Jonathan Karl: Security vote could bring House back

CNN's Jonathan Karl

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RELATED Democrats question items in homeland security bill  VIDEO CNN's Jonathan Karl says Democrats have a list of seven provisions they want to cut from the homeland security bill. (November 18) PLAY VIDEO HOMELAND SECURITY • Text of Homeland Security Bill  (Findlaw PDF) • Interactive: Homeland Security shuffle  LEGISLATION HIGHLIGHTS Creates a Cabinet-level department out of all or parts of 22 agencies -- including Customs, INS and the Transportation Security Administration -- with about 170,000 workers and a $37 billion budget. Grants the president flexibility to hire and fire workers, but gives unions a chance to challenge new rules. Approves a plan to allow pilots to carry guns in cockpits.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Easy completion of a bill creating the U.S. Department of Homeland Security now faces obstacles as Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, takes sides with Democrats on a key vote Tuesday to strip so-called "special interest" provisions from the bill that the GOP-led House passed last week.

McCain's switch Monday, and the uncertain votes of a handful of Democratic lawmakers and Sen. Dean Barkley, an independent from Minnesota, left unclear how the vote would turn out.

If the provisions are killed from the bill, it will mean the House, which adjourned last week, will need to return to session to negotiate the differences in the two bills and pass a compromise, if one can be reached.

CNN Correspondent Jonathan Karl filed the following report Tuesday on these developments:

KARL: A last-minute Senate showdown over what Democrats were calling special interests provisions threatens to delay passage of the homeland security bill.

The Democrats were trying to pass an amendment that would strip seven provisions in the bill that were added by the House of Representatives. These were provisions that include several measures limiting the liability of companies, companies including pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines.

It also contains limits on liabilities for companies that manufacture technologies that are used in the war against terrorism. And also a liability limitation for companies that manufacture those baggage screening machines at airports.

Now Democrats would like to see these provisions stripped from the bill, and they've got one key Republican ally. That's Sen. John McCain.

Now the problem is ... if those items are stripped from the bill, the House of Representatives, which has already left town for the year, would have to come back to negotiate the differences between the bill they passed last week and the bill the Senate is now passing this week.

Republican Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas says that process could actually kill the bill.

But Democrats say that's nonsense -- that the House of Representatives could simply be called back to Washington to work out the differences between the bill they passed and the bill to be passed by the Senate.

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