Back to the Senate
When the Senate began to debate the transportation act on December 10, Senators Helms, Nickles, and Humphrey filibustered against Howard Baker's motion to consider the bill. On December 13 the Senate invoked cloture 75 to 13, ending debate on the motion to consider while allowing consideration to begin. Aided by the need to consider a raft of amendments, some germane and some not, opponents then began a not-quite-filibuster. Ronald Reagan requested they halt the delaying tactics.[45] The senators refused. Howard Baker hesitated to move for cloture again because foreclosing amendments might anger potential supporters.
After a series of amendments, up and down, Carl Levin (D-Mich.) moved to extend the period of unemployment benefits. Not exactly a germane subject, but this was the Senate. A motion to table lost, 47 to 50. Opposed to the cost of the benefit extension, GOP leaders decided that maybe cloture was not such a bad idea after all. Democrats then voted against cloture, even though they wanted to pass the transportation act to force a vote on unemployment benefits. Back at square one, Robert Dole had to compromise with Levin. Under Senate rules another two days had to pass before another cloture vote could be taken; Helms and his allies therefore filibustered.[46]
Because he was afraid that everybody would go home after the CR was passed, Howard Baker wanted the gas tax bill passed before action was taken on the CR. "We're going to pass [the gas tax bill] even if that means that those who are filibustering will shut down the government," he declared.[47] That probably was fine with Helms and his allies. So on December 16, Baker, blinking first, pulled the transportation act off the Senate floor so as to work on the new CR. The old one would expire the next day, but, because it was a Friday, Baker and friends figured they had through Sunday (December 19) to pass the new CR.
Everything was going smoothly, if slowly, until the Senate neared a
final vote on Saturday night, December 18. Then John East (R-N.C.), responding to an announcement that the Senate would return to the gas tax after disposing of the CR, began a filibuster on the CR. Cloture could not be invoked for two days, so Baker took two steps. First, the Senate appointed conferees to begin negotiations with the House the next morning, even though the Senate had yet to pass its version. Second, Baker sent the senators home to sleep, staying alone in the chamber to listen to Senator East. In the early morning hours, East made a procedural error, and Baker regained control of the floor. On Sunday evening, as the conferees were actually meeting, the Senate approved its version of the CR 63 to 31.[48]
The president promised to veto the bill if it included a jobs plan; House Democrats were adamant about the MX. Perhaps Reagan could have been talked into accepting jobs in return for getting MX. The new bias against spending won out; the conferees chose no spending and no MX until the dispute over the mode of basing was settled and there was some place to put it. Total defense spending was set at $231.6 billion—$4 billion below the budget resolution and $18 billion below the president's request—a 9 percent real increase.
House members got a raise, and senators did not; but House members' outside incomes were restricted, and senators' were not. Conferees agreed that the CR would expire on September 30, 1982 (end of the fiscal year), meaning that no more action would be required. Senator Hatfield reported that total outlays in the bill might be around $2 billion above the budget resolution. Everyone knew that no one knew for sure. Stockman was quiet about it.[49]
The only question left was whether the pay deal and MX would scuttle the conference report. In the House not enough members requested a roll call, so the CR sailed through on a voice vote. The filibusterers were quiet in the Senate. National Security Adviser William Clark lobbied for a veto because of the MX. But the White House Legislative Strategy Group recommended that the bill be signed because Republican leaders predicted that a veto would be overridden.[50] Jack Edwards (R-Ala.) told reporters that he had called the White House and "told them that if they wanted to see the roof come off the Capitol they could veto this bills."[51] Silvio Conte, who had led the House fight against the jobs bill (and had no use for the MX) warned, "If he vetoes, he'll get a jobs bill like he never saw before … and he won't get what he wants on the MX missile … and I'd lead the fight."[52]
The president signed the CR on Tuesday, December 21, coyly congratulating Congress for having "completed action on a budget for the full fiscal year before final adjournment." If wrapping most discretionary spending into a CR, while operating under a budget resolution with
economic projections (and thus deficit totals) that were wildly out of whack, qualifies as "completing action," then Reagan may have been correct. Congress would gladly have done the same the year before if he had let them; the president, not they, had changed. "On balance," the president said, "the resolution is a significant achievement in our efforts to control discretionary spending."[53] What you want depends on what you can get![54]
As the CR awaited the president's decision, the Senate returned to work on the Transportation Assistance Act. It required five days and two more cloture votes, but the Senate finally passed both the bill and the conference report. At the battle's end, Reagan personally offered senators rides home on air force planes if they would stay in town long enough to invoke cloture and pass the bill. Five took him up on it; "that's what airplanes are for," commented Russell Long.[55]