- 18 September 2008
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- Legislative Agenda, Sanctions
Last night at 6:30pm, the Senate voted 88-8 to approve the Defense Authorization Act of 2009 (S. 3001) without taking up nearly 100 pending amendments, including new Iran sanctions proposed by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT).
The Senate spent the last two weeks debating these proposed amendments, but in the end failed to approve of any of them — though it could still be possible that the final version will contain most or all of them. But Congress will certainly have to work hard to finalize an agreement in time to adjourn next week.
The bill now moves to a conference committee made up of select Representatives and Senators who will work out a compromise over differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. Aides are predicting that the nearly 100 proposed amendments could still be approved by the conference committee and attached to the final version that President Bush signs into law.