Today in Washington D. C. - Oct 19, 2007

From Senate sources: Yesterday, Senate Democrats voted with their union backers against Sen. Sessions’ amendment to restore funding cut from the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). The OLMS cut is the latest in a series of attempts by Democrats to pay back unions for helping them in the 2006 elections.

After publicity from bloggers and reporters, Senators voted down a $1 million earmark by New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton for a museum to commemorate the Woodstock festival.

On The Floor: Resumes consideration of the fiscal 2008 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill (H.R. 3043). The Senate voted 90-3 yesterday to provide $5 million for preventing of drug-resistant staph infections. In another vote, the Senate rejected an amendment by Sen. Vitter which would have prohibited federal family planning funding to abortion providers.

In the House: House not in session today (works Mon-Thur). House’s voted yesterday to sustain President Bush’s veto of the Democrats’ SCHIP bill. Now that Democrats have had their two weeks of grandstanding and political ads, Republicans are interested in reaching a reasonable compromise. House Republican members are calling for bipartisan effort to pass a comprehensive bill for children not adults. Also, Republican Senators who voted for the SCHIPs bill, including Sens. Grassley and Hatch, wrote a letter to House and Senate leaders asking for negotiations on SCHIP. Whether Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are also interested in compromise remains to be seen. Note, Dan Riehl has an in-depth examination of the failed attempts by Democrats and liberal bloggers to blame Sen. McConnell for questions about the Democrats’ SCHIP poster children.

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