Senate passes domestic spending, GI Bill

The Senate on Thursday night approved billions in domestic spending initiatives and a new GI Bill but fell a single vote short of passing Medicare legislation that would have prevented pay cuts to physicians.

The flurry of votes capped a day of dull inaction. Senators will now begin their Independence Day recess, following which they will take up legislation modernizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Tuesday, July 8. Partisan wrangling delayed action on housing legislation until after the recess.

{mosads}The supplemental, which passed by a 92-6 vote, authorized a new GI Bill, Gulf Coast and Midwest flood recovery funds and an extension of unemployment benefits. It will be added to $165 billion that the House and Senate have already approved for U.S. military needs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Medicare legislation would have blocked a 10.6 percent fee cut to physicians that is scheduled to take effect on July 1. It failed 58-40, two shy of the required 60, but Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) switched his vote to “no” as a procedural move that allows him to bring the bill back up for a future vote. Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and GOP presidential candidate John McCain (R-Ariz.) missed the vote.

However, the White House had issued a veto threat for the bill, meaning that even getting to sixty votes would not have been sufficient for an override.

Crossing the aisle to support the Democratic-written bill were Republicans Norm Coleman (Minn.), Susan Collins (Maine), Elizabeth Dole (N.C.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Pat Roberts (Kan.), Gordon Smith (Ore.), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Ted Stevens (Alaska) and George Voinovich (Ohio). Coleman, Collins, Dole and Smith are all considered politically vulnerable in November.

Democrats argued that the Medicare cuts were devastating and needed to be prevented, and a simple extension of the existing Medicare system is not acceptable to the House.

“We must decide whether to stick with President Bush like lemmings over the cliff, or do the right thing and pass this bill,” said Reid. “There are no other opportunities to prevent this cut.”

But Republicans said since Bush would have issued a veto that could not be overridden, the smarter choice was to deny cloture on the bill, which could presumably allow time for bipartisan negotiations on a bill that could get his signature without disrupting physicians’ incomes too much.

“My side has been willing to negotiate. We tried to find a way to solve the problems,” said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) “Apparently the majority isn’t interested.”

Republicans also criticized the bill for expanding Medicare by $17 billion over 10 years and causing service cuts in the Medicare Advantage plan. Democrats said the cuts were the only way to fund the bill.

The Medicare vote required the attendance of both Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who were at a joint fundraiser across town. Obama was also prepared to return for a vote on FISA, although that became unnecessary after Reid decided to delay that until July.