Sources in the Senate report that Sen. Inouye is personally working to jam through the Akaka Bill this month. He would do it by attaching the bill to an omnibus spending bill that his staff is writing in secret. According to Senate sources, Inouye would wait to offer that secret bill until just before the “continuing resolution” funding the government is set to expire. His colleagues would then be forced to either vote for the porked-up omnibus bill (with no public comment, little opportunity for debate, and certainly no chance of amendment) or reject the whole bill and deny the government the funding it needs to stay open. It’s a game of chicken.
Every lame duck session features an omnibus spending bill, sometimes called “the Christmas tree,” used by Senators and Representatives to give expensive gifts to their campaign contributors in the form of earmarks and riders. But attaching controversial and dangerous new policy legislation to an appropriations bill is unusual and unethical, especially when there’s no floor debate on it.
But which version of the Akaka bill will Senator Inouye try to attach?
Read the full essay at
http://www.angelfire.com/big09a/AkakaAttachOmnibusDec2010.html