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 In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip:First Vote Of The Week: Tuesday 6:30 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted: Friday 3:00 p.m. MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2011
On Monday, the House is not in session. TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011
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. 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) WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2011 AND THE BALANCE OF THE WEEK
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. On Thursday, 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 Friday, the House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business with last votes no later than 3:00 p.m. H.R. 830 - The FHA Refinance Program Termination Act (Rep. Dold - Financial Services) (Subject to a Rule) H.R. 836 - The Emergency Mortgage Relief Program Termination Act (Rep. Hensarling - Financial Services) (Subject to a Rule)
In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader: Convenes: 2:00pm 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 following nominations: -Calendar #4, Anthony Battaglia, of CA, to be US District Judge for the Southern District of CA -Calendar #32, Sue Myerscough, of IL, to be US District Judge for the Central District of IL -Calendar #33, James Shadid, of IL, to be US District Judge for the Central District of IL There will be one hour for debate equally divided between Senators Leahy and Grassley or their designees. Upon the use or yielding back of time, Calendar #32, Sue Myerscough, of IL, to be US District Judge for the Central District of IL will be confirmed. The Senate will then proceed to a series of 3 roll call votes on the following: -confirmation of Executive Calendar #33, James Shadid, of IL, to be US District Judge for the Central District of IL -confirmation of Executive Calendar #4, Anthony Battaglia, of CA, to be US District Judge for the Southern District of CA -motion to invoke cloture on S.23, the America Invents Act 5:00pm Filing deadline for all 2nd degree amendments to S.23, the America Invents Act.
Well, more of the same this week. The House noodles around with cuts and rescissions that don't really do anything in terms of creating jobs, but do score political points for Republicans by trying to recapture money designated for implementing programs that were Democratic and Obama administration priorities. And the Senate occupies itself for a second week with the patent bill, plus a continuing trickle from the backlog of non-controversial judicial appointments. That continuing trickle gives Republicans something to point to when they claim to be living up to the terms of the "gentlemen's agreement" that ended the Senate rules reform fight. Even as Republicans who were not party to the agreement (by design, surely) renew their commitment to filibustering pretty much anything that comes along. As always, in between sessions of chasing wingnut pipe dreams on the floor, there's the cooking up of even wilder wingnut fantasies in committee. Try tuning in to catch the craziest of the crazy, using our committee schedule.
After a fair amount of time and work, we have managed to get the Committee Dashboard near 100% functioning. In light of that, we are removing the password protection and making the livefeeds available to the general public. In addition, you can now get the embed code for every livefeed.
Our next goal is to develop a reliable and user-friendly archiving system for the Committee Dashboard. A large amount of our attention over the coming weeks or months will be directed towards accomplishing just that. For the time, access to the archives will be restricted to registered users (registration for the site is handled on a case-by-case basis, if you are interested, please contact us and will we begin the application process).
Lastly, for any new vistors, I want to quickly reiterate some tips for using the dashboard:
Most importantly, contact us if you encounter any problems, that's what we're here for. You'll find most of what you need in the menu at the top. If you have trouble viewing a feed, make sure you have updated your Flip4Mac (and maybe Quicktime) if you are using a Mac, and your Windows Media Player and/or Real Player if you are using a PC. If you want to know what Committee feeds are happening today, there is a category for that and a button in the menu bar. There is a full Committee schedule embedded on the front page and a button in the menu bar. There you will find links for the livefeed. You'll notice a chat below every feed. To begin with, we are using one chat room for the entire dashboard. That could very well change at any moment. Lastly, as with most online chats, you should not consider anything you say there as private. We will moderate any comments that we deem offensive. Our audience represents a diverse set of backgrounds and political persuasions and we ask that people treat each other with respect.
Hey there beta testers! Just wanted to drop a quick update here. Thanks to all the folks who have been trying out some of the livefeeds and sending us feedback.
There seems to be at least one feed that isn't working (the problem seems to stem from the source and not from our code*). We'll touch base with the individual Committees about that.
We also found one feed where the code had changed just slightly, that was an easy fix.
We are monitoring the feeds as much as we can, but if you find one isn't working please let us know right away and we will work to fix it. You can get in touch with us through several different methods. You can send us an email or just mention it in the chat (if you are so inclined, you can even tell us on Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube too!). However you let us know, I guarantee one of us will see it.
* The feeds we provide here all originate from the individual Committees themselves. We do our best to ensure that what we are showing you is the same thing you would find from the original source. If you want to find links for those original feeds, they are all included in the schedule.
In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
First Vote Of The Week: Monday 6:00 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted: Friday p.m. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2010 On Monday, the House will meet at 2:00 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:00 p.m.
