In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
First Vote Of The Week: Tuesday 6:00 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted: Friday p.m
MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2010
On Monday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for pro forma session. No votes are expected in the House.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2010
On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for Morning Hour debate and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:00 p.m.
Suspensions (14 Bills)
- S. 2906 - A bill to amend the Act of August 9, 1955, to modify a provision relating to leases involving certain Indian tribes (Sen. Cantwell - Natural Resources)
- S. 1609 - Longline Catcher Processor Subsector Single Fishery Cooperative Act (Sen. Cantwell - Natural Resources)
- Senate Amendment to H.R. 1061 - Hoh Indian Tribe Safe Homelands Act (Rep. Dicks - Natural Resources)
- S. 1405 - Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site Designation Act (Sen. Kennedy - Natural Resources)
- S. 1448 - A bill to amend the Act of August 9, 1955, to authorize the Coquille Indian Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw, the Klamath Tribes, and the Burns Paiute Tribe to obtain 99-year lease authority for trust land (Sen. Merkley - Natural Resources)
- S.Con.Res. 72 - A concurrent resolution recognizing the 45th anniversary of the White House Fellows Program (Sen. Brownback - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. 6205 - To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1449 West Avenue in Bronx, New York, as the "Private Isaac T. Cortes Post Office" (Rep. Crowley - Oversight and Government Reform)
- S. 3794 - FOR VETS Act of 2010 (Sen. Leahy - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.Res. 1743 - Congratulating Gerda Weissmann Klein on being selected to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom (Rep. Mitchell - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. 5446 - To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 600 Florida Avenue in Cocoa, Florida, as the "Harry T. and Harriette Moore Post Office" (Rep. Posey - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. __ - To make technical corrections to provisions of law enacted by the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 (Rep. Oberstar - Transportation and Infrastructure)
- H.R. 6510 - To direct the Administrator of General Services to convey a parcel of real property in Houston, Texas, to the Military Museum of Texas (Rep. Jackson-Lee - Transportation and Infrastructure)
- S. 3984 - Museum and Library Services Act of 2010 (Sen. Reed - Education and Labor)
- S. 1275 - National Foundation on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition Establishment Act (Sen. Warner - Education and Labor)
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2010 AND THE BALANCE OF THE WEEK
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 (12 Bills)
- S. 3036 - National Alzheimer's Project Act (Sen. Bayh - Energy and Commerce)
- H.Res. 1600 - Supporting the critical role of the physician assistant profession and supporting the goals and ideals of National Physician Assistant Week (Rep. McCollum - Energy and Commerce)
- S. 30 - Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 (Sen. Nelson (FL) - Energy and Commerce)
- S. 3386 - Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (Sen. Rockefeller - Energy and Commerce)
- S. 3199 - Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act of 2010 (Sen. Snowe - Energy and Commerce)
- H.Res. __ - Supporting a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and condemning unilateral declarations of a Palestinian state (Rep. Berman - Foreign Affairs)
- S. 987 - International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2010 (Sen. Durbin - Foreign Affairs)
- H.Res. 20 - Calling on the State Department to list the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as a "Country of Particular Concern" with respect to religious freedom. (Rep. Royce - Foreign Affairs)
- H.Res. 1757 - Providing for the approval of final regulations issued by the Office of Compliance to implement the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 that apply to the House of Representatives and employees of the House of Representatives (Rep. Brady (PA) - House Administration)
- H.Res. 1377 - Honoring the accomplishments of Norman Yoshio Mineta (Rep. Honda - House Administration)
- S. 3860 - A bill to require reports on the management of Arlington National Cemetery (Sen. McCaskill - Veterans' Affairs)
- H.R. 4337 - Regulated Investment Company Modernization Act (Rep. Rangel - Ways and Means)
Possible Further Action on H.R. 3082 - Making Further Continuing Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2011 and the Food Safety Enhancement Act (Rep. Obey – Appropriations) (If amended by the Senate)
Possible Further Action on H.R. 4853 – Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 (Rep. Levin – Ways and Means) (If amended by the Senate)
- 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:
Convenes: 2:00pm
Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to concur with respect to H.R.4853, the vehicle for the tax compromise. The time until 3:00pm will be equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees. At 3:00pm, the Senate will proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R.4853, with the Reid-McConnell amendment #4753 (tax compromise).
We must be coming to the end of the road here, because the House's normally packed suspension calendar is loaded up with Senate bills. So they must be taking care of year-end housekeeping -- things coming out of the Senate that for some reason haven't made it to the floor yet, but that the House has some interest in finishing up.
Other than that, the only things on the House schedule are bills that might come back from the Senate having been amended -- those being the latest continuing resolution (CR) and the tax bill. The tax bill, of course, is virtually certain to come back amended.
In fact, it's the first order of business in the Senate this week, and the game plan looks to be that the Senate will vote today at 3:00 on a cloture on a motion to concur in the House amendment to H.R. 4853, with an amendment of its own. H.R. 4853, you'll remember, started out as a totally different bill, but the House stripped out its text and replaced it with the extended cuts on everyone's first $250,000. The Senate, if it invokes cloture today, will agree to the House's amendment, but with one catch: an amendment of its own, extending the tax cuts across the board, "temporarily." Well, that plus a whole bunch of other crap meant to put enough whipped cream on this turd that it goes down like a sundae. Or "spinach," if you're Dick Durbin. I don't really understand that analogy, but that's what he said. And a sundae may be stretching it, anyway. Spinach is about the best the taste is likely to get, so maybe that's what he meant. Though spinach is at least supposed to be good for you.
Anyway, those of you hoping to tune in to see more of the Bernie Sanders "filibuster" will instead see one hour of "debate" from 2:00 to 3:00, at which time the cloture motion will be called up for a vote, no matter who tries to talk about what for how long. And if there are 60 or more votes for cloture, debate on the motion to concur will conclude no more than 30 hours afterward, whether there's a marathon speech going on or not.
After that, the bill goes back to the House, where they'll have the opportunity to vote either to concur in the Senate amendment and be done with it, sending the bill to the President for signature, or to concur in the amendment with still further amendments, which would bounce it back to the Senate all over again. The White House plan is to have the House Democrats tear their hair out over it, and then have some combination of Dems and Republicans cobble together a majority to concur in the Senate amendment and close the books on this thing.
A few committees will be meeting this week, despite the end of the working session drawing near. The committee schedule appears below.