In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip:
First Vote Of The Week: Monday 6:30 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted: Thursday 3:00 p.m.
House GOP Leadership has announced that votes are not expected after 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 17, 2011, pending Senate action on the CR.
MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2011
On Monday, the House will meet at 12:00 p.m. for Morning Hour debate and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.
Suspensions (2 Bills)
- H.R. 793 - To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 12781 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Inverness, California, as the "Specialist Jake Robert Velloza Post Office" (Rep. Woolsey - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.Con.Res. 27 - Providing for the acceptance of a statue of Gerald R. Ford from the people of Michigan for placement in the United States Capitol (Rep. Upton- House Administration)
TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2011
On Tuesday, 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.
H.J.Res. 48 -Further Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011 (Rep. Rogers (KY) - Appropriations) (Subject to a Rule)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2011 AND THE BALANCE OF THE WEEK
On Wednesday, 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 Thursday, the House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business with last votes no later than 3:00 p.m. On Friday, no votes are expected in the House.
H.R. 839 - The HAMP Termination Act of 2011 (Rep. McHenry - Financial Services) (Subject to a Rule)
H.R. 861 - The NSP Termination Act (Rep. Gary Miller - Financial Services) (Subject to a Rule)
H.Con.Res. 28 -Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan (Rep. Kucinich - Foreign Affairs) (Subject to a Rule or Unanimous Consent Agreement)
Consideration of legislation relating to the federal funding of NPR
In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
Convenes: 2:00pm
Following any Leader remarks, there will be a period of 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 nomination of calendar #10, the nomination of James Boasber, of the District of Columbia, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia. There will be up to 1 hour for debate equally divided prior to a vote on the nomination.
Votes:
Senators should expect 2 roll call votes at 5:30pm in relation to the following items:
- Confirmation of the nomination of James Boasberg, of the District of Columbia, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia, and
- Cloture on the motion to proceed to S.493, SBIR and STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011.
The central event of the week will once again be a continuing resolution, since the last two-week extension didn't result in any agreement on a longer-term solution. So, Republicans are back with a new, three-week CR, which the traditional media will tell you—with some justifiable claim to accuracy—continues the GOP's insistence that spending be reduced by $2 billion per week.
What do I mean?
The $2 billion per week claim is accurate enough. The thing is that the takeaway for the news consumer is supposed to be that Republicans are hardasses, are "making the tough choices," and forcing Democrats to agree. That's the genius of stringing things along two and three weeks at a time. You see, almost all of the cuts the Republican proposals have made are borrowed either from cuts recommended by President Obama's budget, cuts recommended by the Senate Democrats' alternative CR proposed last week, or are rescissions of earmarks made in the fiscal year 2011 spending bills. You'll recall that the president has taken much the same hard line on earmarking that Republicans said they wanted, so in some sense it could be said that the cuts Republicans are making in these two and three week CRs are ones that have been handed to them on a silver platter by Democrats, only by stringing things out this way, they've been magically converted into Republican-sponsored cuts.
And should they ever run out of those cuts to borrow, Republicans will then begin proposing their own, but also be able to insist that the failure of Democrats to agree to them—or propose their own alternatives—represents an unwillingness to compromise.
Brilliant, really.
In the meantime, Republicans will happily step out of the way to allow Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH-10) to offer a resolution directing the president to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan, under the War Powers Resolution, in the hopes of perpetuating the old "Dems divided" headlines in the traditional media. And they'll get them, too, despite the Kucinich resolution being cosponsored by Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC-03) and Ron Paul (R-TX-14).
Less worthy of attention this week, but surely due for it, will be an as-yet-unwritten bill dealing with NPR funding. As you know, whenever James O'Keefe releases a fake video, Republicans move to defund the target, and Democrats all too often go into the don't-hurt-me-I'll-be-good crouch and go along for the ride. ACORN, Planned Parenthood, and now NPR. Too bad O'Keefe can't secretly catch the Pentagon on video, admitting they don't need that second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter!
In the Senate... well, they'll be waiting for the House to send them a CR. For now, they're biding their time by continuing to drip, drip, drip out confirmation votes on more of those non-controversial judicial nominations that were part of the "gentleman's agreement" on the filibuster reform crisis earlier this year. This particular nominee has only been waiting since June of last year, and had to be renominated at the start of the 112th Congress. Speaking of the "gentleman's agreement," the vote after that one will be on a cloture motion—the third one already this year on a motion to proceed, which, you know, wasn't supposed to happen anymore, but actually is happening quite a lot anyway, because they didn't really reform the Senate hold.
Oh well!
Plenty happening in the committees this week. The schedule appears below the fold. Check out video of all the action, and join friends for a chat and perhaps the chance to point and laugh together, using the Main Street Insider Committee Dashboard.