In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip:

First Vote Of The Week: Monday 6:30 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted: Thursday 3:00 p.m.

House GOP Leadership has announced that votes are not expected after 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 17, 2011, pending Senate action on the CR.

MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2011
On Monday, the House will meet at 12:00 p.m. for Morning Hour debate and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.

Suspensions (2 Bills)

1. H.R. 793 - To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 12781 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Inverness, California, as the "Specialist Jake Robert Velloza Post Office" (Rep. Woolsey - Oversight and Government Reform)
2. H.Con.Res. 27 - Providing for the acceptance of a statue of Gerald R. Ford from the people of Michigan for placement in the United States Capitol (Rep. Upton- House Administration)

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2011
On Tuesday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for Morning Hour debate and 12:00 p.m. for legislative business.  No votes are expected before 1:00 p.m.

H.J.Res. 48 -Further Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011 (Rep. Rogers (KY) - Appropriations) (Subject to a Rule)

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2011 AND THE BALANCE OF THE WEEK
On Wednesday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for Morning Hour debate and 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. No votes are expected before 1:00 p.m. On Thursday, the House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business with last votes no later than 3:00 p.m. On Friday, no votes are expected in the House. 

H.R. 839 - The HAMP Termination Act of 2011 (Rep. McHenry - Financial Services) (Subject to a Rule)

H.R. 861 - The NSP Termination Act (Rep. Gary Miller - Financial Services) (Subject to a Rule)

H.Con.Res. 28 -Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan (Rep. Kucinich - Foreign Affairs) (Subject to a Rule or Unanimous Consent Agreement)

Consideration of legislation relating to the federal funding of NPR

In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

Convenes: 2:00pm

Following any Leader remarks, there will be a period of morning business until 4:30pm, with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

At 4:30pm, the Senate will proceed to Executive session to consider the nomination of calendar #10, the nomination of James Boasber, of the District of Columbia, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia. There will be up to 1 hour for debate equally divided prior to a vote on the nomination.

Votes:
Senators should expect 2 roll call votes at 5:30pm in relation to the following items:

- Confirmation of the nomination of James Boasber, of the District of Columbia, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia, and
- Cloture on the motion to proceed to S.493, SBIR and STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011.

The central event of the week will once again be a continuing resolution, since the last two-week extension didn't result in any agreement on a longer-term solution. So, Republicans are back with a new, three-week CR, which the traditional media will tell you—with some justifiable claim to accuracy—continues the GOP's insistence that spending be reduced by $2 billion per week.

What do I mean?

The $2 billion per week claim is accurate enough. The thing is that the takeaway for the news consumer is supposed to be that Republicans are hardasses, are "making the tough choices," and forcing Democrats to agree. That's the genius of stringing things along two and three weeks at a time. You see, almost all of the cuts the Republican proposals have made are borrowed either from cuts recommended by President Obama's budget, cuts recommended by the Senate Democrats' alternative CR proposed last week, or are rescissions of earmarks made in the fiscal year 2011 spending bills. You'll recall that the president has taken much the same hard line on earmarking that Republicans said they wanted, so in some sense it could be said that the cuts Republicans are making in these two and three week CRs are ones that have been handed to them on a silver platter by Democrats, only by stringing things out this way, they've been magically converted into Republican-sponsored cuts.

And should they ever run out of those cuts to borrow, Republicans will then begin proposing their own, but also be able to insist that the failure of Democrats to agree to them—or propose their own alternatives—represents an unwillingness to compromise.

Brilliant, really.

In the meantime, Republicans will happily step out of the way to allow Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH-10) to offer a resolution directing the president to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan, under the War Powers Resolution, in the hopes of perpetuating the old "Dems divided" headlines in the traditional media. And they'll get them, too, despite the Kucinich resolution being cosponsored by Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC-03) and Ron Paul (R-TX-14).

Less worthy of attention this week, but surely due for it, will be an as-yet-unwritten bill dealing with NPR funding. As you know, whenever James O'Keefe releases a fake video, Republicans move to defund the target, and Democrats all too often go into the don't-hurt-me-I'll-be-good crouch and go along for the ride. ACORN, Planned Parenthood, and now NPR. Too bad O'Keefe can't secretly catch the Pentagon on video, admitting they don't need that second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter!

In the Senate... well, they'll be waiting for the House to send them a CR. For now, they're biding their time by continuing to drip, drip, drip out confirmation votes on more of those non-controversial judicial nominations that were part of the "gentleman's agreement" on the filibuster reform crisis earlier this year. This particular nominee has only been waiting since June of last year, and had to be renominated at the start of the 112th Congress. Speaking of the "gentleman's agreement," the vote after that one will be on a cloture motion—the third one already this year on a motion to proceed, which, you know, wasn't supposed to happen anymore, but actually is happening quite a lot anyway, because they didn't really reform the Senate hold.

