Senate passes debt ceiling bill

After Sen. Charles M. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader, promised a marathon Senate session, the Senate passed the House-passed debt ceiling bill, without amendments, and sent it to the President’s desk, according to The Hill.

Senate acts swiftly

The vote in the Senate was 63 to 36, with one absence. Presumably the absent Senator was Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has not been mentally at par since “returning” to the Senate. Five Democrats and thirty-one Republicans voted against the measure; The Hill provided a list. The five “nays” are among the most left-wing of all Senators, including both Senators from Massachusetts and the notionally “independent” Senator from Vermont. Senators John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) also voted “nay.” Oddly enough, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) voted “aye,” though the Senate refused his amendment to negate the permitting fast-track for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

The thirty-one Republican “nay” votes included both Senators from Louisiana – not only Sen. John Kennedy but also Sen. Bill Cassidy. It also includes Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), though it mislabels him as being from Alabama. (Both Alabama Senators voted “nay.”) Obviously Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), of the Begich-Murkowski Dynastic Alliance, voted “aye.”

Eleven Senators offered amendments, but the Senate rejected them all. Apparently the “aye” Senators did not want to send the bill to a House-Senate conference committee.

The Hill considers that Republicans won several points on energy in the debt ceiling measure. As mentioned, the measure orders the Secretary of the Army to permit the Mountain Valley Pipeline within three weeks. Furthermore, the measure limits the time for environmental impact assessments to one year, and environmental impact statements to two years. A provision to build government electric-vehicle charging stations did not make it in.

Other news

The chamber also passed and sent to the President a measure disallowing his student loan forgiveness program, according to CNN. President Biden will likely veto that, but the program already is in the federal courts.

The President nominated defeated Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) as Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.