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Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Continuing the Resolution ... into the New Year
Congressional Quarterly ($) reports today that GOP leaders have decided to enact a long-term continuing resolution when they return to session in December, effectively pushing off their failed budget work onto the new Democratic Congress in 2007.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman, tacitly acknowledging the amount of homework heaped on Democrats' desks, said,
“This is only the latest example of why the American people rejected this do-nothing Congress at the ballot box earlier this month. Republicans couldn’t do a budget. And now they have decided that they can’t or won’t pass the bills that provide funding for health care, education, transportation, etc. that benefit millions of Americans.”
Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's Chief of Staff implicitly impugned his party's ability to control its addiction to earmarks:
“With speedy progress on separate bills in the Senate highly improbable, and passions high on the part of many against an omnibus due to concerns over earmarks, Senate leaders are talking about how long a wrap-up CR could go, and, from the administration and Chairman [Thad] Cochran, they’ll be getting guidance on what remaining anomalies exist so that essential government operations will not be throttled if a CR needs to go into next year.”
Anomalies never cease.
Posted by Dana Chasin
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