Posted on 10/16/2013 4:36:19 PM PDT by Libloather
The legislation released by the Senate late Wednesday to reopen the government contains several surprises.
The bill includes extra funds to fix flooded roads in Colorado, a $3 million appropriation for a civil liberties oversight board and a one-time payment to the widow of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who died over the summer.
It also includes a more than $2 billion increase in funding for construction on the lower Ohio River in Illinois and Kentucky. Current law authorizes $775 million in spending for related projects, and the bill increases it to $2.918 billion.
The Senate Conservatives Fund quickly called that language the "Kentucky Kickback," and said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) secured that as the price of his support for the bill.
Senate staffers were still scrambling to piece the bill together for votes in the House and Senate Wednesday night. Lawmakers hope to get it to President Obama’s desk before Thursday’s deadline for raising the debt ceiling.
A draft of the bill began circulating in the early evening, and a final version was released by Senate Democratic staff just before 6 p.m.
The legislation also includes specific language that aims to pay back furloughed federal government workers as soon as is practicable.
Section 115 of the text says government workers who are furloughed because of the shutdown "shall be compensated at their standard rate of compensation, for the period of such lapse in appropriations, as soon as practicable after such lapse in appropriations."
Section 116 says states that funded a federal program will be compensated as well, and that the government will pay back states for these costs.
The legislation broadly re-opens the government through Jan. 15, and extends the ability of the government to borrow money through Feb. 7. It does so by allowing President Obama to waive the debt ceiling, a move that can be overridden by a resolution of disapproval by Congress that Obama could still veto.
The Senate bill uses H.R. 2775 as a vehicle for all of these changes. That bill was originally a House GOP bill that would have delayed all health insurance subsidies until a system is put in place to verify incomes for eligibility purposes.
The Senate language does give that issue a nod, by including new rules for verifying household income to determine eligibility for subsidies to buy health insurance under ObamaCare. It specifically requires the government to "certify to the Congress that the Exchanges verify such eligibility."
The secretary of Health and Human Services would have to submit a report to Congress detailing procedures used by the exchanges, and an inspector general report would be required by July 1.
Elsewhere, the bill allows the Department of Transportation to spend up to $450 million to fund the repair of Colorado roads that were damaged by floods. In September, the House passed a bill allowing the department to spend more than the $100 million cap on Colorado roads.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board would get $3.1 million under the bill. The board was set up in 2004 to ensure privacy concerns are addressed as laws and regulations are issued related to fighting terrorist threats against the country.
Lawmakers and President Obama have sought to jumpstart the board in the wake of the revelations about National Security Agency surveillance.
Another part of the bill, Section 148, holds that no adjustment shall be made related to a cost of living adjustment for members of Congress in fiscal 2014.
They have made the House irrelevant. The least they could do is shutter it, send everyone home and save some money there. But no.
Taxpayers never get a break. Only corrupt politicians. The tree of liberty is very thirsty.......
“...It does so by allowing President Obama to waive the debt ceiling, a move that can be overridden by a resolution of disapproval by Congress that Obama could still veto....”
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Of course Obama and his lackeys in the Treasury Department will go for a MASSIVE increase in the debt in the period leading up to February. They’ll be massively “repaying” intra-government debt so they can simply “re-borrow” after the debt moratorium expires in February so they can keep their massive spending campaign going.
hehehe...i wonder if that means theyll now cancel the new tolls set to begin on the louisville/southern In bridges ???
what, dont hold my breath ???
And why should the younger generation borrow to enrich the senator’s widow? Is she needy? Why not borrow from all future young workers to give to all widows who are just as needy? Is it just ‘cause he was their buddy?
Washington is hopelessly corrupt and out of touch.
That is true in real world politics, but not in theory. The whole House does vote on the Speaker. Occasionally conservative Democrats have broken ranks and voted for someone other than the Democrat, but not enough to make a difference.
In a closely divided House the minority party could get their speaker candidate elected by persuading a few people from the majority to switch sides. That happened a number of years ago in California if I remember correctly.
It is extremely unlikely but not totally impossible with the current makeup of the House of Representatives. I can't realistically see enough Republicans jumping ship to get Pelosi elected speaker, and I can't see Pelosi stepping aside to let another Democrat take that role who might be acceptable to "moderate" (i.e., liberal) Republicans.
IOW, this all starts again in January or February.
On January 15, the second phase of the sequester cuts kick in. The date is set so that the left can end the sequester cuts which are now a matter of law. The public knows little or nothing about why these dates were chosen. Strategically the dates are set so that the Obama crowd will have a chance to end the sequester cuts in the next set of debt ceiling negotiations.This is another RINO sell out.
They should have kicked the can down the road for a year to assure that the sequester would continue.
This outcome was horrible, thanks to the MSM. The deck is also stacked against future House interference in raising the debt ceiling.
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