Tomorrow the Senate will be voting on a very important amendment sponsored by Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA). The amendment will increase the appropriations ceiling by $7 billion, restoring that funding to the committees that have jurisdiction over education, nutrition, social services, energy assistance, Head Start, child care, Meals on Wheels, and many other vital services. These services will otherwise experience significant cuts.

The budget resolution approved by the Senate Budget Committee includes a provision opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil exploration, promising to set up a showdown on the floor next week. The provision is contentious because it would protect the provision from filibuster. A letter of objection was signed by prominent Republican Senators including Sens. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) Norm Coleman (R-MN), Susan Collins (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), and Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME), saying:

Senate Budget Committee Chair Judd Gregg (R-NH) unvelied the 2007 budget resolution mark yesterday. Notably it did not contain any reconciliation instructions for tax cuts, which may get in the way of efforts to cut taxes outside of the left-over tax reconciliation bill from last year that Congress is still negotiating. Additionally, it drops Bush's proposal for Medicare cuts and health savings accounts.

The Senate approved funding yesterday for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program in a 68-31 vote to accept a second-degree amendment offered by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME). The amendment provides an additional $1 billion for LIHEAP for this fiscal year, disbursing half of it through both LIHEAP's traditional funding formula and a contingency fund to be released at the discretion of the White House. The focus is now on the House, where a number of conservative members have argued that the added LIHEAP funding this year is not paid for.