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Search Results: today-in-congressToday in CongressPublished: May 17, 2011 by admin
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This Week in Congress
 Recapping yesterday's action: Er, ah, well... see, the thing is, the House is in recess all week. And the Senate? Well, they were in session. Sort of. But they didn't vote on anything. They made some deals to vote on some stuff today, and later this week. Well, sort of. That is, they agreed to hold some votes that would require 60 votes in order to pass. And they even agreed to hold some votes on whether or not to begin debate on stuff they want to vote on, and those votes will also require 60 votes to pass. Oh, and they named some post offices by unanimous consent. But they didn't vote on anything. Looking ahead to today: The Senate is the only show in town today. And they'll start with another judicial nomination, that of Susan Carney, for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. That's a bigger deal than most of the nominations that they've dealt with to this point during this Congress. The appeals bench is the intermediate step between federal trial courts and the Supreme Court. So we'll see whether this one goes smoothly or not. After the break for party lunches, it's on to the first of the bills covered under yesterday's deal. So what's that deal about? The idea is to take up S. 940, the Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act. But we don't even know that that's what'll end up happening. Why not? Because before you can take up a bill, you have to get the Senate as a body to agree that that's what they want to do. Bills don't just come to the floor by magic. If you're lucky, you can get unanimous consent to do it. But if not, then you have to actually make a motion to proceed to consider the bill you want (a "motion to proceed" for short), and get a Senate majority to agree to your motion. Thing is, the motion to proceed gets a debate of its own. And that debate is subject to the filibuster. And if you can filibuster the motion to proceed, then what you end up with is a debate on whether or not to end debate on the question of whether to start debate on the bill you actually wanted to bring to the floor. You may recall that we saw a lot of that in the last Congress. This Congress began with a "gentleman's agreement" by Republicans not to filibuster motions to proceed, in exchange for Democrats agreeing not to use procedural tricks to block Republicans from offering amendments. So I guess that deal broke down over this bill, at least. What we have in this situation, however, is what I call a "painless filibuster." Because one or both sides in the fight over whether or not S. 940 should be brought to the floor know that there are at least some opponents who are willing to threaten a filibuster, but nobody really wants to sit there and see how long those opponents can hold out, nor have to waste the time it takes to file for and invoke cloture, everyone agrees (in a unanimous consent agreement) to simply require 60 votes in order to pass the motion to proceed, rather than go through the hassle of actually having the filibuster fight. So the 60-vote threshold is built right into the vote. If you can get 60 for the motion to proceed, then it's assumed that you'd have been able to get them for a cloture vote, too. And vice versa, of course. So everyone saves time by agreeing to these "painless filibusters." But protecting big oil subsidies are the kind of thing you might have thought Democrats would be happy to force Republicans filibuster over. But as we know, there are also a few oil state Democrats who might not be very happy at the prospect of this bill's passage. So we'll have... this thing, instead. Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.
Today in CongressPublished: May 13, 2011 by admin
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This Week in Congress
Recapping yesterday's action: Another day occupied with the partial completion of bills that could easily have been wrapped up in one. This seems to be a popular game under the new Republican majority. Instead of wasting the House's time with non-binding resolutions honoring local sports teams (or Special Operations forces who killed the world's most wanted terrorist), Republicans are wasting it by postponing votes on amendments and stretching bills out over two days. That way they can still knock off before lunch on Friday, but it counts as a work day, because they spent half an hour on votes. Yesterday, it was the leftover amendments to the "Repeal the Nonexistent Drilling Moratorium Act," and today, the leftovers from the "Hurry Up and Get Us a Damn Intel Authorization So We Don't Look Like Idiots" bill. In the Senate, it was another full day dedicated to the confirmation of a federal judge by a unanimous vote. And then eight more items passed by unanimous consent. That's nine measures brought to the floor, and not a single vote cast against any of them! Woohoo! Looking ahead to today: The House... drags... things... out... a... little... longer... with the Intel bill's postponed amendment votes. You can read here about the votes they'll complete today in all of half an hour or so. The Senate, by contrast, has already left the building! And that's all I've got. They're not giving me much to work with, you know? Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.