Oh well!

Plenty happening in the committees this week. The schedule appears below the fold. Check out video of all the action, and join friends for a chat and perhaps the chance to point and laugh together, using the Main Street Insider Committee Dashboard.

In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip:

TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK
On Friday, the House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business with last votes expected no later than 3:00 p.m.

“One Minutes” (5 per side)

H.R. 836 – The Emergency Mortgage Relief Program Termination Act (One hour of general debate) (Rep. Hensarling - Financial Services)

The Senate is not in session today.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Another bill held over for another day, stretching out the work week into Friday. At least it looks like they're working. Though it should be said that they are bringing this bill to the floor under a modified open rule, as they did with yesterday's bill, and that means they can't be entirely sure how long it'll take to complete work on it. So perhaps it makes a certain amount of sense to limit work to one such bill a day, rather than try to do too much in any one day.

Then again, this bill too is already under a veto threat. So maybe it doesn't really make all that much sense to measure out the time being set aside for it, in the end.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't brush up on what's in the bill. Because what the hell else are you gonna do?

Well, you could watch a couple committee hearings. Plenty of them on the schedule this morning, and all viewable at the Main Street Insider Committee Dashboard. You can even chat along with others watching with you. Go on, give it a shot.

In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip:

TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK
On Wednesday, The House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for legislative business and recess immediately. At approximately 11:00 a.m., the House will convene in a Joint Meeting with the Senate for the purpose of receiving an address from The Honorable Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia.

First/Last votes are expected between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m.

“One Minutes” (15 per side) will occur after the Joint Meeting.

H.Res. 151 – Rule providing for consideration of H.R. 836 , The Emergency Mortgage Relief Program Termination Act (Rep. Sessions – Rules)

H.Res. 150 – Rule providing for consideration of H.R. 830 , The FHA Refinance Program Termination Act (Rep. Bishop (UT) – Rules)

In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

Convenes: 9:30am

Morning business until 10:40am with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each equally divided and controlled with the Majority controlling the first half and the Republicans controlling the final half.

At 10:40am, the Senate will recess until 12:00pm for a Joint Meeting of Congress with the Honorable Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia.

At 12pm, the Senate will proceed to H.R.1, the House-passed funding bill with 3 hours of debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. Upon the use or yielding back of time, at approximately 3pm, the Senate will proceed to a series of 2 roll call votes:

- Passage of H.R.1 (60-vote threshold)

- Adoption of the Inouye amendment #149, the Democratic alternative to H.R.1 (60-vote threshold)

Not much going on in the House. Just paving the way for things to go on tomorrow. Specifically, two bills that are already under veto threat.

In the Senate, it's just one bill. But that one's under veto threat, too.

And what a deal they've worked out for themselves. A double "painless filibuster," that is, two versions of the continuing appropriations bill that will each—by unanimous consent—require 60 votes to pass. That's what'll be standing in for what would otherwise be a Democratic threat to filibuster the Republican version of the bill, and the Republican threat to filibuster the Democratic version. But instead of actually doing any of that work, or wasting any of that time, everyone's just going to agree to require 60 votes up front. Which means that in all likelihood, neither one will pass, and we'll have nine days left until the latest CR runs out and we're looking at another shutdown threat.

But... that's what we're doing.

The committee schedule appears below the fold. Including links to video for most hearings, viewable through the Main Street Insider Committee Dashboard.

In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip:

TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK
On Tuesday, the House will meet at 2:00 p.m. for Morning Hour debate and 4:00 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. 

“One Minutes”

Suspensions (2 Bills)

1. H.R. 570 - The Dental Emergency Responder Act (Rep. Burgess - Energy and Commerce)
2. H.R. 525 - The Veterinary Public Health Workforce and Education Act (Rep. Baldwin - Energy and Commerce)

In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

Convenes: 9:30am

Morning business for 2 hours with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each with the Republicans controlling the first hour and the Majority controlling the final half.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of S.23, the America Invents Act, post-cloture.

By unanimous consent, all time during adjournment, morning business and recess will count post-cloture on S.23.

The Senate will recess from 12:30pm until 2:15pm for the weekly caucus luncheons.

The Majority Leader hopes to reach an agreement regarding H.R.1 and the Democratic alternative. Senators should expect roll call votes during Tuesday’s session of the Senate.

