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Thursday, November 17, 2005
House and Senate Votes Today: Budget and Tax Reconciliation
Both the House and Senate will be holding important votes today on reconciliation bills. The House Rules Committee met this morning at 7 AM and decided to bring the budget reconciliation measure to the floor today. It is still unclear whether the leadership has the votes to pass the $54 billion bill. This vote is extremely important, and lies in the hands of Republican moderates. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), chairman of the radically conservative Republican Study Committee, himself said that the "Republican revolution is over," if the House does not pass this reconciliation measure.
The Senate is also planning to vote today, however they will be voting on the tax reconciliation bill. After having been stalled in committee for about a week, Finance committee members agreed to a $60 billion bill that does not include rate extensions for capital gains or divendends. While this is good news, in the short term, we can assume that eventually this provision will be stuck back in during conference negotiations.
Posted by Becky Lewis
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