DOJ Appropriations Bill stalls

Main Justice:

The Senate on Tuesday was unable to muster the 60 votes necessary to cut off debate on legislation that would allocate $27.4 billion to the Justice Department.

The Senate voted was four votes short of invoking cloture on thef iscal year 2010 Commerce, Justice, science appropriations bill. The vote was 56-38.

“I think what has happened here in the Senate is outrageous,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on the Senate floor.

Reid accused Republicans of “legislating out of spite.” He predicted the bill eventually will be passed. The delay didn’t appear to be related to any DOJ-specific issues.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the floor that he wasn’t aware of any Republicans who were trying to prevent the legislation from passing. McConnell said negotiations with Democrats broke down late this afternoon over a list of almost 50 proposed amendments to the bill.

And certainly Reid is a hypocrite in his statement since he was the lone Democrat along with a majority of GOP that voted no on the bill. Check out this partial list of the nays:

NAYs —38

McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Reid (D-NV)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)