The Senate embarked Thursday on its annual budget “vote-a-rama,” an event many feel is deeply flawed but that neither party has found a way to avoid.

The vote-a-rama is an hours-long series of roll call votes on dozens of amendments to the annual budget resolution — in this case, the fiscal 2010 blueprint (S Con Res 13). At noon, more than 100 amendments were lined up for votes — about 33 hours worth, according to Kent Conrad , D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Instead of shrinking, the list kept growing.

By midafternoon, 230 amendments were pending that would require nearly 80 hours of debate “if everybody sticks to their amendment,” Conrad said.

“Amendments have really sprouted here, and I just hope people think about whether we want to be doing this three days straight,” he said.

Some amendments are offered just minutes before they are voted on, sending senators’ staff scrambling to understand their impact. Senators, meanwhile, can’t stray far from the floor, for fear of missing the next vote, so they look for ways to pass the time.

“It’s hardly a function of the world’s greatest deliberative body,” Arlen Specter , R-Pa., told the Senate Budget Committee earlier this year.

The vote-a-rama is unique to the budget resolution, which is subject to special rules of debate. The resolution is debated for 50 hours, although some of that time can be yielded back. Amendments can be offered after that time expires, as part of an effort to ensure the minority party has a fighting chance to influence the final resolution, which cannot be filibustered. This sets up a scenario where dozens of amendments are voted on in back-to-back votes that can continue for hours.

Last year, the vote-a-rama began shortly after 11:30 a.m. on March 13 and ended close to 2 a.m. March 14. In total, there were 40 roll call votes on amendments.

That marathon was partly due to election-year politics, with each party seeking to advance amendments that would be politically difficult to oppose. Because the budget resolution is non-binding, most such amendments have little practical impact but they serve as fodder for political advertisements, where an announcer can say with practiced gravitas, “Senator so-and-so voted to raise taxes 12 times... .”

At times, the truncated debate during these amendment votes has little to do with the budget, wandering off to issues such as immigration or abortion.

Thursday’s vote-a-rama should not last nearly as long as last year’s, but is still likely to consume several hours.

Overhaul Proves Difficult

Some senators sought to overhaul the process after last year’s marathon. Specter introduced a resolution that would have required first-degree amendments to be filed by the 10th hour of debate and second-degree amendments prior to the 20th hour. It also called for the budget resolution to be set aside for one day prior to the 40th hour of debate so members could review the amendments. He has introduced a similar proposal (S Res 29) this year.