The bills actually on the floor don't have anything to do with the business that's really at hand. That is, trying to keep the government funded and running. Because the two-week clock is ticking, and it's not looking a great deal like the sides are going to come together very quickly. Of course, it's not exactly a throwdown, either, considering that Senate Dems are hoping "to reach an agreement regarding H.R. 1," as opposed to just ignoring it and bringing whatever they want to the floor.

But Senate Dems can't do that, because it still takes 60 votes to bring something to the floor if someone decides to make a stink. And if there's anything Senate Republicans know how to do, it's make a stink.

But what about that "gentlemen's agreement" to stop filibustering motions to proceed so often? Well, for one thing, that's an agreement between Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, and not everybody in the Senate takes all their cues from Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. For another, the effort "to reach an agreement regarding H.R. 1" is in a sense exactly what the "gentlemen's agreement" was all about. The deal was that Republicans wouldn't filibuster the motion to proceed so often, but only so long as Democrats didn't prevent Republicans from offering amendments by "filling the amendment tree" so often. 

Back when Democrats had 60 or near 60 votes, they could have tried to force H.R. 1 onto the floor, offered a substitute amendment that changed the whole thing, and then boxed out all Republican amendments thereafter. That's no longer possible, so instead, Senators will have to try to reach a deal whereby everyone is (or at least 60 of them are) satisfied that the proper balance of amendments are going to be allowed, whatever that might mean. And no one's really sure what it does mean. At a minimum, though, we can probably guess that Republicans will demand something as close as possible to a direct vote on the House-passed version of H.R. 1, while Democrats will insist on a vote on whatever it is they'd prefer to see passed. After that, anything goes. There's no telling what craziness any particular Senator might demand a vote on in exchange for supporting the motion to proceed.

And when you can't tell what craziness might ensue, you can be pretty sure it's not going to be easy to wrap things up in two weeks.

This sure would have been a great time to have reformed the filibuster, eh?

Anyway, like I said, the opening rounds of this is all going on behind the scenes, not playing itself out in front of the C-SPAN cameras, though there's some speculation that it could at last spill out into the open, perhaps as soon as today, in the form of a series of failed votes that don't actually get anything to the floor, but serve to count up votes on each side. The traditional media will call them "test votes." The reality is that they're very real, and very really represent serious obstructionism when one spending plan gets a majority vote and still can't move. But for some reason, the traditional media thinks it's cute to pretend they're "just testing."

There is some alternative action that will be on camera. The committee schedule below the fold will clue you in to where and when that stuff is going on, and starting this week, the links to the video feeds from those committee hearings will be viewable through the Committee Dashboard from Main Street Insider. Stop by and witness, for instance, the insanity that is Alan Simpson, as he appears before the Senate Budget Committee at 10 am EST, and pretends that the Cat Food Commission actually issued an official report. Go on, I dare you.

The Committee Dashboard is in what you might call an early Beta phase. It's functional, but it's just there to prove the concept at the moment. We'll be dressing it up, giving it a sleeker interface, and adding some premium features in the near future that we hope will make committee watching engaging and interesting.

Hahahahaha!

No, seriously. You really should watch Congressional committee proceedings. And we're gonna make it easier.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, MARCH 8 2011
CONTACT: Will Urquhart, Communications and New Media Director at Main Street Insider, will@mainstreetinsider.org (202)-329-5457

Main Street Insider Releases Groundbreaking New Congressional Transparency Tool

For over a year now, Main Street Insider has been busy developing a single online location that combines a free schedule of U.S. House and Senate committee activities with live video of these events whenever available. We call it the Committee Dashboard, and this week we are thrilled to announce that it is open to the general public.

The Committee Dashboard gives people all over the world an unprecedented ability to witness the committee process from their computer. The hearings and markups that take place in these committees often shape the narrative of discussion and have a direct, significant impact on legislation that reaches the floor. User-friendly, unfiltered access to these events for folks outside the Beltway can ultimately raise the level of debate and result in better governing.

This tool, and the very need for its development, also sheds light on the sad state of the livefeeds being provided by the various committees. In a letter released in late January of this year, our Executive Director, Jeremy Koulish, and the Sunlight Foundation’s Executive Director, Ellen Miller, called upon the House of Representatives to take steps in order to improve their livefeed technology (among other things). Today, as we here at Main Street Insider make the Committee Dashboard available to the general public, we renew that call.

You can find the Committee Dashboard at www.MainStreetInsider.org. There is a packed schedule of hearings and markups this week, so drop on by and join us in holding our government accountable.