In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip:
THE NIGHTLY WHIP: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2011
TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK
On Thursday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for Morning Hour debate and 11:00 a.m. for legislative business.
Last votes are expected between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m.
“One Minutes” (15 per side)
H.R. 1473 - Making Appropriations for the Department of Defense and the Other Departments and Agencies of the Government for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2011, and for Other Purposes (Rep. Rogers (KY) – Appropriations)
The Rule also makes in order that if H.R. 1473 is passed by the House, it shall be in order to separately consider:
H.Con.Res. 35 - Directing the Clerk of the House of Representatives to make a correction in the enrollment of H.R. 1473, regarding the Affordable Care Act (Rep. Alexander) (Closed Rule, 20 Minutes of Debate)
H.Con.Res. 36 - Directing the Clerk of the House of Representatives to make a correction in the enrollment of H.R. 1473, regarding Planned Parenthood Federation of America (Rep. Black) (Closed Rule, 20 Minutes of Debate)
Begin Consideration of H.Con.Res. 34 - Establishing the budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2012 and setting forth appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2013 through 2021 (Rep. Ryan (WI) – Budget)(Subject to a Rule)
The Rule provides for four hours of general debate and makes in order the following amendments:
Cleaver/Scott (VA) Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (30 minutes of debate)
Cooper Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (20 minutes of debate)
Grijalva/Honda/Lee (CA)/ Woolsey/Ellison Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (30 minutes of debate)
Garrett/Jordan/McClintock/Mulvaney Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (30 minutes)
Van Hollen Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (30 minutes of debate)
Well, they're backloading all the fun this week, with votes on approval of the continuing appropriations bill, plus the two "corrections" resolutions immediately afterward. If you missed the explanation for why the House has already scheduled time to "correct" a bill they haven't yet considered, you can catch up here. If you're just plain astonished that Republicans have the audacity to call these "corrections" at all, well, take a number and get in line.
After disposing of the continuing approps business, the House begins work on next year's budget. That gives us yet another opportunity to point out that the deal worked out last week was not on "the budget," per se, but rather on appropriations. What's the difference? Well, let's start with definitions. An actual budget:
The BUDGET RESOLUTION is the annual decision made by Congress to set spending and revenue levels.
It provides a voluntary framework within which Congress agrees to limit subsequent money bills.
The Budget Resolution may also instruct committees to change current law in order to save money.
In other words, the budget resolution determines how much money each of the appropriations bills has to play with, but it doesn't set spending levels for individual programs like approps bills do. That's why you're seeing specific cuts in the deal from last week. Because it's an appropriations bill:
An APPROPRIATIONS BILL provides the legal authority needed to spend or obligate U.S. Treasury funds.
There are 13 annual appropriations bills which together fund the entire federal government.
These 13 bills must all be enacted prior to the start of a new fiscal year, designated as October 1.
Failure to meet this deadline causes the need for temporary short-term funding or results in a shut-down.
So, the first bill we'll see today—the one embodying the "deal"—is an appropriations bill. Later on (after they try to sneak the dealbreakers back into the "deal"), we'll see an actual budget resolution, setting out the broad allocation outlines for Fiscal Year 2012 (which begins in October 2011).
What's up in the Senate? Well, the Senate will be waiting for the results of the appropriations bill (and the cheat resolutions that follow it), and then jumping right on them. Since they were late with their posted schedule for today, I took my cues from updates to yesterday's schedule entry instead:
The Senate has reached the following agreement to consider the long-term Continuing Resolution:
On Thursday, April 14th, following any Leader remarks, the Senate will proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.
When the Senate receives the papers from the House with respect to continuing resolution and the correcting resolutions, the Senate will proceed to a series of 3 roll call votes in relation the following items in the order listed below:
- H.Con.Res.35, a correcting resolution relative to a prohibition of federal funds for health care reform; and
- H.Con.Res.36, a correcting resolution relative to a prohibition of federal funds for Planned Parenthood;
- H.R.1473, the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2011;
There will be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to each vote; no amendments are in order to the bill or the concurrent resolutions prior to the votes; the correcting resolutions and the bill will be subject to 60-vote thresholds; the only points of order and motions in order are budget points of order and the applicable motions to waive.
It's good news that there will be a 60-vote threshold on all the votes, though I honestly can't tell you how they came to that decision. Republicans initially claimed they'd been promised a straight majority vote, and that's the way I read the deal, too. But Senate staffers apparently disagree, and said yesterday there'd be a 60-vote threshold. Of course, that's what I'd have said if I was them. And if all I wanted was for reporters to go away while we figured out what the hell to do after realizing what we'd gotten ourselves into. But hey, it turns out that they're absolutely right, despite what most people think of when they hear they've got a "guaranteed vote" in the Senate.
I mean, when there's a 60-vote threshold, that's just a placeholder for a fililbuster. It's a "painless filibuster," in fact. And if you're going to impose a filibuster on the vote, even if it's a "painless one," then it's not a "guaranteed vote" in the sense in which I understand it. Because a 60-vote threshold would require a unanimous consent agreement, and there's really no reason to expect Republicans would agree to such a request. If they don't, then there would only be a 60-vote requirement if an opponent of the defunding language filibustered the "correction" resolution, which would appear to break the terms of the deal. (Though perhaps it could be said that so long as Democrats agreed to vote for cloture but not necessarily for passage of the underlying resolution, the deal's terms would be upheld.) If Republicans do agree to such a request, then that tells you that they really didn't want or need the defunding language to pass, and just wanted a symbolic vote they could hold up as a trophy. Which is really what most people think elected Republicans are all about on abortion-related issues, anyway.
Anyway, the good news is that there probably aren't 60 votes for defunding either of these things, so it'll all come to naught. And good thing, too, even if it was also unlikely that there was even a bare majority for either measure. Because I'd be mightily pissed—and I think most of you would be, too—if Republicans got a straight up-or-down vote on repealing the ACA or defunding Planned Parenthood, while public option advocates never had any hope of such a vote when they passed the thing in the first place.
In any event, we now have a dollar figure for how much it costs to get House conservatives to abandon their abortion principles, plus proof that Senate conservatives would trade theirs in exchange for not having to bear the cost of switching their airline tickets for a later flight home for recess.
Alright, I've gone on long enough. The committee schedule and Hot Hearings Picks appear below the fold.
Today's Hot Picks: