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Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Senate Set to Approve FY 2007 CR
By a 71-26 vote yesterday, the Senate moved closer to approving the FY 2007 CR passed by the House last week (covered here), with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-TN) and 22 other GOP members joining all but one Democrat to close debate and move to a final vote, which could come later today.
In the end, fear of a government shutdown prompted the action. The rapidly-approaching deadline for the CR -- which expires tomorrow -- quieted many Senators who sought to offer amendments on a range of issues, most notably BRAC funding. To help move the CR along, Majority Leader Harry Reid said BRAC issues will be taken up when President Bush submits his expected $100 billion war supplemental in the coming weeks.
Avoiding a government shutdown by sloughing off BRAC and other items onto the supplemental is not exactly an act of fiscal courage: as an "emergency" measure, the war supplemental will not be subject to the same budgetary constraints as regular appropriations.
Posted by Dana Chasin
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