Everyone is familiar with the procedure in the U.S. Senate that bills rarely move forward until they've been vetted for filibuster - an action needing 60 votes to close off debate and move to a vote.
But probably few people are aware of another procedural move in which one senator can virtually gridlock the entire Senate.
Such is the case now with reauthorizing the nation's six-year transportation funding bill. The bill, the Safe. Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act -- A Legacy for Users, or SAFETEA-LU for short, which expired last September. Congress voted to simply continue it at 2009 levels while it worked on its six-year replacement.
That extension runs out tonight, and efforts to extend it again to the end of the year have been blocked on the Senate by one senator under a rule that a lawmaker can anonymously put a hold on legislation or nominations indefinitely while waiting out an issue.
Not releasing the extension for a vote prior to midnight "means funding for federal highway, transit and highway safety programs will run out," says U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, DFL-8th District, and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
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"I find it outrageous that one senator can kill a piece of legislation and cause chaos for our cities and states," says Oberstar. "Thanks to this one person's intransigence, Minnesota will not be reimbursed for its federal share of highway projects until we get this mess sorted out."
Rep. Oberstar doesn't name the Republican senator in his statement issued Friday, but Logistics Management named him as Sen. Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican. Sen. Bunning has been active, filing blocks to a number of bills that extend programs while the budget is being worked on: unemployment insurance and the COBRA program that allows health insurance coverage to people who lose their health benefits. They all expire today.
The situation caused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call Sen. Bunning -- who retires this year -- "a one-man filibuster." His apparently issue -- he wants all the extensions paid for by redirecting stimulus monies and not as new spending.
There's something wrong in a democratic process that allows one person to hogtie an entire deliberative body. What happened to majority rules? Or consensus of the body?
Rep. Oberstar says if the extension is not put in place today, DOT will being furloughing workers starting Tuesday at the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Once furloughed, it will take some time to get them back whenever Sen. Bunning lifts his hold.
In the meantime, states may have to suspend work on some road and bridge projects while they wait for their reimbursements from the federal government.
It seems like a poor way to a point, and an expensive one, when the idea to begin with is to save money.
