The Senate on Thursday begins a “vote-a-rama,” an up-all-night cram session in which lawmakers will vote on scores of amendments that carry no legal weight to a Republican-sponsored budget resolution that’s only a blueprint.
But that hasn’t stopped them from filing hundreds of amendments for which they’ll trudge – or perhaps sleepwalk -- in and out of the Senate chamber into the wee hours of Friday.
What is this vote-a-rama? Here are 10 things to know:
1.
Senators have 50 hours to debate the federal budget resolution, which is designed as a blueprint for the nation’s long-term spending priorities. It has no force of law. Amendment votes can occur at any point before the time is up. Congress is supposed to complete action on a budget resolution by April 15, according to the Congressional Research Service.
2.
So throughout Thursday, senators will vote on nonbinding amendments -- symbolic gestures designed more for senators to tout their legislative agendas, boost their campaign prospects and draw sharp contrasts between the two political parties than to become actual policy.
“It’s become more political, there’s no doubt about it,” said former Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., an ambassador in-residence at Washington’s American University.
3.
Senators can offer an unlimited number of amendments without fear of them being blocked, or filibustered, courtesy of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act. Late Wednesday evening, nearly 970 measures were listed on the Senate’s amendment tracking system.
4.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., considers the “vote-a-rama” “dumb” because “We’ll stay up all night voting on amendments that don’t have the force of law.”
5.
But that didn’t stop her from offering a half dozen amendments in the 2013 voting marathon, including measures that supported the overhaul of trade tariffs and made it easier for veterans to transition to the civilian workforce.
6.
And it’s not just the Republican-controlled Senate. The chamber’s last “vote-a-rama” was in March 2013 when Democrats were in charge. Then, lawmakers filed more than 500 amendments. Only a fraction of them came up for votes, but lawmakers still spent more than 13 hours saying “aye” or “no.”
7.
The amendments this week range from the serious to pure political theater. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, got a head start on the voting marathon Tuesday with his amendment “to raise taxes and spending by enacting President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2016 budget.” It failed 1-98 and succeeded in giving Cornyn rhetorical ammunition against his Democratic colleagues; he immediately put out a news release.
8.
Vote-a-rama gives presidential hopefuls more in the way of platform. Consider Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has at least 25 amendments lined up. One would decrease U.S. foreign aid to Palestinians while increasing aid to Israel. Another calls for the United States to relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
9.
But other senators have points they want to make too. Freshman Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, takes aim at her congressional colleagues -- and perhaps Obama -- in two separate amendments. She wants to “prohibit taxpayer dollars for first-class airplane travel by members of Congress” in one and revamp “the allowance and perks available to former presidents” on the other.
All Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla, wants is a little less mail. He has an amendment to “provide relief from the redundant annual privacy notice mailings required to be provided by financial institutions” when there haven’t been changes in the policy.
10.
By sunrise Friday, the amendment votes are likely to be over, the budget resolution passed and the senators headed out of town for a two-week spring break.
Staff writer Lindsay Wise contributed to this report.
Comments