Republicans Deploy Senate Rules Against Democratic Spending Plan

The spending showdown is heating up on Capitol Hill, with Republicans planning to turn the tables on Democrats by using new Senate rules to block a massive spending bill from going to the president.

Tomorrow Republicans in the Senate plan to raise a point of order against the Labor Health and Human Services bill that has been combined with the Veterans Affairs and military construction bill. The bills were combined by appropriators last week in an effort to streamline the delayed spending bills, but under a Senate rule adopted by the new majority earlier this year, items that were not agreed to by both chambers cannot be "air dropped" into a conference report on a bill. Republicans do have an advantage here _ it takes 60 votes to overturn the type of point of order the GOP will raise tomorrow in the Senate, so there's a good chance the veterans and labor bills will be broken up.

While all this parliamentary maneuvering over points of order may sound like inside the beltway gibberish, there's an important point being made here. The new rule was created because Democrats believed it was wrong when the Republican majority would insert major policy changes, as well as fishy earmarks, into bills during closed door negotiations. So when Democrats took charge of Congress in January, they decided to prohibit the practice of dropping items into the final conference reports unless they were considered by both chambers.

The veterans affairs bill was added in the conference committee last week, so Republicans believe that entire bill an unnecessary addition that breaks the new rules. Democrats counter that Republicans will simply be delaying funding for the nation's veterans by removing it from the Labor Health and Human Services bill. The Senate parliamentarian will ultimately decide whether the Republican move is legit.

If the GOP maneuvering is successful, Republicans may score points with their base by outflanking Democrats on a spending issue, but the reality is that it will only further delay the already tardy appropriations process. In the end, either Democrats on Capitol Hill or President Bush will have to give in on spending, but that end game probably won't happen until the week before Christmas.