Six months ago, there were a lot of us who thought the Senate was the cat's meow. After all, the House was preparing to draft their version of the Farm Bill, and things were not looking good for those of us who like farmers or real food.
So we pinned our hopes on the Senate to do it right. Oh, how times have changed.
The Senate was supposed to be the place where a more progressive Farm Bill could happen, where family farmers would be given a fighting chance. And that might (emphasize might) still be true in some small ways.
But only if they can ever get to the damn bill.
Unlike the House, the Senate doesn't really have a schedule. As far as I can tell from absently watching over the last week, they skip around from morning business to debating a bill to making statements about something completely different. I have never watched a bill so closely as it goes through the Senate, and I have several impressions so far:
1. I'm utterly amazed that they ever get anything done, because they really are not required to stick to any particular topic.
2. Senate procedures are hilarious. Seriously. I was told this evening that at one point in the last few days, Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) asked for unanimous consent on something (unrelated to the Farm Bill) and then immediately objected to his own request.
3. No wonder our democracy is in trouble and people feel uninspired by their leaders. I can see where this kind of behavior could go unnoticed before things like C-SPAN. But you'd think that they would realize they look really bad when they do some of this stuff. And then I remember that only about 6 of us are nerdy enough to be watching the Senate in the hopes that something Farm Bill-related will happen.
4. It is clear to me now why Senators have 6 year terms. Since they cannot seem to stay on task, it takes a full term to get something passed!
What's happening now is that the Farm Bill has stalled because the Republicans and Democrats can't agree on how many amendments are allowed to be introduced. It's rumored they may have actually come to some kind of agreement, and if it lives through the night, we may actually have some debate Wednesday morning.
But seeing as the Senate has a seemingly infinite number of ways to take their time, I wouldn't get up early for it or anything.
Vote Result
Score: 10.0, Votes: 1
that I haven't missed any farm bill news... it's just that nothing happened yet.
I know a tiny bit about Senate procedure so here's what I think I've learned, which may shed some light on some of the craziness you've observed.
I read somewhere recently that because the Senate can have filibusters, they've got their schedule split up so that they spend half the day on regular business and the other half on debating whatever they're debating so that stuff can still get done even if they are in the middle of a filibuster.
I've also heard that if someone's ... i forget what... bill? call for cloture?... is going to get killed by a vote, then it actually helps for Reid to vote to kill it bc then he'll be allowed to put it up for a vote again later whereas if he didn't vote to kill it, he couldn't. Or something like that? Anyway that might be why he voted against his own measure.