Republicans Block Ethics Reform .:. grubbykid.com

Republicans Block Ethics Reform

US Capitol. Senate Chambers are on the right, originally uploaded by renowiggum

Last night, Republicans effectively killed ethics reform by attempting to introduce a poison-pill amendment to S1 - A bill to provide greater transparency in the legislative process in the form of S.AMDT.17 - To establish a legislative line item veto. Through a vote of cloture, Senate Democrats attempted to move the bill to a final vote. The cloture vote failed 51-46, having fallen short of the necessary three-fifths of the full Senate, normally 60 votes.

Senator Byrd (D-WV) had the proper response from the Senate floor last night, provided by Senate Congressional Record:

Mr. President, I rise tonight at this late hour. The hour is late and the night is black. I rise tonight to shine a bright light on political chicanery that is playing out on the Senate floor.

In November, America voted for a change. The people sent a strong signal that they wanted less partisanship and more accountability in Washington. In response to the voters, Senator Reid, Senator Feinstein, and Senator McConnell put before the Senate an ethics reform bill that would add transparency and accountability to the legislative process. They should be proud of their product, and the Senate has had a good debate thus far on the bill.

But wait, wait, wait 1 second. Before we can clear the way for greater accountability and sunshine into the way work gets done in these halls, the Senate is being blackmailed into an assault on the Congress's single most precious and most powerful authority--the power of the purse. That is the most powerful authority we have: the power of the purse.

Tonight, this reform bill is threatened by an effort by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to give the President line-item veto authority. No vote on the line-item veto, they say, and no ethics reform. That is nothing more than legislative blackmail, and I, for one, will not pay the price. No one should stand still when this Constitution, which I hold in my hand, is the hostage. No one should stand still, I repeat, when this Constitution, which I hold in my hand, is the hostage.

This line-item veto authority would grant tremendous and dangerous new power to the President. He would have unchecked authority to take from the Congress the power of the purse, a power that the constitutional Framers thought was absolutely vital to protecting the people's liberties.

It was just 8 years ago that the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the line-item veto was unconstitutional. Now our colleagues--some of them--on the other side of the aisle are threatening to hold up the ethics reform bill in an effort to hand the President another line-item veto authority. Are the memories around here so short?

Later
Yesterday's Republican-led impasse regarding ethics reform has passed: Senate Passes Vast Ethics Overhaul by a vote of 96 to 2 with Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Tom Coburn (R-OK, were the only members to vote against the bill.

I'm glad both sides did right by this bill, let's keep this up.

Comments

niklas says:

Perhaps the House Dems can use their left over 58 hours to pass a similar bill sans poison?

Posted by: niklas at January 18, 2007 7:27 PM #

the grubbykid says:

Well, the problem is that the Republicans are effectively filibustering the vote, because the Senate can't muster the necessary 60 votes to end discussion. I'm sure there will be some horse trading, but the real kicker is that Republicans promised to advocate for tougher ethics reform than the bill on the floor.

Well, can't really trust many people these days, huh?

Posted by: the grubbykid at January 18, 2007 8:39 PM #

susan says:

Republicans promised to advocate for tougher ethics reform and people believed them?? I'm not a political science kind of gal but that seems to be the first mistake, believe anything from a politician.