Budget update: Thursday night edition
As of this hour the House and Senate budget negotiators are still tying up loose ends. Once a bill is in its final form - and printed out as an entire document - it has to be given a first reading, even if someone just wanders into an empty House and Senate chamber and reads to no one.
If that first reading happens before midnight tonight, the honorables could take a vote on second reading Friday. They could then do third reading early Saturday morning (like at 12:01 a.m.), meeting the constitutional requirement that money bills be read on three separate days.
More likely, and this is what members in both chambers have been told to be ready for, we're going to see the first vote on Saturday with a second vote possible early (12:01 a.m.) Sunday morning. (Factoid: there is a House rule that prohibits meeting on Sunday mornings. Of course, rules ARE made to be broken...)
The debate in both the House and Senate will be an all or nothing proposition. They can't amend conference reports, so folks either have to take the good with the bad or vote against the entire package.
Notwithstanding certain Senators griping, Senate leaders seem confident they will have a vote this weekend.
The lobbyists are out in force this evening, after nary a one was hanging out late last night when the honorables announced they had a deal. Some may be circling on the solid waste bill, but the folks who represent the realtors and related interests are out as well.
All of that said, could the wheels come off? Yup. Until that bill is read in, anything can happen. Once that thing is read and on the calendar, the honorables are pretty much committed to getting it passed.
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