Recapping yesterday's action:
The headliner in the House was, of course, the fake Republican budget and debt ceiling thingy that won't cut, cap or balance anything, since it'll almost assuredly never be enacted into law. Kudos, by the way, to the Democratic Whip operation for referring to it in its daily schedule as the "Cut, Cap, and End Medicare Act."
Note, by the way, that although the bill passed, it does not by itself raise the debt ceiling. In fact, section 301 of the bill prohibits any additional borrowing authority until the Congress passes a balanced budget amendment. And not just any such amendment, either, but a very specific version of it. Recall, too, that passing a Constitutional amendment in Congress requires a 2/3 vote in both houses. So the fake Republican bill adds that additional hurdle on top of all the problems they're already causing on the debt ceiling. Just what the world needed!
The Senate held no roll call votes today, but debated the MilCon/VA appropriations bill and began racking up amendments to it. And... well, that was it.
Looking ahead to today:
I can't be much help to you with what the House is up to today. The schedule appears light?one suspension and one bill under regular order?but the real problem is that I have no real idea what this bill is about. Though it's surely notable that it's got "Part IV" in the title. I remember seeing parts I-III of the Airport and Airway Extension Act move through the House. But I have no idea offhand why it's being done in parts. Even less whether any of you are interested in finding out.
Just to try to find something else worth noting, I guess we're getting into that part of the year when we start to see suspension bills creeping later into the week. That's usually a sign that they're running out of substantive stuff to do. With the Republican ban on honorific and ceremonial-type bills and resolutions in place this year, though, seeing suspensions late in the week might be indicative of a more severe shortage of substance than usual.
The Senate is expected to begin voting on MilCon/VA amendments today, though the first vote out of the box will actually be a vote to table a Vitter amendment (and I don't mean changing table, either). Meaning that the first vote will be a vote on putting the thing aside and ignoring it, rather than a vote on adopting it.
There are currently five amendments pending (see brief descriptions of them on the Senate Dems' blog, here), though the schedule for the day says they're looking to complete work on the MilCon bill today. I don't see any indication that there's a deal in place for holding votes on all five. But if the Senate's ready to get to them, there's no reason they couldn't get through them all and vote on final passage today. That's either an indication that Rand Paul (R-KY) was satisfied by last week's debate on the budget and debt ceiling that he's agreed not to filibuster the bill or its amendments, or an indication that he forgot that he said he was going to do that. Or perhaps more likely, an indication of how uncomfortable it can be for a freshman to try to filibuster something that's usually as bipartisan and broadly-supported as a MilCon/VA appropriations bill.
But when it comes to fouling plans and stopping progress on things you thought you had all lined up, the Senate can turn on a dime. There's no flip side to that, of course. You can almost never get the Senate to turn on a dime in actually accomplishing anything. But blocking things from getting accomplished? Easy peasy.
Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.
One committee item of special note: The House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats will be live-tweeting today's 10 a.m. markup of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act. You can watch the proceedings online using the Main Street Insider Committee Dashboard, here. (Also note that MSI now has its own group here at Daily Kos.) But in addition to watching the live action, you can follow @HFACDemocrats for real time commentary from the Dems in the room, as things are happening.
No comments:
Post a Comment