The Senate today will vote to again advance a public lands package it first passed in January, in a complicated procedural move designed to dampen Republicans' ability to block the bill in the House.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filed cloture last week to move forward with S. 22, a "wildly popular" package of more than 160 lands, water and resources bills. If cloture is invoked today, as expected, the Senate could pass the bill later this week.
Reid's move is part of delicate negotiations with the House to get the bill approved.
The Senate passed the omnibus, 74-21, in January after many months of objections by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). But last week, by a vote of 282-144, the House failed to pass S. 22 under suspension of the rules, a maneuver that shields legislation from amendment but requires a two-thirds majority for passage.
Noting that the House failed to pass the measure by two votes, Reid said at the time, "So we'll have to start that process over here again."
After the failed House vote, a senior House Democratic aide said House leaders would not take up the bill under regular order, where a simple majority could pass the measure but also leave it open to a GOP motion to recommit or amendment.
This time around, Senate leaders will use a bill -- H.R. 146, protecting Revolutionary War battlefields -- already slated for consideration on the Senate floor and replace its contents with the omnibus package. It would also contain one change designed to address House concerns, language from Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) to ensure that the omnibus would not close off lands that are already open to hunting and fishing.
Because H.R. 146 already passed the House earlier this month, the House Rules Committee could approve a closed rule that would block a motion to recommit, the House parliamentarian said. That would eliminate the GOP's best procedural chance to stymie the bill. House Democrats could also choose to bring up the bill under suspension again, if they believe they can reach the two-thirds threshold.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), whose committee put the omnibus together, declined to comment on the strategy for passing the omnibus but said he was pleased with Reid's decision to bring up the bill again. "I'm glad to see us get back to it," Bingaman said last week. "I think that's great."
Coburn said last week he would try to round up enough votes to defeat cloture.
A spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said last week that if the Senate passes the omnibus again, the House could move on it as quickly as this week.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chairman of the National Parks Subcommittee, said the Senate's move to pass the omnibus with the Altmire language would be the best way to "minimize the opportunity for mischief" by House Republicans to block the bill. "It's a good plan," he said. "This is too important of a bill to let fail."
But Natural Resources Committee ranking member Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said that simply including the Altmire language is unlikely to change Republicans' overarching problem with the legislation, which is that many of the bills in the 1,200-page omnibus have never been considered in the House. "They're still not going through regular order," Hastings said. "There are a lot of members who are still going to have a problem with how this is being done."
The omnibus would designate more than 2 million acres of wilderness in nine states and would establish three new national park units, a new national monument, three new national conservation areas, more than 1,000 miles of national wild and scenic rivers and four new national trails. It would enlarge the boundaries of more than a dozen existing national park units and establish 10 new national heritage areas.
It would also authorize numerous land exchanges and conveyances to help local Western communities address water resource and supply issues, and includes provisions to improve land management.
