I knew we could work together if we just tried! A $410 omnibus spending bill being piloted by Congressional Democrats ran into trouble last night, as Sen. Harry Reid was unable to get 60 votes to end debate on the measure after scheduling a vote for 8:15 p.m. Reid had hoped to ram the giant bill through, blocking amendments and eliminating the need for conference negotiations to reconcile it with the House bill. But objections from moderate Democrats and Republicans alike thwarted the Majority Leader, as he conceded around 9 p.m. Thursday that he would have to allow a list of Republican amendments, to be voted on Monday. Republican negotiators, led by Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) indicated that they would keep the list of amendments to 10 or 12. Among the amendments likely to be considered is the Ensign amendment, which would save the D.C. school choice program from being zeroed out by Sen. Dick Durbin. Reid would not allow a vote on it Thursday, when it was likely to fail, but a couple days of activism, along with Arne Duncan’s equivocal support for the program, may be enough to improve its chances. No Republican amendments are expected to pass, but this one would at least illustrate the gap between the administration and Senate Democrats on the Washington Opportunity Scholarship. Another amendment, offered by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) will force Democrats to vote on a politically uncomfortable measure that would require the Senate to vote up-or-down each year on pay raises for Congress, even if they’re only cost-of-living increases. Right now, such raises are on auto-pilot. Democrats had hoped to avoid making that “tough choice” in public, considering the state of the economy and the dwindling possibilities of automatic pay raises for regular Americans. The increasing concerns of moderate Democrats– 20 of which voted against the House version of the bill- come from the fact that the $410-billion bill reflects none too many of the “tough choices” Obama insists he and the government must make in these hard times. Even the NYT noticed:
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