Pat Dollard

Tweet

The Hill:

Senators will convene a closed-door session Monday at 2 p.m. as part of a final push by the administration to ratify the New START nuclear arms treaty by Christmas.

The meeting, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) described as a “secret session,” will be held in the Old Senate Chamber.

Two Democratic aides said they expect Gen. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, to brief lawmakers in a last-moment bid to secure GOP support for the treaty. The aides cautioned that Clapper’s appearance is not yet confirmed.

Senate Democrats hope to ratify the treaty by Wednesday at the latest. They then plan to pass a 9/11 healthcare bill and confirm a group of judicial and executive appointments that could keep the Senate in session right up until Christmas Eve.

Funding for the federal government expires at 11:59 pm on Tuesday and lawmakers must also take care of that before leaving town. Republicans have pushed for a clean resolution that would not include extraneous legislation.

Reid filed a motion Sunday evening to bring the New START treaty to a vote in the next few days. Treaty ratification requires a vote of two-thirds of the senators present in the chamber once a quorum has been established.

He also filed a motion to quash a possible filibuster of the continuing resolution to keep the government in operation until early March. Reid filed the second motion to ensure Senate action on the funding resolution by Tuesday, according to a Democratic aide. He had not reached final agreement on the resolution with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) as of late Sunday.

The treaty and the spending measure can be considered on separate and parallel tracks because one is on the executive calendar and the other is on the legislative Calendar of Business.

“After months of consideration and five days of open and robust debate, it is time to move forward on a treaty that will help reverse nuclear proliferation and make it harder for terrorists to get their hands on a nuclear weapon,” Reid said in a statement late Sunday. “Every day we delay is another day we do not have inspectors on the ground in Russia monitoring their nuclear arsenal.”

The Senate will vote on Tuesday to end debate on the stop-gap spending measure, a motion that requires 60 votes. It will then vote to end debate on the New START treaty, another 60-vote hurdle.

If Republicans invoke the rule that requires 30 hours to elapse between a vote to end debate and a final vote, final ratification of New START would wait until Wednesday.

Reid said he did not expect them to delay final passage of the stop-gap spending bill because that would deprive the federal government of funding at 12 a.m. Wednesday.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), who is managing the treaty, said Republicans have had plenty of time to discuss it.

“We are looking at having more days of debate on this treaty than the START I, START II, Moscow treaty all put together,” Kerry said Sunday afternoon. “So I think the United States Senate — which is appropriate — has [had] time to focus on this treaty.”

Senators appeared to have run out of things to say about the treaty by late afternoon.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) took to the floor shortly before 4 p.m. to congratulate Carroll College of Helena, Mont., for winning the NAIA national football championship.

Then Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) rose to tout the recent birth of his granddaughter Allison.

Not to be left out, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) stood up to present a blown-up photo of his 20 children and grandchildren and confided to colleagues that they call him Pop-I: “I is for Inhofe.”

“So it’s Mom-I and Pop-I, that’s what these kids call me,” Inhofe said.

With senators on both sides of the aisle obviously missing their families as Christmas approaches, leaders negotiated late into Sunday evening to set a roadmap for the final business of the 111th Congress.

Senate Democratic and Republican leaders unexpectedly agreed Sunday evening to pass food safety legislation by unanimous consent, rescuing a bill that floated in limbo for weeks because of a clerical error.

The Senate passed the Food Safety and Modernization Act on Nov. 30 by a vote of 73-25. But the bill was later invalidated by a technical objection because it was a revenue-raising measure that did not originate in the House — Senate staff had failed to substitute the food safety language into a House-originated bill.

Reid announced he would send the legislation — this time properly attached to a House-originated measure — back to the lower chamber for final approval. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Reid the House would approve it on Monday or Tuesday, according to Reid.

After passing the continuing resolution and ratifying New START, the Senate will take up 9/11 healthcare legislation.

“We believe we’re on the verge of an 11th-hour breakthrough,” an exultant Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of the lead sponsors, announced Sunday.

“Sen. Reid has promised us that he will bring the bill to the floor as soon as the last vote on START occurs,” Schumer said. “We don’t know exactly when that will occur, that is often up to our Republican colleagues, but we’re next.”

Schumer and his partner, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), won Republican support by changing the provisions to offset the cost of the legislation and reducing the bill’s overall cost from $7.4 billion to $6.2 billion.

The Senate could vote to end debate on the 9/11 healthcare bill on Wednesday, depending how long it takes to finish New START. A final vote on the 9/11 legislation could happen on Wednesday but Republican critics could drag out the process by invoking procedural rules.

“If people don’t deliberately obstruct, we can get this bill passed — there are three votes that would be required on it — in a matter of hours,” Schumer said.

Schumer acknowledged that “one of our concerns is that someone might try to delay and delay so we get very close to Christmas.”

Schumer said the House would have to stay in town to grant final approval before President Obama can sign the bill into law.

After consideration, Reid hopes to confirm a batch of Obama’s nominees and adjourn the 111th Congress for the rest of the year.

Reid has also called for passage of an omnibus lands bill, a package of more than 110 individual bills that would improve and protect that nation’s public lands, waterways, shore areas and wildlife populations, according to a statement he released.

Reid, however, acknowledged to reporters last week that there may not be enough time to approve that lands measure.