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Thursday, March 22, 2007
Senate Budget Debate: Amendment Recap and Preview
The Senate debated and voted on seven amendments to its FY 2008 budget resolution yesterday, four of which passed:
- Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), to dedicate projected surpluses to extend a range of middle-class tax cuts and expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) -- adopted, 97-1
- Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) , to create a point of order against any budget resolution that fails to achieve an on-budget balance within 5 years-- adopted, 98-0
- Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) to create a 60-vote point of order against tax hikes -- adopted, 63-35
- Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), to provide $1 billion to the National Science Foundation and other science institutes to research competitiveness improvements, with offsetting spending cuts -- adopted, 97-1
The following amendments were defeated:
- Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), to extend education tax incentives, the capital gains and dividend tax cuts and to raise the estate tax exemption to $5 million while lowering the maximum estate tax rate to 35 percent -- rejected, 51-47
- Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), to exempt all expiring 2001 and 2003 tax cuts from pay/go offset rules -- rejected, 52-46
- Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), to separate binding limits for defense and non-defense appropriations in the budget resolution and create a 60 vote point of order against exceeding these limits -- rejected, 47-51
Votes on more GOP amendments are expected throughout the day today, including:
- Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), for Social Security reform that would give recipients "the benefits of savings and investment [emph. mine], while permitting the pre-funding of at least some portion of future benefits"
- Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), to reduce the federal SCHIP matching rate for children in families with incomes above 200 percent of the federal poverty line
Posted by Dana Chasin
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