The Senate will begin voting today on amendments to the FY’09 omnibus spending bill. One amendment, offered by Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), would simply extend the current continuing resolution (CR) for the remainder of the year. The current CR, which funds most all domestic agencies and the State Department at 2008 levels, expires midnight Friday, March 6th. Congress would likely need to enact a short-term extension if it can’t clear the bill by Friday. Senate leadership has not yet decided on how many amendments to allow but they have indicated that they want to conclude work on the omnibus by Thursday.