I am a sporatic diary contributer at best. I am hoping some of Kos's more astute crack research people will find out more. I think this is big news, but I also suspect we will not hear about this from any of our pre$$titutes in the corporate media, and our Republican "representatives" would rather die than have this come out in the general news. it is embarrassing to say the least...
I am an advocate for low income people. I volunteer at a small non-profit (http://www.wroc.org) and am on a board there. We took great interest in the federal budget because both the House and the Senate's budget proposals harshly punishes the middle class and especially the poor, while allowing a lot of pork, and while not even including all the military budget. It is dispicable in more ways than one ~ and an embarrassment to any member who voted for it. That it barely passed both houses is one of the saddest things about this bill, but passed it was, even though Cheney had to fly in from Goddess knows where in order to break the tie.
Enough of my editorial comments. The important thing here is that the House Republicans slipped in a little sumpin'- sumpin in the Senate bill that was not in the House bill and this is illegal. It is important to contact your representatives, let them know your are aware that this illegality happened, and then request that they demand a revote.
This is big because it could mean that the budget may not pass another time around, since it was so close the last vote! The little "sumpin'-sumpin" was probably put in there to sweeten the deal for some Ohio politicians facing re-election. They probably needed a reason to tell their very angry constituents why they voted for this piece of crap doncha know, (my opinion, but probably not far from wrong).
Here is the forward I got in my email to document what is happening:
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Diana Spatz <dspatz@geds-to-phds.org>
> Date: Fri Feb 10, 2006 07:28:55 PM US/Pacific
> To: thursday_group@yahoogroups.com
>
> Subject: Re-vote on Federal budget bill possible - constitution
> violated in passage of budget reconciliation bill
>
> Today, after Mike Herald shared the news that Congress may have to
> re-vote on the budget reconciliation bill, I did some reconnaissance to
> find out what was happening in D.C. with the bill.
>
> I left messages with Pelosi, Barbara Lee, George Miller, and Pete
> Starck's offices and finally got a call back from Sean McCluskey from
> the DC office of Rep. Pete Starck's (D-Fremont). Sean said that as far
> as he knew the budget bill was a done deal and the President had signed
> it into law.
>
> But less than an hour later he called me back, and said that the info
> Mike Herald got from the Congressional Quarterly was right, and that a
> re-vote is being considered. Then he emailed me the attached letter
> from Rep. Charles Rangel to House Speaker Dennis Hastert suggesting
> that a re-vote on the budget bill may be required, by both the Senate
> and the House, given that constitutional rules were violated in the
> passage of the budget reconciliation bill.
>
> Sean said we apparently knew more than he did - so thanks to Mike
> Herald for keeping on top of all this and alerting us all - go Western
> Center on Law and Poverty!
>
> So I called some of our DC friends, and with only 20 minutes notice got
> invited to be on a national conference call today on the federal
> budget - what lucky timing!
>
> On the call, I learned some more about this latest development.
> Apparently, there was a provision added to the House bill that included
> a "pork barrel" project that wasn't in the Senate bill - something to
> do with oxygen tanks and Ohio. So the end result is that the House
> version of the bill was different from what the Senate passed - and the
> President signed a bill into law that both houses hadn't actually
> passed - and this is unconstitutional.
>
> And from what I understand, it wasn't a typo, but intentional - adding
> this pork project to the House bill was apparently done to get Ohio
> reps to vote for the bill.
> On this national call, groups discussed other possible strategies to
> derail the 2005-2006 budget bill, that may include litigation and a
> Temporary Restraining Order to delay the budget bill from being
> implemented, given that the bill's passage violated the constitution -
> and LIFETIME has offered to get plaintiffs if they pursue this - it
> would be great if grassroots groups in other states could do the same.
>
> But the DC groups are thinking that the threat of a lawsuit may
> pressure Republican leaders to call a re-vote - because they'll lose
> the lawsuit - and this will give us a third chance to beat the budget
> reconciliation bill, and which will only make Republicans who vote for
> the bill look bad - clearly a win-win for us! But they'll discuss that
> possibility more on Monday, when there will be another call with the DC
> folks - so I'll let you all know what I learn.
>
> But this means we could possibly have another chance to defeat this
> bill, if the Dems force a re-vote and don't agree to unanimous consent
> to the "technical change" to the bill, which is how some Republicans
> are trying to portray this.
>
> So this is my thinking:
>
> (1) on Monday, we all call our Reps who voted no on this bill
> (basically all the Democrats and several Republicans) and urge them to
> demand a re-vote on this bill - if this happens, we have a 3rd chance
> to defeat this bill - we only have to get one Representative to change
> their mind and at the very least a tie vote could occur, leaving the
> door open for a fourth chance to defeat this budget bill!
>
> (2) That we start thinking about how we could mount a "rapid response"
> and mobilize our folks to call Congress in the event of a re-vote,
> which could potentially happen soon.
>
> (3) That we stay in touch with the DC groups and support them if they
> pursue litigation, and provide plaintiffs from the grassroots if they
> need that support. Any takers from our allies in other states?
>
> So it looks like we may have another chance - how exciting! It looks
> like this battle is not yet over, and that we may still win the war.
>
> Hope you all have a great weekend, and I'm looking forward to next week!
>
> Yours in justice,
>
> Diana Spatz
> Executive Director
> LIFETIME
>
> At 04:28 PM 2/10/2006, Michael Herald wrote:
>
> I believe the article was from Congressional quarterly. And I have been
> trying to find out from DC folks whether or not the whole bill will get
> a new vote or only the problematic provisions. Worth watching.
>
> Michael Herald
> Legislative Advocate
> Western Center on Law and Poverty
> 1107 9th Street, Suite 801
> Sacramento, CA 95814
> (916) 442-0753 12
Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition
1820 E Pine #324
Seattle, WA 98122
206/324-3063; 1-877/3303063
www.wroc.org
(end of email)
Have fun people! Go get 'em!
Cat In Seattle