would have taken to break the filibuster, Democrats decided it could wait until September.
Pigford Settlement
The United States government owes African-American farmers $1.25 billion. That’s the settlement the White House reached with the black farmers association in the Pigford case, meant to compensate them for years of systematic discrimination by the Department of Agriculture. Conservatives raised a stink about it before and in the wake of the Shirley Sherrod scandal, and Republicans were none too eager to pony up to what are largely Democratic voters. So they objected. First, the settlement was stripped from the war funding supplemental, which Republicans filibustered anyway until Democrats removed basically all domestic initiatives from it. The plan was to come back to Pigford this week but, in the end they decided to set it aside for later.
Taxes
This one has less to do with GOP obstruction and more to do with the fact that Democrats are paralyzed. The Bush tax cuts are set to expire on January 1, 2011. That’s what the law requires — and it requires that because the Senate rules forced Republicans choose between sunsetting the tax cuts, or actually paying for them. But the impact will be equivalent to an across the board tax increase, including on the middle class. Most Democrats want to extend them for people making less than $200,000 a year, but Republicans are fighting hard to preserve them for the rich. They’re cowing Democrats with bogus statistics and over-the-top rhetoric…and it’s working. Vulnerable Dems aren’t eager to cast this vote, and some of them even want to side with the GOP and extend all the Bush tax cuts until the economy improves. Rather than set off a nationwide firestorm, Democrats decided they’d rather take it up after August recess.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Democrats, led by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), managed to include language that will likely lead to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in the Defense Authorization bill. That bill — a must-pass piece of legislation — was supposed to come up for a vote this week. It didn’t. And when Democrats try to bring it up again in a few weeks, they’re likely to run into a brick wall in the form of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who’s livid that Democrats would dare to change defense policy in the defense bill. Check out his fusillade on the Senate floor last night.
Fed Board
This flew under the radar a bit, but it may be more important than any other missed opportunity. The Senate failed to confirm Peter Diamond — an MIT economist — to the board of the Federal Reserve before adjourning. Why? Because with the Congress unable (or unwilling) to pass more fiscal stimulus, the last best hope for the economy is for the central bank to step in and change monetary policy to increase demand. Short of a recess appointment, that’s not happening — but the White House inexplicably left these seats vacant for over a year, suggesting it’s not enough of a priority even to them..
