The Annual “Voterama”

The budget bill is a weird animal. It is an internal exercise that attempts to set a blueprint for the eventual budget which is done through Appropriations. It has no force of law, but if Appropriators decide to ignore it they are required to get 60 votes. That’s it. The President doesn’t sign it. It’s not law, it’s just an attempt at internal “rule making.”

Now the weird part. When this process was created in the 1970’s they decided that unlimited amendments would be allowed. So 30 years later the process has evolved to a long, sometimes silly exercise,of political posturing and “gotcha” votes. Guns on Amtrak in the Budget bill? Oil drilling in Budget bill? Give me a break. Remember nothing in this bill changes any law.

Every year at this time, after we have voted on dozens of these amendments, I resolve to work harder to reform the Senate. This exercise makes no sense.

9 Notes

  1. steller reblogged this from clairecmc
  2. gilichu reblogged this from ackb and added:
    clairecmc: The budget bill is a weird animal. It is an internal exercise that attempts to set a blueprint for the...
  3. ackb reblogged this from clairecmc
  4. enteekaygee reblogged this from clairecmc and added:
    Senator’s gonna rock
  5. clairecmc posted this