20 December 2009
Digging Out
(The view from Big PInk)
Here, the snowplows worked through the night. The flakes have stopped and the skies are thin and clear and cold.
This has been the deepest snow in record in December- twenty inches here in Arlington; sixteen on the National Mall- and the consequences are yet to play out.
The city is buried, of course, and holiday travel for thousands is disrupted, which is a given. The temperature has plunged with the clear skies that have swept in from the North, and it is entertaining watching the bemused Virginians, bundled up like Eskimos in the dawn’s early light contemplate the mounds of hard pack snow the plows have left behind, covering their cars.
Despite all that, the machinery of governance ground on. The House fled the city before the snow arrived. The President could not fly from Andrews in the Helicopter (the new, improved model is included in the Defense bill against the wishes of the Secretary) and had to motorcade through the snow on the Suitland Parkway upon his return from the inconclusive Copenhagen summit.
I’m sure the irony is not lost on some, though a single storm does not a climate make, and even if we not warming, it certainly doesn’t mean the climate is not changing.
I guess that is why they had to change the name from global warming, which must have taken some of the wind out of the discussions in Copenhagen.
Back here, on the Senate side of the Hill, the Master at Arms and Door Keeper had four wheel drive vehicles available through the snow storm to ferry Senators to critical procedural votes right through the storm. The news of the dramatic resolution of Senator Ben Nelson's hold-out on the health care matter has us all agog in snow-bound Big PInk.
We gathered in the lobby by the fake tree, wondering if the Postal Department was going to make a stab at delivery or not. Our concentration has been split lately between the health thing and the banal matters of keeping the lights on in the Defense Department.
We have a lot of people on fixed incomes, and a lot of young people too. You can sense that the older ones don’t want change and the kids don't want to pay for it.
The two issues had become entangled. The sensitive negotiations were in progress with Senator Nelson's Office as the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body spent a good chunk of Thursday killing time, debating the Defense Appropriation.
The House version- the one that counts- was passed last Wednesday, but the Senate still has to rubber stamp it and add some earmarks.
You can understand my concern, since that bill includes the funds not only for the intelligence community but the two wars in progress at the moment. Majority Leader Reid convened the Senate again just after midnight on Friday, and he called them again for the blessing at 0645 on Saturday, once the word about Senator Nelson was received.
The distinguished member from Nebraska graciously accepted a special amendment for his home state that involves dispensation on certain matters of women’s health and extension of increased federal contributions to the cost of Medicaid only in his state. He has thus joined the ranks of the sixty senators necessary to pass that body's version of health care reform.
Senator Mary Landrieu had earlier extracted a similar deal ($300 million in aid for Louisiana) the same way. Interestingly, those two votes amounted to about 10% of the Defense Appropriation, but who is counting money these days?
In order to get to the special amendments on the health bill, the Senate easily approved the Defense Appropriations bill and sent it to the president, warts and all. This year’s version includes $626 billion.
Assuming the President signs it (he will, since unrelated matters like extension of unemployment benefits is appended to the legislative Christmas tree among others) and that matter is finally done.
That is a concern, but not the end of it. Once signed, the funds will be turned over to the Office of the Secretary of Defense Comptroller, who normally spends the holidays worrying about the next years’ budget submission to Congress, rather than dealing with the disbursement of last years funding.
As a practical matter, it will be some weeks before the money flows down through the military departments and agencies, and by tradition, new starts and Congressional ear-marks are the last funds to be allocated. That could be several weeks before the appropriate paperwork is signed out for the contracts to be let, but that is not your problem.
At least we are no longer under a continuing resolution. Oh, and we are going to have a massive change in the way we relate to our government.
And how the government relates to Louisiana and Nebraska, too.
Copyright 2009 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
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Yes, I know. I have to talk about Admiral Rex’s time with the Cryptologists on the way to the Pacific, and then to Vietnam. But bear with me, OK? It is hard being snow-bound.
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