A kabuki dance concerning two minimum wage amendments took place in the Senate today, with both amendments ultimately falling short of the 60 votes needed for passage. It looks like this floor fight over the competing amendments may have served as a smoke screen for .S256's defenders to keep eyes off this ghastly bill. Consider that last week, the Republicans and their buddies in the Credit Card Corps squashed amendment after amendment that would have soften the harder edges of this bill.

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee sought to introduce and debate amendments while the bill was in committee, but in a typical bait-and-switch maneuver the Republicans peeled off enough Democrats with promises of floor time for amendment debate to get the bill out of committee quickly. Key Democratic votes in getting the bill out of the Judiciary Committee were those of Senators Biden (D-DE), Kohl (D-WA), and Feinstein (D-CA). A week of amendment debate ensued in which, as our own Ryan Spear puts it:

[T]he Senate...beat back common sense proposals to exempt military service members and veterans from a harsh means test; give relief to people forced into bankruptcy by medical bills; discourage predatory lending practices by credit companies; and allow elderly people to protect their homes from seizure.

Friday evening, the promise of a floor debate on the many amendments designed to improve the bill proved empty as Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the Republicans moved for a cloture vote on Tuesday. The vote takes place at 2:15pm EST Tuesday. Senator Schumer (D-NY) has an amendment that still needs to be considered tomorrow as well, we will have more on this later.

We are entering crunch time on this bill. Key Senators listed under the bankruptcy rolls should be flooded with calls and letters. There will be a caucus lunch tomorrow for the Democrats. If Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) lets Senator Kennedy (D-MA) pound the podium about the cloture vote, he may rally the troops and line can hold to continue debate over this important bill.

Therefore, we encourage all visitors to contact Senator Reid's DC office via fax and phone to push for preventing premature cloture. You should include Senators Kennedy and Feingold in your faxes and e-mails, they will be leading the fight against the cloture and will need all support. Remember to mark all letters "Urgent: For Today's Lunch" to ensure that the Kennedy, Feingold, staffers bring the letters with them and drop them at Reid's feet.

The debate over this bill has to continue.