H.R. 6304 Schedule Update
Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. - Abraham Lincoln
*** H.R. 6304 Amendment Debate Commences Tuesday, July 8 ***
At approximately 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday, after an hour of morning business, the Senate will formally proceed to H.R. 6304 and debate will begin on the three amendments made in order to the pending bill. All votes have been postponed until Wednesday morning (per a UCA change adopted Monday to the unanimous consent agreement for this bill; the Senate will hold no rollcall votes on Tuesday).
The apparent voting order for the amendments is:
1. The Dodd/Feingold/Leahy amendment to strip telecom immunity. This amendment has been allotted a maximum of two hours for debate. It must receive a 51-vote simple majority to pass.
2. The Arlen Specter amendment to maintain the separation of powers by providing that the determination of the legality of the warrantless spying requests be made by the Judicial Branch. This amendment has been allotted a maximum of two hours for debate. It must receive a 60-vote supermajority to pass.
3. The Jeff Bingaman amendment (which is supported by Specter, among others) to stay the civil suits, pending the outcome of the mandated IG report, plus 90 days. This amendment has been allotted a maximum of one hour for debate. It must receive a 60-vote supermajority to pass.
The order of Tuesday's debate on the three amendments will likely vary throughout the day, as the managers of debate time for each amendment see fit. Presumably general debate on the bill itself will also be in order.
The Senate will stand in recess from 12:30 p.m. until 2:15 p.m. Tuesday (for the weekly Democratic caucus lunch).
Thus, if amendment debate starts at 11 a.m. Tuesday, and continues without interruption before and after the midday recess, the allotted time would expire at about 6 p.m. EDT (general bill debate not included). At which point the action carries over to Wednesday.
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. - Abraham Lincoln
*** H.R. 6304 Debate and Voting Concludes on Wednesday, July 9 ***
Starting at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, as soon as the Senate convenes, and despite the fact that amendment votes will still be pending, the pre-cloture debate will begin, and last until about 11:15 a.m., when voting on the three amendments will begin.
The voting order, apparently, is Dodd/Feingold/Leahy (51), Specter (60), Bingaman (60), followed immediately by the vote on the motion to invoke cloture, because cloture's debate time will have elapsed before the amendment voting began (the cloture vote requires a 60-vote supermajority, which, if attained, will result in final passage of the bill shortly thereafter, with no intervening debate). Just 41 No votes will stop cloture and sustain Dodd's filibuster.
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. - Abraham Lincoln
More details of the current, pending perversion are spelled out here by a DailyKos diarist:
(3) The Presidential Authority Clause Ratifies Bush's Actions As Lawful, Thus Providing Bush With Immunity..
This is the problem. Bush will now have a colorable argument that Congress has ratified or confirmed that Bush had "authority" to issue Executive Orders that directed and managed the domestic spying program(s). As noted by Senator Dodd, if this "misguided FISA legislation" is passed, it "will ratify a domestic spying regime that has already concentrated far too much unaccountable power in the president's hands and will place the telecommunications companies above the law."
When a president does not factually have authority to take actions in 2001-2007, and then Congress subsequently confirms that Bush had "authority" in 2008, this is called Congressional ratification. An inherent element of congressional ratification is to backdate the statement of authority in 2008 to the years 2001-2007 to transform the prior unauthorized actions into now authorized actions.
-snip-
However, the federal preemption section bans retroactive and prospective investigations of telecoms by states and cities, which would include criminal prosecutions. This leaves open the door for a federal criminal prosecution. However, aside from the clearly minimal political will to criminally prosecute Bush after he leaves office, if Congress is now confirming that Bush had "authority" to conduct domestic spying via his EO, then Bush's conduct was lawful, not criminal. - Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/7/20470/12276/237/547944
Calls and faxes (urging support for all the amendments and oppostion to cloture) to the following Democratic Senators will be especially important Tuesday:
California's Dianne Feinstein
Colorado's Ken Salazar
Delaware's Tom Carper
Florida's Bill Nelson
Hawaii's Daniel Inouye
Indiana's Evan Bayh
Missouri's Claire McCaskill
Montana's Max Baucus
North Dakota's Kent Conrad
Pennsylvania's Bob Casey
Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse
Virginia's Jim Webb
Wisconsin's Herb Kohl
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2008_record&page=S891&position=all
I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. - Abraham Lincoln
