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Hill sources buzzing. A Senate bailout vote is scheduled tomorrow at 9pm Eastern.
No bill details seen yet.
How it will go down…There will be up to 6 roll call votes on the following items:
(1)Motion to concur on the House message, H.R. 2095, Rail Safety;
(2)a Dorgan amendment relating to H.R. 7081, the U.S. – India Nuclear agreement;
(3)a Bingaman amendment relating to H.R. 7081, the U.S. – India Nuclear agreement;
(4)passage of H.R. 7081, the U.S. – India Nuclear agreement;
(5)a Dodd amendment to H.R. 1424, relating to the bailout package; and
(6)passage of H.R. 1424, the bailout.
Get your fingers dialing:
202-224-3121.
More details:
The structure is this:
The Senate will call up H.R. 1424, the text of which will be substituted with the economic rescue plan (a Dodd amendment which must have the consent of both the Majority and Minority Leaders). The only other amendment in order will be a Sanders amendment that will be handled by a voice vote.
The bill will be subject to a 60-vote threshold for passage.
UPDATE II: House Republicans are saying the Senate vote tomorrow is the work of bicameral, bipartisan negotiations.
From a House GOP Leadership aide: “The Senate moving forward tomorrow with the economic stability package gets us one step closer to the bill becoming law – and that is a good thing. The decision is a product of bipartisan-bicameral discussions and we believe that changes to the bill will help us garner more support from House Republicans and smooth the bill to passage.”
Where’s the bill?
And…Dodd?! Dodd!!!???
Still more trickling in:
Senate leaders have scheduled a vote for Wednesday on the $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan rejected by the House.
Majority Leader Harry Reid and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell say, however, that they’re going to add a tax cut package already rejected by the House on Monday.
The bipartisan move caps a day of behind-the-scenes maneuvering on Capitol Hill over what sweeteners to add to the bill to attract votes from House Republicans.
Reid and McConnell’s move may prove popular with Republicans, but it risks a showdown with House leaders insisting that a popular measure extending certain business tax breaks be financed by tax increases elsewhere in the code.
The Senate plan would also raise federal deposit insurance limits to $250,000 from $100,000.
“Sweeteners?”
Translation: Earmarks to buy votes.
Isn’t that against House rules?
***
McConnell is toast.
***
And more details:
Components of the alternative plan including the following, according to sources:
* Require the Treasury Department to guarantee, at up to 100 percent, bank losses resulting from failed mortgage-backed securities originated prior to the plan’s enactment. Such insurance, supporters say, would provide immediate value to the securities and a foundation for which they could then be sold. The Treasury Department would finance that insurance by assessing a premium on outstanding mortgage-backed securities.
* Allow companies to carry back losses arising in tax years ending in 2007, 2008, or 2009 back five years, generating a tax refund and immediate capital
* Allow a “repatriation window” for profits earned by U.S. firms overseas. Such repatriation amounts would not be taxed if invested in distressed debt (as defined by Treasury) for at least one year.
* Allow banks to treat losses on shares of preferred stock in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as ordinary losses, not as capital losses
* Suspend the capital gains tax rate for two years
* Limit backing of high-risk loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
* Schedule Fannie and Freddie for privatization
* Suspend “mark-to-market” accounting until the SEC can issue new guidelines that will allow firms to mark these assets to their true economic value
* Stabilize the dollar by repealing the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, which alternative bailout supporters say diverts the Federal Reserve’s attention from long-term price stability to short-term economic growth
* Require the Treasury to write rules prohibiting excessive compensation or golden parachutes to executives of failed companies
* Task the SEC with regular, annual audit reports of entities the federal government has brought under conservatorship or now owns
The tactics for getting this thing to the floor are reminiscent of the dirty tactics used by the bipartisan shamnesty brigade.
As I like to say: God save us from bipartisanship.
Quin Hilyer blasts the collaborators:
The Senate tomorrow will attach the Wall Street bailout to a “must pass” tax extender bill. This is dirty pool. When you are talking about the single most significant growth of government power EVER, you should let it sink or swim on its own. You don’t attach it to a goodie basket and dare the other chamber to vote against it. To do so is a cheap, despicable tactic. It is the tactic of people without the courage of their convictions — the tactic of cowards. Yes, cowards. I am utterly disgusted with McConnell and the entire Senate leadership. This is not the way to handle legislations as serious as this is. If the House GOP had any guts, then if the Senate sends the House the bill in this form — thus also making a mockery, via legerdemain, of the requirement that such financial bills should start in the House — MORE of the House GOP than before should vote against it, in protest against this sort of hardball pressure.
I think every conservative in the country should raise holy hell about this. AGAINST this tactic. WHATEVER you think about the underlying bailout, this BS is utterly insulting.
