Senate Suspends Recess, Passes Border Bill And Stevens Resolution

Suspending the August recess Thursday, the Senate passed a $600 million bill aimed at bolstering border security, as well as a resolution honoring former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who died this week in a plane crash.

Both measures were passed with unanimous consent by the two Senators in the chamber, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) decision to hold the mid-recess session followed a similar act by the lower-chamber earlier in the week. The House reconvened Monday to pass a $26 billion piece of legislation to provide federal aid to states in an effort to prevent lay-offs among teachers and other government employees.

The border security bill passed Thursday will fund the placement of an additional 1,500 enforcement officials at the U.S.-Mexico border and the implementation of additional surveillance drones.

With the completion of the vote, the Senate will be on recess until September 13th.

Senator Schumer happy with 2008 election results

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) gave a press conference on behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee concerning the current state of three Senate races.

Schumer pointed out that the Senate race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman in Minnesota is the closest race in that state’s history, with 206 votes currently separating the two candidates. He also pointed out that the state law requires a recount when races are this close, and said that both candidates should let the officials do their jobs. An “impartial recount must go forward,” said Schumer, criticizing the attacks and intimidation tactics that the right wing was using. He referred to a story that claimed 32 votes had been locked in a car overnight was “completely fabricated by the right-wing.”

In Alaska, the absentee and questionable ballots that are being counted have put Democratic candidate Mark Begich ahead of Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). Although Schumer said he would not make any predictions, he was “cautiously optimistic” that Begich would win.

In Georgia, Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ala.) defeated Democratic candidate Jim Martin but got less than 50% of the popular vote. Under the state law in Georgia, this will require a runoff election between the two candidates. Schumer said he was pleased with the outcome and was hopeful Martin would win in the runoff, and concluded “We’ve added enough Democrats to the Senate to bring change to the American people.”