July 10, 2007

Senate Leaders Break Impasse Over 9/11 Commission Bill

Senate leaders reached agreement yesterday to move a massive bill implementing unfulfilled recommendations of the 9/11 commission to a conference with the House, paving the way for negotiators to wrap up work on the legislation as early as this week, according to lawmakers and their aides.

"Republicans did drop their objection to taking the bill into conference," said a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Aides said Republicans agreed to give unanimous consent to proceed to conference after Democrats dropped a provision that would have granted federal airport screeners collective bargaining rights.

"There was no objection to the [unanimous consent]," a spokesman for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said. "It's going to conference."

The White House had threatened to veto the bill if it included the collective bargaining provision.

The decision to strip the collective bargaining section did not sit well with Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., and House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., two of the strongest supporters of the provision, aides said.

But in the end, it was a decision made by leadership to allow the bill to proceed, aides added.

"I am grateful Sen. McConnell has lifted his objections to proceeding to conference on the 9/11 bill," Lieberman said. "Given the recent terrorist activity in the United Kingdom, we need to put aside our personal disagreements and work swiftly to protect the American people to the greatest extent possible from terrorist attacks."

Thompson was "extremely disappointed" with dropping the provision but will still support the underlying bill, one of his aides said.

Some confusion surrounded McConnell's decision to agree to go to conference, however.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., had objected to going to conference, saying the bill did not include a provision for auditing how billions of dollars in homeland security grants are spent. Democratic aides said Coburn's concerns would be addressed in the underlying bill. Coburn's office acknowledged an agreement was reached to go to conference but declined further comment.

Meanwhile, House and Senate aides continued working behind the scenes Monday to iron out differences between their versions in anticipation of going to conference. One major unresolved issue is maritime cargo security provisions in the bills, one aide said.

The House bill would require the Homeland Security Department to ensure, within five years, that all containers are scanned at foreign ports before coming to the United States. The Senate bill would require the department to develop a plan for scanning all cargo abroad, but does not specify a timeline.

The shipping industry and GOP lawmakers have argued that meeting a mandated deadline might not be feasible and could disrupt trade.

Lawmakers are also locked in jurisdictional disputes over which agencies should be in charge of managing grants for transportation security and interoperable communications, the aide added. Another aide said no decision has yet been reached on whether to include rail and mass transit security provisions in the final legislation.

And Reid promised late last month that lawmakers would have the opportunity to offer amendments during the conference, which could lengthen how long it takes to complete.

"This is going to be a real conference, an open conference, where people will be able to, in a public meeting, say: I want to offer this amendment, and then the conference can either accept it or reject it," Reid said on the floor.

-Chris Strohm, CongressDaily

Posted at 9:34 AM
Posted to: Congress, Senate, Terrorism
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