The word on Capitol Hill is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to bypass conservative objections to over 100 bills and ram them through all at once when the Senate returns from its July 4th recess. Many of these bills, which create new spending and add to the deficit, are being held by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) — a true conservative hero.
Politico.com has the story on the planned “Coburn Omnibus”:
But in a stroke of legislative creativity that may have no precedent, Reid could lump all of the bills into one package and bring up the Coburn Omnibus for a single vote. Coburn can still object, but the broad popularity of the bills means that there would likely be more than enough support for veto-proof passage.
Julian Zelizer, a professor of the history of public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, said that the move is most unusual when viewed in historical context. “I haven’t heard of something like this,” he said.
There are very few moving vehicles left in the Senate this session, and seats on those rides are pricey. Two Democratic aides said that the details of which specific Coburn bills would be lumped into the package were still being debated. One leadership aide said that even some semi-controversial bills not uniquely associated with Coburn, such as the media shield law, could become part of it.
SCF believes Senate conservatives should do everything they can to stop Reid from circumventing the rules to pass tons of secret spending. If Reid wants to consider 100 bills at once, each one should be read, openly debated, and fully amended.
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