Blog - Another Jobs Bill Killed 
OpenCongress Blog
Blog Feed Comments Feed More RSS Feeds
Another Jobs Bill Killed
June 23, 2011 - by Donny Shaw
On June 6th, the Senate opened debate on the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2011, a bill to reauthorize and expand a long-running and consistently successful job-creation agency, the Economic Development Administration. The EDA has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support, and this reauthorization bill was introduced with bipartisan co-sponsorship and passed out of committee without any dissent from Republicans. But after two weeks of debate, the bill was unanimously filibustered by Republicans and has now been pulled from the floor.
Like the last jobs bill to die in the Senate, the bill was bogged down and ultimately killed by dozens of controversial and unrelated amendments that were submitted to it. Senate rules do not require amendments to be germane to the bill they are submitted to, so individual senators can choose to use any bill to force a vote on any of their pet issues. By the time the EDA bill was killed, 99 amendments had been submitted, and the list read like an overview of current hot-button political topics. The amendments included everything from raising the debt ceiling, to repealing health care reform, repealing financial regulatory reform, expanding offshore oil drilling, and more.
This problem of non-controversial bills being killed by controversial amendments has its roots in a deal on procedure that Democratic and Republican Senate leaders agreed to at the beginning of this session. In exchange for Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid [D, NV] keeping bills open to amendments, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell [R, KY] and his caucus agreed to not mount filibusters of bringing bills to the floor as a matter of routine. As a result, the Democratic majority has been able to hold debates on their legislative agenda, but the Republicans have also been able to turn every debate into an attempt to repeal health care reform.
The Senate Majority Leader has almost complete control over what bills get brought up for debate, so it is the case that most Republican issues stand no chance of being voted on this session outside the amendment process. But the Senate can’t vote on every contentious political topic for every bill, so Reid has to make a decision when to cut off the amendment process and start moving towards passing the underlying bill. In this case, Reid allowed two Democratic amendments and two Republican amendments to be voted on before filing a motion to end debate and move forward towards passage. But since most senators didn’t get to have their pet amendments voted on, they voted against the motion to end debate and essentially forced a filibuster. Even Sen. James Inhofe [R, OK], an original co-sponsor of the bill, voted for the filibuster.
And so gridlock prevails, even on the one issue that everyone claims to care about — job creation. Just another example of why Americans have less confidence in Congress than any other institution in American society.
Get Blog Updates by Email
Want a simple way to stay on top of what's happening in Congress?
Subscribe to this blog!Send Us a Tip
-
I've been watching a lot of...
Submitted by Robert Schwartzman on Dec 9
-
Proposed Bill HR-2674 Prote...
Submitted by Mary on Jun 16
-
Amendment No. 601 to the Om...
Submitted by Winifred on Mar 3
You can submit a tip anonymously, or attributed to your own name and e-mail, whichever you prefer. Read more about submitting a tip.
Recent Posts
- Endless Blockade for the Senate ... January 25, 2013
- One Year Ago We Killed SOPA -- H... January 18, 2013
- Senate Democrats Looking to End ... January 08, 2013
- Welcome the 113th U.S. Congress:... January 03, 2013
- Secretive Conference Committee F... December 20, 2012
Archives
See All ArchivesBlogroll
- A plain blog about politics
- The Baseline Scenario
- Capital Eye
- The Caucus
- CBO Director's Blog
- Congress Matters
- The Corner
- CREW Blog
- Crooks and Liars
- Jamie Dupree
- Election Law Blog
- FDL News Desk
- Glenn Greenwald
- Hot Air
- Irregular Times
- Little Sis
- Naked Capitalism
- The Moderate Voice
- OMB Watch
- Open House Project
- Party Time
- Plum Line
- Political Animal
- Political Wire
- ProPublica
- Real Clear Politics
- RedState
- Secrecy News
- Sunlight Foundation Blog
- Talking Points Memo
- techPresident
- 2chambers
- Unanimous Consent
- The Weekly Standard
Sort By
Comments
Displaying 1-30 of 97 total comments.
Am I the only one that’s happy that this bill didn’t pass? Haven’t we seen enough proof that government meddling in the economy just hurts the economy even more?
One potential advantage of the committee members being in safe districts is that they have a better chance of coming to the center and truly compromising with less risk that it will cost them the election (or nomination) next time around. Perhaps that is wishful thinking on my point, but both parties are going to have to come in from their extreme positions. What causes adhd
They cannot make everyone happy… The minimum level of vehicle insurance cover commonly available, and which satisfies the requirement of the Act, is called car insurance companies only insurance. The level of cover provided by Third party only insurance is basic, but does exceed the requirements of the act. This car insurance comparison covers any liability to car insurance comparisons parties, but does not cover any other risks.
Spam Comment
I am glad that I had the fortune to stumble across your blog. It’s definitely an essential issue that not sufficient people are talking about and I am glad that I got the chance to see all the angles.
Spam Comment
I would like to see more from the author but they did a good job explaining for us. Health
Spam Comment
Do you think they will ever get anything right though it seems like they do everything a person CNA Training would not do.
Spam Comment
Spam Comment
Nope, you are not the only one. I have the same opinion as you do. :)
Cash Advance
I am curious what they will do this year, because it is electoral year. I guess that we will see a new set of laws. yacht charter mallorca
Spam Comment
Spam Comment
thank you for the cash advice
Condo for Rent in Bangkok
Best Deal Condo for Rent in Bangkok, Use our Free Service
This internet site is seriously good, wish to determine much more so wonderful write-up Canada Goose Gloves
Thank you for the reveal of your article, also it was seriously wonderful, extremely wonderful oakley frogskins
Read a great offer of comparable articles, but only discovered this write-up to my taste, thank you monster beats outlet
I like your articles, hoped later on to determine much more of this type of a fantastic write-up coach outlet store online
Spam Comment
Spam Comment
Spam Comment
Hi. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed now, thanks.
cash advance loans
Spam Comment
Do you think that congress will be able to Conquer Online the debt problem and find a proper resolution to our current situation? Or do you feel that they have been beaten in this situation and the UN will be forced to change the world reserve currency?
Do you think that congress will be able to Conquer Online the debt problem and find a proper resolution to our current situation? Or do you feel that they have been beaten in this situation and the UN will be forced to change the world reserve currency?
99 AMENDMENTS!! Yikes
Yeah, you’re the only one, kir. And the answer to your question is no.
The resolution to this kind of problem lies in this one sentence in the article:
“This problem of non-controversial bills being killed by controversial amendments has its roots in a deal on procedure that Democratic and Republican Senate leaders agreed to at the beginning of this session.”
Revamp or eliminate this deal on procedure that allows 99 unrelated amendments attached to any bill… OBVIOUSLY combining so many unrelated topics doesn’t work. I can’t even imagine what made them even think it would.