In the Senate, members are usually spending pork – not eating it! But a barbeque dinner was one of the few perks of [Thursday] night’s vote-a-rama, the closest thing to a Senate sleepover there is. After working well past 4 a.m., members and their staffs were just leaving their offices [Friday] morning when most Americans were headed to theirs. Sixteen hours, 784 amendments, and gallons of coffee later, the weary 100 finally made their way to the exits for a two-week Easter break.

By dawn, 42 amendments were actually voted on in the unique budget free-for-all – which, for all the frenzy, isn’t even legally binding. As it has for years, the Senate uses this crazy process to map out a budget blueprint. The benefit is that, unlike other legislative business, leaders can offer an unlimited number of amendments without worrying about filibusters. That usually means senators will take the opportunity to make a political point – or try to get their colleagues on the record on an issue that they can use to their advantage in campaign ads later on.

“Unlike normal legislation, which can be debated for weeks on end, this law limits the total debate time for a budget resolution to 50 hours… This is quite different from the process on a normal bill,” former Senate staffer Keith Hennessey explains, “where you can offer an amendment but not be assured of a quick vote.” By the end, the Senate will typically have crammed in a third of their votes for the year into this one chaotic night.

In between the barbeque and baked beans, members managed to deal with a number of FRC’s key issues. While our government affairs team worked around-the-clock tracking amendments, there were a few surprises. In the good news column, Senator David Vitter’s (R-La.) amendment put another dent in the President’s PR campaign for Common Core. By 54-46, the Senate voted to stop the state coercion on the federal standards. For the last few years, the federal government has strong-armed states into adopting Common Core by withholding certain funds. It’s been an effective carrot-stick approach for the Obama administration, which can’t seem to find much support for the agenda without incentivizing, mandating, or bullying states into submission.

Then, following in the House’s footsteps, senators also laid down a marker on the death tax. Under Congress’s liberal leadership, the tax code never says die – even when the person it’s taxing does. When President Bush was in office, Americans didn’t have to worry about the cost of passing on their estates. And although the Left likes to argue that the tax only affects millionaires, they’re wrong. A lot of times, it’s the small businesses that started in family’s garage and farms who suffer most. [Thursday] night, Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) introduced language to bury the death tax, which also passed on a party-line vote, 54-46.

In the greatest disappointment of the night, almost a dozen Republicans – some who visibly campaigned on natural marriage – sided with Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) in tearing down the last two federal holdouts that respect state marriage laws: the social security and veterans’ administrations. Unlike other departments, these agencies have consistently recognized marriage for couples based on the state where they live – not the state where they “married.”

In a stunning betrayal of voters and the GOP platform, 11 RINOs decided the federal government should trump state laws on marriage and force states to bow to the Left’s definition. In other words, the question was not just about what marriage is, but who gets to decide. Senators Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Shelley Capito (W.Va.), Susan Collins (Maine), Dean Heller (Nev.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Ron Johnson (Wisc), and Bob Corker (Tenn.) made it clear that they were quite comfortable undermining state marriage laws – even when many of these same Republicans (Tillis in particular) – were fighting last year to defend them!

Interestingly enough, these Senators trampled state sovereignty on the same day as a Texas court ruled that the Department of Labor could only give couples benefits based on the state where they were married – not their state of residence. “The public maintains an abiding interest in preserving the rule of law and enforcing the states’ duly enacted laws from federal encroachment,” District Judge Reed O'Connor wrote. Too bad these 11 Republicans don’t share that same interest.

Mission (Not Yet) Accomplished

If producers were looking for a new primetime drama, the debate over Georgia’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act would qualify. After eleventh hour negotiations and on-again, off-again headlines, Republicans [Thursday] snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Inches away from sending the RFRA bill to the full committee for a vote (one of the final hurdles between RFRA and passage), one of the members on the Judiciary Committee offered an amendment to gut the bill that the body had just rebuilt. And it passed – stunning the committee and forcing the legislation onto life support before the state house adjourns. RedState’s Erick Erickson, a Georgian, has been following the debate as close as anyone and was irate – as most conservatives were – by what they saw. “They saved RFRA in a subcommittee only to kill it in full committee… This is a serious betrayal.”

And a sudden one. We were ready to push “send” on the Update [Thursday] cheering the developments, when the news hit D.C. that Republicans had rolled back all of the language that would have made RFRA meaningful. With the Left bearing down on members, it was difficult to land on a proposal that would legitimately protect businesses run by Christians from the fates of Barronelle Stuzman, Aaron and Melissa Klein, and Courtney Schmackers – as well as other believers like Dr. Eric Walsh with natural beliefs on marriage and sexuality. Now, the very law that could have helped these men and women, is temporarily sunk – and time is ticking down to do anything about it.

Fortunately, leaders have until April 2 to right this wrong. If you’re in Georgia, please take a moment to call these five Republicans and politely but firmly insist that they bring a clean religious freedom bill to the floor of the House. Even if you have already called them in the past week, it is important that they hear from you today. Urge them to rethink their decision and follow Indiana’s lead in giving people of faith the religious liberty they deserve.

Red Light District Goes Green

Are you late for work? Did you forget someone’s birthday? Blame global warming! Everyone else is. Severe acne, UFOs, cougar attacks – you name it! Those are just three of the things that scientists are pinning on global warming. On Wednesday, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) added another to the list: prostitution.

A member of the U.S. Congress is actually suggesting that if the government doesn’t address climate change, more women will be forced to sell themselves for sex. In a resolution [last] week, she insisted (with a straight face) that global warming creates “conflict” and “instability” in the world, which, she claims, leads to prostitution. “Women will disproportionately face harmful impacts from climate change,” the measure says. “(Starving) women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and poor reproductive health.”

Of course, Rep. Lee isn’t the first to suggest a link between the climate and prostitution. It’s one of the many things the Left blames on the supposed economic fallout of global warming. You can’t make this stuff up – unless, apparently, you’re a liberal!

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.