WASHINGTON (AP) -- Brie, Brick, Port du Salut -- they are the legislative weapons of choice for one of several senators seeking ways to block Congress' final passage of the belated federal budget.
Name the cheese, and Sen. Russ Feingold has a file on it. For much of the months-old budget fight, he stood ready to hold the Senate floor by reading from a homemade binder that includes everything from fondue recipes to lists of Wisconsin dairy farmers in an effort to kill a spending bill and a measure attached to it that he says would devastate his state's dairy industry."Even if that means, you know, being here over the weekend or into next week, you know, Thanksgiving," Feingold said casually on Thursday, paging through a binder, "All About Cheese: Dairy Filibuster."
That's not funny to his fellow lawmakers, who are trying to wind down debate over spending bills that have stretched seven weeks beyond the Oct. 1 start of fiscal 2000 and eaten into their winter vacations. A filibuster -- a procedural shrine to unlimited talk by senators -- would keep lawmakers in Washington even longer.
But Feingold and his fellow Wisconsin Democrat, Herb Kohl, weren't the only ones holding spending bills hostage to push through their own legislation.
"No one in there is happy," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, pointing a thumb over her shoulder this week as she left a GOP conference meeting where filibuster threats filled the air.
The Senate's master of procedural brinkmanship, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., also had an issue to settle with congressional leaders and the White House over a court order he says would harm the coal industry in his home state. President Clinton especially irked Byrd for first supporting his proposal to overturn the court order, but then, under pressure from environmentalists, rejecting it.
Byrd first threatened to single-handedly block at least one spending bill until his measure was agreed to. But rejected by the White House and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, Byrd relented when they granted his proposal in a vote late Thursday. It was a symbolic action, however, because the House already had decided against considering the measure.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., also backed off his threat to block a stopgap measure to keep agencies functioning after midnight Thursday because he wanted rural loan guarantees included in a measure expanding satellite TV coverage. But he relented after he was promised a vote on the issue next year.
In Feingold and Kohl's case, the issue is cheese and milk.
The fight is over revisions the Agriculture Department wants to make in the minimum prices bottlers and processors pay farmers for milk. Midwest farmers like USDA's new system, but farmers elsewhere favor an alternative plan and had it inserted in the spending bill. The legislation also would allow New England to continue fixing milk prices above the federal minimums.
Cheese and the threat of total boredom were Feingold's ammo. Throughout the debate, he has strategically placed the binder, with its hard-to-miss 2-inch lettering, atop his desk like a loaded pistol, in plain view of colleagues.
Nearby, he has kept two books checked out of the Library of Congress: "Cheeses of the World" and "Dairy Lovers' Cookbook." Feingold has earmarked sections titled, "Cheese and Civilization" and "Making Cheese."
He delivered a sample of his cache of information during a warning speech Sept. 22. His opening line: "Cheese, unlike its ancient cousin, yogurt, is not a novel food to Americans...."