Suspensions (10 Bills)
- H. Res.___ - Providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendment to H.R. 5566 with an amendment - Prevention of Interstate Commerce in Animal Crush Videos Act of 2010 (Rep. Gallegly - Judiciary)
- H.Res. 716- Recognizing Gail Abarbanel and the Rape Treatment Center (Rep. Kennedy - Judiciary)
- Senate Amendment to H.R. 5283 - Help HAITI Act of 2010 (Rep. Fortenberry - Judiciary)
- S. 1376- International Adoption Simplification Act (Sen. Klobuchar - Judiciary)
- H.R. __- Marine Sergeant Michael H. Ferschke, Jr. Memorial Act (Rep. Duncan - Judiciary)
- H.R. __- To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to toll, during active-duty service abroad in the Armed Forces, the periods of time to file a petition and appear for an interview to remove the conditional basis for permanent resident status (Rep. Lofgren - Judiciary)
- H.R. 5264- Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2011 (Rep. Conyers - Judiciary)
- H.Res. __- Honoring the 30th Anniversary of the Bayh-Dole Act (Rep. Conyers - Judiciary)
- S. 3689- Copyright Cleanup, Clarification, and Corrections Act of 2010 (Sen. Leahy - Judiciary)
- H.Res. __- Recognizing and honoring the 50th anniversary of Ruby Bridges desegregating a previously all-white public elementary school (Rep. Lewis (GA) - Judiciary)
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2010 AND THE BALANCE OF THE WEEK
On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for Morning Hour debate and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for legislative business. On Friday, the House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business.
Suspensions (23 Bills)
- H.Res. 1475- Congratulates the town of Tarboro, North Carolina, on the occasion of its 250th anniversary (Rep. Butterfield - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.Res. 1428- Recognizing Brooklyn Botanic Garden on its 100th anniversary as the preeminent horticultural attraction in the borough of Brooklyn and its longstanding commitment to environmental stewardship and education for the City of New York (Rep. Clarke - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. 5758- To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2 Government Center in Fall River, Massachusetts, as the "Sergeant Robert Barrett Post Office Building" (Rep. Frank - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.Res. 1529- Commending Bob Sheppard for his long and respected career as the public-address announcer for the New York Yankees and the New York Giants (Rep. McCarthy (NY) - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. 5655- To designate the Little River Branch facility of the United States Postal Service located at 140 NE 84th Street in Miami, Florida, as the "Jesse J. McCrary, Jr. Post Office" (Rep. Meek - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. 5702- To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to reduce the waiting period for holding special elections to fill vacancies in the membership of the Council of the District of Columbia (Rep. Norton - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. 6278- Kingman and Heritage Islands Act of 2010 (Rep. Norton - Oversight and Government Reform
- H.R. 5367- D.C. Courts and Public Defender Service Act of 2010 (Rep. Norton - Oversight and Government Reform)
- S. 3567- A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 100 Broadway in Lynbrook, New York, as the "Navy Corpsman Jeffrey L. Wiener Post Office Building" (Sen. Schumer - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.Res. 1494- Congratulating the champion, finalists, and all other participants in the 83rd Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee (Rep. Sutton - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. 6237- To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1351 2nd Street in Napa, California, as the "Tom Kongsgaard Post Office Building". (Rep. Thompson (CA) - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. 6387- To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 337 West Clark Street in Eureka, California, as the "Sam Sacco Post Office Building" (Rep. Thompson - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. __- To improve certain administrative operations of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol (Rep. Brady (PA) - House Administration)
- H.Res. __- Congratulating the engineers, scientists, psychologists, and staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for helping to successfully rescue 33 trapped Chilean miners from a collapsed mine near Copiapo, Chile (Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson - Science and Technology)
- H.Res. 1677- Condemning the Burmese regime's undemocratic upcoming elections on November 7, 2010 (Rep. Manzullo - Foreign Affairs)
- H.J.Res. 94- Recognizing the 20th anniversary of the outbreak of the Gulf War and reaffirming the commitment of the United States towards Gulf War veterans (Rep. Michaud - Foreign Affairs)
- H.Con.Res. 259- Recognizing the 500th anniversary of the birth of Italian architect Andrea Palladio (Rep. Pascrell - Foreign Affairs)
- H.Con.Res. 327- To recognize and support the efforts of the USA Bid Committee to bring the 2018 or 2022 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup competition to the United States (Rep. Van Hollen - Foreign Affairs)
- H.Res. 1654- Expressing support for "Undergraduate Research Week" (Rep. Holt - Education and Labor)
- H.Res. 1652- Expressing support for National Principals Month (Rep. Davis (CA) - Education and Labor)
- H.Res. 1641- Celebrating September 30, 2010, as the 60th Anniversary of Impact Aid (Rep. Hirono - Education and Labor)
- H.Res. 1655- Expressing support for "National Farm to School Month" (Rep. Holt - Education and Labor)
- H.Res. 1648- Supporting the goals and ideals of National Adoption Day and National Adoption Month by promoting national awareness of adoption and the children in foster care awaiting families (Rep. Oberstar - Ways and Means)
Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1722 - Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 (Rep. Sarbanes – Oversight and Government Reform)(Subject to a Rule)
- Conference Reports may be brought up at any time.