Today in CongressPublished: May 12, 2011 by admin
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This Week in Congress
Recapping yesterday's action: Oil, oil, oil. All day long in the House. They finished their bill that would rush drilling permits through, even when the safety studies that became necessary in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster haven't been done. (The bill "deems" them done, though. Remember when "deeming" was evil?) Then they started, but will finish today, their bill repealing the drilling moratorium that doesn't really exist. And the Senate? The Senate spent yesterday confirming a federal judge (Arenda Wright Allen, E.D. VA) by a vote of 96-0. Do you all know what I mean when I say "E.D. VA," by the way? That's the lawyer-speak abbreviation for "Eastern District of Virginia." But yeah, that's about all they got done on the floor with their day. Well, they did give unanimous consent to a resolution making some minority committee appointments. I didn't catch that one, and the text isn't available, but I'm guessing it assigned newly-appointed Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) to his committees. Looking ahead to today: The House starts the day by finishing the repeal of the imaginary drilling moratorium (read brief descriptions of pending amendments here), then moves on to that Intelligence authorization bill that magically appeared, ready for floor action after two months in limbo, just a few days after President Obama pretty much pwned everybody on intelligence and national security matters, including the do-nothing-that-can-pass GOP House, by overseeing the killing of Osama bin Laden. (Read brief descriptions of Intel bill amendments here). In fact, it's said that in the newly-discovered bin Laden journals, one of the final entries said, "The Republicans will probably have to get up off their asses, cut a deal, and get an Intel authorization bill passed instead of goofing around with their pipe dream of an agenda, because there's somebody at the door, and it ain't the pizza guy. If it's who I think it is, Republicans aren't gonna have a speck of credibility left for trying to jerk Obama around on intelligence matters starting tomorrow." There is no such entry, of course, but if there had been, it really would have been prescient, don't you think? The Senate has a light schedule again tomorrow, at least in terms of planned accomplishments that I can list here. They'll be voting on yet another judicial nomination, this time Michael Francis Urbanski, W.D. VA. See? Western District of Virginia. You got it, now! That'll likely wrap it up in terms of floor action for the week. Gotta get back home for the weekend, to recharge for the two-week push to... the coming Memorial Day recess! Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold. In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip: THE NIGHTLY WHIP: WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2011 In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader: Convenes: 9:30am 5/11 Senate wrap-up: Votes: Today in CongressPublished: May 11, 2011 by Will Urquhart
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This Week in Congress
Recapping yesterday's action: What a surprise. Not a single amendment to the "Drill, Drill, Drill! Because We Don't Understand Gas Prices" Act was passed yesterday. And there are more amendments, plus the actual passage the bill slated for today. But we should expect more of the same. Republicans are only too happy to permit Democratic amendments onto the floor, because they know very well that they control the votes of their troops, and their bill is in no danger of actually being amended. The Senate managed to get another judicial nomination through yesterday (Edward Milton Chen, N.D. CA), with just 56 votes in favor, but no cloture vote necessary. Wacky! Looking ahead to today: So, what makes a good follow-up in the House to the second Drill, Baby, Drill! bill in a week? A third one, of course! This time it's the "Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act," which differs from the other two bills reversing President Obama's offshore moratorium in... some way. You know, you'd think that there'd be some kind of lesson in all this for Republicans, who are constantly campaigning on the idea that there are easy, cut-and-dried, black-and-white solutions to everything. On the stump, it's all about how they're "just gonna repeal" whatever it is they don't like. And yet, there's virtually nothing they hate that they've been able to simply repeal in one stroke. Because the world is complicated, and nuance is real, you dumbasses. But, whatever. The Senate returns to the executive calendar today, for another judicial nomination (Arenda Wright Allen, E.D. VA). No cloture vote is scheduled, so the guess is that the vote will go much like yesterday's. Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold. In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip: THE NIGHTLY WHIP: TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2011 In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader: Convenes: 9:30am 5/10 Senate wrap-up: At 2:15pm, the Senate will proceed to Executive Session to consider Calendar #61, the nomination of Edward Milton Chen, of CA, to be US District Judge for the Northern District of California. Today in CongressPublished: May 10, 2011 by Will Urquhart
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This Week in Congress
Recapping yesterday's action: Easy job recapping the House action from yesterday: they didn't do $#*%. They weren't in session. Not hard catching up on the Senate, either. They tried and failed to invoke cloture on the nomination of James Cole. Which should really be considered an in-kind donation to Newt Gingrich's campaign (since it was Cole who busted Gingrich as special counsel for the House ethics committee back in the 90s), that is, if he actually has the gall to announce for president on Wednesday. Looking ahead to today:> And you know, it's not that hard to summarize what's up in the House today, either. They're "putting the Gulf of Mexico back to work," of course. Which, if you know anything about the way Republicans name their bills, means someone's probably gonna get poisoned or something. Basically, it's a bill to make it easier to rush along drilling permits, which I'm sure is a totally awesome idea. But with work on the bill not starting until 2pm and votes on amendments delayed until 6:30 (to give Members a chance to get back to DC), they're delaying the vote on final passage of the bill itself until tomorrow. Wouldn't want to strain themselves. Great side note procedural catch by Open Congress today, too: The rule for the bill also states that the text of the bill that the House passed last week to force the Obama Administration to conduct lease sales for oil drilling sites in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Virginia will be added to the end of the text of H.R.1229 and makes two additional amendments in order. The bills had to be put together because the Congressional Budget Office has determined that H.R.1230 would violate the Republicans’ “Cut-Go” rule on its own. Cut-Go states that any bills that increase direct spending have to be offset by spending reductions in the same bill. H.R.1229 would increase spending by $6 million, but that is more than offset if you add last weeks’ bill, H.R.1230, to it. In the Senate, well, they're... meeting. But that's all we know. With the Cole nomination stalled (again), and the same fate for the Small Business Jobs bill, there's no plan just yet for what's next. There was one not long ago, that is, to force a vote on the House-passed Ryan budget. But that's... not happening for the time being. Could be that Kent Conrad's not-so-popular proposal is complicating matters. So the Senate will just basically keep the floor open while the leadership tries to work out a deal to get some legislation down there that can get some votes. We'll have to wait and see what they come up with. Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.
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