Hoping to stave off a fight from conservatives on the housing bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a direct appeal to K Street lobbyists for help. RedState has obtained a copy of the e-mail from a Reid staffer sent this afternoon.
The request to K Street came shortly after Roll Call reported that Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) would hold up the legislation unless it’s amended to include a provision prohibiting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from lobbying Congress.
Reid staffer Mark Wetjen wrote in the message: "We are informed that Sen. DeMint would like to seek an amendment to the House amendment. While we have not seen Sen. DeMint's amendment, it's fair to say that such an amendment could complicate debate and delay passage of the housing bill."
DeMint has argued that for the housing bill to achieve real reform, the lobbying practices of Fannie and Freddie must be curtailed. Democrats have included some long-sought reforms to the government-sponsored entities in the legislation, but DeMint want them to go further.
“They could at least include some legislation that restricted the massive lobbying that Fannie and Freddie have used to hush people up for years,” DeMint told Roll Call. He added that without restrictions on their lobbying practices, the companies would continue to resist government oversight.
Reid’s message to K Street is the latest indication that Democrats are closely aligned with Fannie and Freddie -- and apparently willing to go to great lengths to protect them.
-----Original Message-----
From: Wetjen, Mark (Reid)
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 1:25 PM
To: majleaderreid-business@democratic-message-center.senate.gov
Subject: Update on housingIf the House passes the housing bill and the Senate receives it today, Sen. Reid is prepared to move to proceed to the measure today, which will be the House message to H.R. 3121 (containing one amendment). While a motion to proceed to a House message is non-debatable, technically the motion still requires a majority vote, unless consent is given to proceed without a vote.
If cloture is necessary - the Republican filibuster record suggests it will be - Sen. Reid could file cloture on a motion to concur with the House amendment today. In that event, the cloture vote would ripen on Friday. If cloture is invoked, the 30-hour clock begins to run from that point in time.
We are informed that Sen. DeMint would like to seek an amendment to the House amendment. While we have not seen Sen. DeMint's amendment, it's fair to say that such an amendment could complicate debate and delay passage of the housing bill.
I read Kudlow's assessment on NRO
Dave_in_Fla July 23rd, 2008 at 3:07 p.m. (link)
DeMint might be fighting a losing battle here, but he is right on this issue. Freddie Mac/Fannie May are about to become huge taxpayer guarunteed GSEs with no oversight to correct the collosal financial mismanagement that has led to this bailout in the first place.
They are currently places to send former administration officials to make a few 10s of millions of dollars as payback for screwing up their government jobs (Jamie Gorrelick, I'm looking at you).
"If they were merely incompetent, then at least SOME of their actions would have been to the benefit of the country."
DeMint POTUS 2016!
Tim_Schieferecke July 23rd, 2008 at 3:52 p.m. (link)
I think it's high time we grab our torches and pitchforks and storm FrankenReid's Castle. How much longer will we endure their abuses? I don't care who the R on my ballot is, I'm voting for them this time around. These D leaders are extremely dangerous and must be extricated.
Tim Schieferecke
Reid's up to something, but I don't think it's lobbyist cash
Conor_Kenny July 25th, 2008 at 1:24 a.m. (link)
My read of the email is that Reid is worried about a (likely) Republican filibuster, but under Senate rules an up-or-down vote on the bill passed by the House only requires a simple majority. Thus, if the bill was amended (by DeMint or anyone else), it would require a cloture motion to pass and the opposing Republican senators could stop the bill.
As for the lobbyist money, I went over to OpenSecrets and, for Freddie Mac at least, their contributions have dropped precipitously in the last few years and they even lean Republican.
Now, there's a lot to say about shutting down debate on the housing bill and forcing a simple majority vote (and Rep. John Culberson has been doing just that), but I think DeMint's amendment is collateral damage here.
We'll be assembling a complete analysis of the housing bill Friday over at Congresspedia.org- if anyone wants to add something or help out, please drop me an email.
Congresspedia.org CKenny [at] Congresspedia.org