Today in Washington D. C. - Nov 2, 2007

From Senate sources: Sen. Mitch McConnell has an op-ed in the Louisville Courier-Journal today calling for permanent repeal of the alternative minimum tax, without raising other taxes in the process. Unfortunately, a new House bill to prevent millions more Americans being subject to the AMT in the coming year is full of new tax hikes as well, according to CQ Today.

Following the lead of their presidential candidates, Democrat senators continue to attack Judge Mukasey over his refusal to rule waterboarding illegal without access to any of the classified documentation on the subject. The Wall Street Journal takes Democrats to task for this today, writing, “This is remarkable not for what it says about Judge Mukasey but for what it reveals about Democrats and the war on terror. They’d disqualify a man of impeccable judicial temperament and credentials merely because he’s willing to give U.S. interrogators the benefit of the legal doubt before he has top-secret clearance.” Commendably, Sen. Joe Lieberman defended Judge Mukasey on the Senate floor yesterday, urging his confirmation.

On The Floor: The Senate reconvened at 10 AM today and will be in morning business all day. No roll call votes are expected until Tuesday.
- Yesterday, the Senate passed a revised SCHIP bill (H.R. 3963), 64-30. Talks on a third, possible compromise version of SCHIP are ongoing.
- Next week, the Senate is likely to take up the $283 billion farm bill (H.R. 2419). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he would like to finish the bill in a week but didn’t think work would be able to be completed that quickly.
- The Senate could also take up the conference report on the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill (H.R. 3043), which now includes the Military Construction-VA appropriations bill (H.R. 2642). Republican Senators have called for a stand-alone VA funding bill to be sent to the president, who has threatened to veto the combination bill.

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