It's Almost Vote-a-Rama!
Tomorrow is the big day! It is vote-a-rama. (In truth, I have seen this described as vote-o-rama, too. Not sure which spelling is accurate.) As you might have heard, the Senate is debating a budget resolution right now, where the goal is to "repeal" the Affordable Care Act. I use quotation marks around the word repeal, because in fact, the Affordable Care Act cannot be taken off the books, but the funding to it can be shut down. In other words, it can be de-funded. The budget resolution that is being debated does not become law. Instead, it is a guide for what the will happen when the budget reconciliation is put forward in the spring time. That does become law and the goal is for the budget resolution to send a strong message about what will happen with the springtime bill. The budget that is being examined right now is only about the Affordable Care Act and other health-related measures. The budget reconciliation will be the budget for the whole country.
What does this have to do with vote-a-rama? As one can imagine, legislators file many, many amendments to the budget - both the budget resolution and the budget reconciliation. Sometimes this is done in the hope to bring about a change to the proposed budget and other times it is done to send a strong message about the outrage being experienced by the minority party. As of the writing of this blog post, there have been 55 amendments filed to the budget resolution. You can read them here (or see what your senator is up to, at least). The vote-a-rama comes into play because the Senators want to work their way through all of the amendments before they vote on the budget. So, even after the 50 hours of debate have extinguished, Senators insist that as many amendments as possible be heard. And, they are. So, Senators and staffers stay throughout the night, where votes on amendments are taken every 10-15 minutes. I have heard projections about staying until midnight and I have heard projections about staying until 5am the next day. Either way, the vote-a-rama begins on Wednesday, January 11, around 5pm. Staffers stay through the night issuing and running recommendations to the Senate floor regarding how it is recommended that members of the Senate vote. I am told that it is "all hands on deck!"
My problem is that I teach an online class on Wednesday evenings from 9-10:30pm. So, how will I be present for vote-a-rama and teach my class? The Dirksen Senate Office Building, which is where my office is located, has old phone booths-turned closets and I plan to hang out in one of these starting at 9pm. They have wooden doors, opaque windows, lights...and I get a wifi signal in them! I checked yesterday to make sure that my plan would work.
So, this year, I'm guessing that a totally new feature will be present in the January 2017 vote-a-rama: A class on policy advocacy and social action. If you are wandering the halls of Dirksen or running a recommendation down to the Capitol and you hear a voice talking about the principles of agency-based advocacy...well, that would be me! Who said that I wasn't going to leave a lasting mark on the Senate, right?!
What does this have to do with vote-a-rama? As one can imagine, legislators file many, many amendments to the budget - both the budget resolution and the budget reconciliation. Sometimes this is done in the hope to bring about a change to the proposed budget and other times it is done to send a strong message about the outrage being experienced by the minority party. As of the writing of this blog post, there have been 55 amendments filed to the budget resolution. You can read them here (or see what your senator is up to, at least). The vote-a-rama comes into play because the Senators want to work their way through all of the amendments before they vote on the budget. So, even after the 50 hours of debate have extinguished, Senators insist that as many amendments as possible be heard. And, they are. So, Senators and staffers stay throughout the night, where votes on amendments are taken every 10-15 minutes. I have heard projections about staying until midnight and I have heard projections about staying until 5am the next day. Either way, the vote-a-rama begins on Wednesday, January 11, around 5pm. Staffers stay through the night issuing and running recommendations to the Senate floor regarding how it is recommended that members of the Senate vote. I am told that it is "all hands on deck!"
My problem is that I teach an online class on Wednesday evenings from 9-10:30pm. So, how will I be present for vote-a-rama and teach my class? The Dirksen Senate Office Building, which is where my office is located, has old phone booths-turned closets and I plan to hang out in one of these starting at 9pm. They have wooden doors, opaque windows, lights...and I get a wifi signal in them! I checked yesterday to make sure that my plan would work.
So, this year, I'm guessing that a totally new feature will be present in the January 2017 vote-a-rama: A class on policy advocacy and social action. If you are wandering the halls of Dirksen or running a recommendation down to the Capitol and you hear a voice talking about the principles of agency-based advocacy...well, that would be me! Who said that I wasn't going to leave a lasting mark on the Senate, right?!
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