It's Monday, September 12, and Day 211 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell decided no nominee would get any Senate attention: No meetings, no hearings, no votes. It's also Day 180 since Merrick Garland was nominated by President Obama to fill that vacancy.
In actual floor action today, don't expect too much. They'll have the first procedural vote for cloture on a water bill that finally, finally will help Flint, Michigan and other cities with emergency drinking water problems. Of course, the emergency is months and months old, but it's as fast as you could expect McConnell to act on anything.
Anything, that is, except getting the hell out of Dodge. McConnell's real worth this week is with President Obama, Harry Reid, Paul Ryan, and Nancy working toward a short-term funding bill to avoid a government shutdown next month. If the Senate could get it done this week, McConnell and crew would skip town, jamming Ryan and the House go pass the bill unchanged or shut down government.
The bill will have to include Zika funding, and Democrats are insisting that funding does not include the poison pills Republicans have been pressing. Reid and crew are also insisting on equal funding for defense and non-defense spending in the short-term bill, an important marker for the work they'll resume after the election to fund government until next October. Reid, Obama, and Pelosi are negotiating from a position of strength, as Reid noted. "I'm hopeful they understand the predicament they've created," he said. "They can't close the government again."
Leaving town this early also means no votes, no hearings, no nothing on the Supreme Court or most of Obama's other nominees. That's a blessing and a curse for McConnell and crew, as it gives Democrats a great opportunity to continue to hit Republicans on their unprecedented obstruction. And, of course, it puts Paul Ryan in awfully deep, awfully hot water with his Freedom Caucus maniacs, who are going to hate everything about this short-term funding bill. Because that's what they do.
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