[Peace-discuss] Reid To Force Senate Into All-Night Session Tuesday

[Robert Naiman]

http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2007/07/reid-to-force-senate-into-all-night.html

Monday, July 16, 2007
Reid To Force Senate Into All-Night Session Tuesday
Forcing his Republican colleagues to put up or shut up on the notion
of an up-or-down vote, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) just
moments ago announced that he will immediately file a cloture motion
on the Reed-Levin troop redeployment bill and, if Republicans follow
through with a filibuster, will place the Senate in a prolonged
all-night session Tuesday to force a true continuation of debate.

"Now, Republicans are using a filibuster to block us from even voting
on an amendment that could bring the war to a responsible end," said
Reid. "They are protecting the President rather than protecting our
troops. They are denying us an up or down – yes or no – vote on the
most important issue our country faces."

The Reed-Levin amendment to the Department of Defense (DoD)
Authorization Bill requires George W. Bush to "commence the reduction
of the number of United States forces in Iraq not later than 120 days
after the date of the enactment of this Act" and mandates a withdrawal
of most combat forces by April 30, 2008.

The legislation, S.AMDT.2087, has bipartisan support and is
cosponsored by Gordon Smith (R-OR), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Olympia
Snowe (R-ME).

In making this move (based on my understanding of Senate rules), Reid
is invoking the provisions of Rule 22 (Precedence of Motions) of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, which provides, at the Majority Leader's
discretion, up to 30 hours of debate if a filibuster is initiated --
as the Republicans will most certainly do, knowing that Reed-Levin may
very well have the 51 votes needed for passage.

Sixty votes are needed to achieve cloture (end debate) and move
legislation to a full, deciding vote.

Reid will be using the provision of Rule 22 that allows for up to 30
hours of continuous debate once it's made clear -- in this case, by
Republicans trying to avoid an up-or-down vote on Reed-Levin -- that
there is a desire to continue debating the issue.

In other words, the Majority Leader is saying "You want to debate?
We'll stay all night and debate."

"I would like to inform the Republican leadership and all my
colleagues that we have no intention of backing down," said Reid this
afternoon. "If Republicans do not allow a vote on Levin/Reed today or
tomorrow, we will work straight through the night on Tuesday. The
American people deserve an open and honest debate on this war, and
they deserve an up or down vote on this amendment to end it."

Reid could hold the Senate in continuous session overnight Tuesday and
into midday Wednesday unless Republicans agree to a simple-majority
vote on Reed-Levin.

Senate Democrats will then be prepared to take to the floor and speak
all night and, if their Republican colleagues do not remain in the
chamber, invoke ongoing quorum calls and other procedural maneuvers to
force GOP members back to the Senate floor.

With the whole specter of cots being dragged into Senate cloakrooms
and the pure theatrics involved, I'm hopeful this will shine a
white-hot spotlight on the Senate's Republican leadership and show
Americans how the GOP doesn't truly support helping troops and their
families at home or extricating them from pointless involvement in the
Iraqi civil war.

And I'm sure more than one Democratic Senator will remind the public
that Republicans screamed at the top of their lungs last year when it
came to getting up-or-down votes on Bush's right-wing judicial
nominees, but expressing the sentiments of most Americans and
protecting America's troops gets no such treatment from them.

Said Reid today: "We don't have to mark time, waiting for the
President to wake up one morning with a revelation. And we can choose
that new path right now."