On Capitol Hill, Vice President Dick Cheney has cut short a trip abroad to be present in case a tie-breaking vote is needed on two contentious bills before the Senate today. A budget bill approved by the House Monday would cut federal funding for child support and student loans, as well as impose new fees on Medicaid recipients and new work restrictions on state welfare.

The cuts would trim $40 billion dollars; that total is nearly matched by $36 billion dollars that would have been saved had the Senate kept a provision to cut a government program that provides financial incentives to lure managed care companies into Medicare. That provision was removed from the bill under pressure from the White House.

The Los Angeles Times notes the $40 billion dollars in budget cuts is also dwarfed by the $70 billion dollar cost of a Republican proposal expected to be voted on next year that would extend previous tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003. Five Senate Republicans have reportedly joined Democrats in opposing the budget measure. Their combined votes would lead to a 50-50 tie. As president of the Senate, Cheney would break any deadlock.

Meanwhile, the Senate is gearing for another showdown over a provision to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In a highly controversial move, Republican Senator Todd Stevens of Alaska successfully added the measure to the 2006 military defense budget bill after it was rejected from the budget reconciliation bill.

• Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope: “We all know that if the vote was on the arctic we would win. We know that if the vote was on attaching the arctic to the budget reconciliation bill, we had won. The thing we’re wrestling with now is the effort by Senator Stevens to make this look like a vote on supporting our troops. Well it’s not a vote on supporting our troops.”