WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney cut short a trip to the Middle East and rushed back to Washington overnight, preparing to cast a tiebreaking vote on budget cuts in the Senate today, as Republicans also make a high-stakes bid to approve oil drilling in the Alaska wilderness.
The budget legislation would trim federal spending growth by nearly $40 billion over the next five years. Cheney’s change in plans came as five Republican senators signaled they would vote against the measure, joining an apparently united Democratic caucus in opposing a bill that would allow states to impose new fees on Medicaid recipients, cut federal child support enforcement funds, impose new work requirements on state welfare programs and squeeze student lenders.
Five GOP defections would lead to a 50-50 Senate tie if all lawmakers vote. “We do need to reduce spending, but I cannot accept the priorities in this bill,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in announcing her opposition to it.
Also today, a Senate showdown is expected over a provision allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, added to the fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Democrats intend to mount a procedural challenge in an effort to strip out the provision, or if necessary, to block the bill until Stevens backs down. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., predicted “a very close vote.”
Republican leaders have made contingency plans to reconvene the House on Thursday to pass a stripped-down defense bill without Arctic drilling if the Senate votes down the measure.
Stevens said on the Senate floor Tuesday that he will not relent. “We’re going to face up to ANWR either now or Christmas Day or New Year’s Eve or sometime, however long we stay in.”
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