- Motions to go to Conference should they become available.
- Possible Motions to Instruct Conferees.
In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
Monday:
Convenes: 2:00pm There will be a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. There will be no roll call votes during Monday's session of the Senate. The Senate will be in session the week of November 15-19, 2010.
Wednesday:
As a reminder, on Wednesday, September 29, Senator Reid filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the following bills:
- S.3815, the Promoting National Gas and Eletric Vehicles Act of 2010;
- S.3772, The Paycheck Fairness Act; and
- S.510, The FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act.
Senators should expect the next roll call vote to occur at a time to be determined on Wednesday, November 17, 2010. The first vote will be on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.3815, the Promoting National Gas and Eletric Vehicles Act of 2010.
So, for those of you who wanted to see the 111th Congress come roaring out of the gate in the post-election session, we have 33 suspensions on the calendar for you! Be assured that no matter what political storms we may have to weather, post offices will never go wanting for new names! At least there's one more good BANANAS Alert we can issue: H.R. 5283, the Help HAITI Act. Yes, they needed to try to cram a bad acronym into that one, believe it or not. If you ask me, the "Help Haiti Act" would have been perfectly descriptive. But apparently that wasn't good enough, and now we've got the Help Haitian Adoptees Immediately to Integrate (HAITI) Act." That's a lot better, don't you think? I thought it might be difficult for adoptees to integrate after their homes were destroyed by a series of natural disasters just by changing federal law to make it easier, but this new name will probably fix everything. So, that's good!
The Senate actually comes out with a more aggressive schedule than the House this week, with cloture votes due on three pieces of legislation. Not that they actually expect to get to those votes before Wednesday. Why start on Monday when you've only got about two weeks of work left, right? Heck, you're just going to end up leaving again at the end of the week, anyway. Come to think of it, that's true every week, isn't it? I'm gonna talk to my boss about that.
But really, given the realities of the filibuster and the short time table, is there anything the Congress could actually be doing at the end of its session? Well, there's a path available to them to possibly use reconciliation to get one last major act through, but chances are there's just no appetite for that. Reconciliation? Really? Well, yeah. Here's the theory.
Click here for the full committee schedule. For fans of the unusual, remember that the ethics "trial" of Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY-15) begins today at 9 am EST. It's really an "adjudicatory hearing," but in all appearances, it'll look largely like you'd expect a trial to look, so that's what the media is going with. Here's an explanation, if you'd like to catch up. And if you'd like to look in on it, Sunlight Live will be on the case. You usually don't see video coming out of the ethics committee (formally known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct), so this is a rare treat, so to speak.
-David Waldman
Beta testing on the Committee Dashboard begins tomorrow morning! I wanted to take a brief minute to welcome our first round of users. Thank you all for taking part.
A few things to help you get started:
Most importantly, contact us if you encounter any problems, that's what we're here for.
You'll find most of what you need in the menu at the top.
If you have trouble viewing a feed, make sure you have updated your Flip4Mac (and maybe Quicktime) if you are using a Mac, and your Windows Media Player and Real Player if you are using a PC.
If you want to know what Committee feeds are happening today, there is a category for that with a button in the menu bar.
There is a full Committee schedule embedded on the front page and a button in the menu bar. There you will find links for both the original Committee livefeed and the Main Street Insider Committee Dashboard livefeed.
You'll notice a chat below every feed. Since we have limited the number of people beta testing with us during the lame duck session of congress, we're using one chat room for the entire dashboard. As we add more users, that might change.
Lastly, as with most online chats, you should not consider anything you say there as private. We will moderate any comments that we deem offensive. While we have limited the number of people during this round of testing, they represent a diverse set of backgrounds and political persuasions and we ask that people treat each other with respect.
Please don't hesitate to contact us with feedback, suggestions, and comments. We'll post updates here as we make changes and learn more during this beta testing period.
Thanks! Will Urquhart Communications and New Media Director
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