Though Bernie Sanders, pictured here, tried to filibuster the bill to death, the tax cut bill is close to a Senate vote. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

The vote for the tax cut bill is near to passing the United States Senate with compromises. The bill, which would extend the Bush tax cuts, has been approved to proceed to a Senate vote. If it passes the Senate, it will have to pass the House of Representatives by Friday to take effect.

Senate votes to debate tax cut bill before voting on bill

Though the inner workings of legislatures are tedious, there are procedures that will have to be followed before the tax cut bill can be voted on. Currently, the tax bill that may extend the Bush tax cuts is getting the path cleared for a vote in the Senate, according to USA Today. All told, 79 Senators voted to bypass procedural rules and begin debate on the tax bill. Final debates are heard just before a legislative body votes on a law, and there has already been intense debate over whether this bill should be passed, and in what form. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) filibustered for more than eight hours to try to kill the bill before it was voted on.

Bill has to pass before House vote

Should the tax bill pass the Senate, it will have to go to the House of Representatives to go through House revisions. If the House of Representatives passes the bill, the Senate has to reconcile and approve any revisions before it can go to the desk of the president. In its present form, the Bush era tax cuts across all income levels will be preserved, as well as an unemployment benefits extension which is set to run out soon. The bill, all told, totals about $860 billion.

Estate of confusion

The bill would also serve as an extension of cuts in payroll taxes. The estate tax will be reinstated at 35 percent on estates of $5 million or more. If the bill does not pass, the estate tax will revert to the pre-Bush rate of 55 percent on estates of $1 million or more. There was no inheritance tax for 2010.

Sources

USA Today

Judge G. Thomas Porteous is the first federal judge since Walter Nixon, pictured here, to be impeached. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Federal Judge G. Thomas Porteous has been removed from office by the United States Senate. Porteous was convicted on four impeachment counts by the Senate related to corruption charges. He cannot serve in public office ever again.

Senate convicts Federal Judge Porteous

Federal Judge G. Thomas Porteous has been found guilty on four different impeachment charges by the U.S. Senate and was therefore removed from office, according to CNN. Porteous was found to have engaged in conduct unacceptable for a federal judge, stemming from allegations of corruption. Judge Porteous, appointed to the bench in Louisiana under President Clinton, allegedly accepted gifts and cash from people that have been in his court in order to pay gambling debts, according to the Los Angeles Times. He cannot hold public office in the United States again.

How impeachment works

In impeaching federal officials, the allegations are weighed by the House of Representatives, who can vote to begin an impeachment trial or not. If the House votes to impeach, the Senate carries out the investigation and impeachment trial proceedings. Should a person be found guilty of an impeachable offense in the Senate trial, including misconduct, that person can be found guilty of impeachment articles and removed from office. The Senate has not had an impeachment trial since 1999, when then-President Bill Clinton was looking at impeachment for lying about sexual misconduct with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was famously and very closely acquitted.

Eighth federal judge to be impeached

Porteous is only the eighth judge on the federal judge to be impeached. The last judge to be impeached and removed from office was Walter Nixon of Mississippi, who was found to have committed perjury and was removed from office in 1989. Last year, Judge Samuel Kent of Texas resigned after being impeached by the House of Representatives but before the Senate could try him for impeachment.

Sources

CNN

Los Angeles Times

Missile defense is being used by leading GOP voices on the NewSTART treaty as a ploy to deny the administration a national security victory. Image: CC pingnews.com/Flickr

Missile defense is often the currency of conflict and compromise these days among international adversaries. But in the current U.S. Senate, missile defense is being used by Republicans in an attempt to deny the Obama administration a national security imperative. In this case it’s the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed by President Obama and Russian President Dimitri Medvedev in April.

NewSTART and U.S./Russian relations

Missile defense as it relates to the NewSTART treaty, which had bipartisan support until this week, is being used by certain Republicans as an opportunity for political posturing. The NewSTART treaty is seen as a critical element in the Obama administration’s efforts to improve national security and U.S./Russia relations. The ratification of the NewSTART treaty by the Senate is so important that such incidents as last summer’s Russian spy scandal and this week’s extradition of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to the U.S. have had no ill effects on U.S./Russia relations. But this week, veteran Arizona Republican senator Jon Kyl and 10 freshly elected GOP senators are trying to get the vote delayed until next year, when Democrats lose six senate seats.

GOP wants to START over

The NewSTART treaty reduces U.S. and Russian arsenals of strategic nuclear missiles and resumes on-the-ground inspections that ended when the old START treaty expired in 2009. Kyl and his new acolytes are saying that the Senate needs to start over because more money is needed for modernizing the arsenal that remains after the reductions. Ironically, that point was brought up earlier, and in response the administration added $4.1 billion for such a purpose. Other conservatives say that the language of the treaty is so broadly defined that it will restrict U.S. missile defense options.

What NewSTART really says

In fact, the NewSTART treaty contains no provisions limiting the number of missile defense systems the U.S. can build. It also doesn’t require the U.S. to cut any already existing systems. Military Defense Agency chief General Patrick O’Reilly, in a statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee in April, said the NewSTART treaty actually reduces restraints on missile defense. It removes limits imposed by the old START treaty on U.S. testing of missiles designed to take out incoming missiles.

Sources

Washington Post

Media Matters

The Hill

Senator Harry Reid has failed to get cloture. Image from Wikimedia Commons

In order to head off any attempts at a filibuster, the U.S. Senate has tried to invoke cloture to wrap up debate.  The attempt was unsuccessful, and intense debate is expected to continue unabated for some time. It may take longer than previously thought to get the financial reform bill passed and onto the desk of the President.

Reid fails to get cloture

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) called for a vote of cloture in order to head off debate over the financial reform bill, according to Reuters.  The vote, which requires a two-thirds majority, failed 57 to 42.  Cloture is a feature of parliamentary procedure and used to be incredibly rare. The U.S. Senate is still debating portions of the financial reform bill, and the potential for filibuster remains, so Senators may want to get personal loans for some cots and blankets.  Cloture has very specific conditions on how it can be brought about.

Haute Cloture

Cloture is a French word, and the word and meaning is derived from the same Latin word English derived the word closure from, clausura.  In terms of parliamentary procedure, it means that after a motion calling for cloture is passed, only a limited amount of debate can take place afterward.  For the Senate, only 30 more hours of debate total can take place, and no Senator may speak for more than an hour. It is a way to stop pointless and long winded debate and is the way a filibuster is stopped.

Senate unable to close debate

The row that had broken out concerned two amendments, one from Chris Dodd and one from Blanche Lincoln.  Lincoln’s amendment would prevent certain trades by banks, which Dodd is not in favor of.  Republicans oppose the amendments under debate, and the outright dropping of the Volcker rule was barely avoided.  The financial reform bill is still not finished, and it will some time before a final version is ready.