Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut Independent, will not be present Tuesday for the vote on the DISCLOSE Act, a spokeswoman told the Daily Caller, virtually ensuring that the bill will not pass.
Lieberman is attending a funeral service and will not be in Washington, spokeswoman Erika Masonhall said.
The odds of passage for DISCLOSE were already low, with all Republicans but one — Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine — certain to vote against it. But there was still hope for some on the left that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, would be able to pull together the votes.
But Lieberman’s absence means that even if Snowe were to vote for the bill, Reid would still be one vote short.
In the House, lawmakers are debating the $59 billion supplemental bill for the war in Afghanistan. The bill is likely to pass, but House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, Wisconsin Democrat, has said he will vote against it out of anger that $10 billion for education funding had been stripped from the legislation.
Republicans, however, said they planned to give their full support.
“We expect a very strong vote in support of this supplemental,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican. “We are going to support this bill.”