Recapping yesterday's action:
The House spent its day running through amendments to the Agriculture appropriations bill. Plenty of floor action, but it can all pretty much be summed up by saying they debated a bunch of amendments, postponed a bunch of the votes on them, and will finish up for the week today by circling back to hold those votes. The patent bill (the America Invents Act, H.R. 1249), once considered a possibility for floor time this week, looks like it'll be pushed off for later.
The Senate adopted S. Res 208, which is awesome news for Mongolia. You remember from yesterday, when they said they were going to try to work on amendments to the Economic Development Revitalization Act? Well, the results are in, and what we got was a nice resolution about Mongolia.
Looking ahead to today:
The House has 13 postponed amendment votes to get through before it can finally pass the Ag approps bill. After that, it's likely they'll break and get out of town for the weekend, including trips to Netroots Nation, and maybe that other conference that follows us around.
The Senate, now that Mongolia is taken care of, has come to an agreement to bring two pending amendments to votes today. The deal, which I assume we'll see replicated on most other pending amendments, is for a "painless filibuster," meaning that they'll build the filibuster right into the vote, requiring 60 affirmative votes for the amendments to pass. Same 60-vote barrier, but none of the unpleasantness of having to work hard to impose it. Presumably a few of them will want to be on hand for this week's convention, and it's little lamprey friend.
By the way, take a look at the Senate Dems' newly revamped schedule page and blog! Very nice, and formatted with a separate URL for each day's activities, plus a separate daily wrap-up. Plus a blog!
I appreciate having distinct URLs for each day's schedule, as opposed to simply reusing the same URL daily and changing the content on the page, as the House Majority Leader's page does. That way, older posts always have links to the proper day's schedules on them if you ever want to look back at them. If you just change the content of the page daily, but not the address, then Today in Congress posts can't serve as an unofficial archive of each day's schedule. The Senate until today displayed its floor schedule information in a monthly calendar format, which was simple and nice in its own way, but you had to scroll around to find the right date. Now this goes right to the correct day's schedule. And a separate wrap-up. Somewhere in the transition, they lost the links to THOMAS for pieces of legislation (and sometimes amendments) when they appear in the schedule, but I assume we'll see that return shortly, once the kinks are worked out.
Overall, a good effort and a very nice product. Though to be honest, this wouldn't have been my first choice for the right week to surprise me with this new format. Writing TiC posts at 2:30 in the morning (3:30, at home on the East coast) and having to rejigger the routine to deal with the new format isn't really my favorite thing in the world. But then again, if it were all about me in the Senate, we'd maybe have a few things working differently, anyway.
And it should be noted that while the Senate Dems running that body's online schedule have made such great improvements, the House Dems have been backsliding. Two late nights in a row with no schedules posted at the end of the legislative day. That left me hanging twice this week, and having to turn to the Majority Leader for the schedule instead.
Hey, if I'm up and at work, you can do it to. That's all I'm saying.
Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.
In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip Office of the Majority Leader:
THURSDAY, JUNE 16TH
On Thursday, the House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business.
First and last votes expected: 12:00 - 3:00 p.m.
One Minute Speeches (5 per side)
Complete Consideration of H.R. 2112 - Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012 (Open Rule)
(Sponsored by Rep. Jack Kingston / Appropriations Committee)
The rule provides for no further general debate and makes in order any amendment offered that complies with the House rules.
Postponed Amendment Votes:
Rep. Chellie Pingree Amendment
Rep. Virginia Foxx Amendment
Rep. Ron Kind Amendment
Rep. John Dingell Amendment
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Amendment #1
Rep. Chris Gibson Amendment
Rep. Earl Blumenauer Amendment
Rep. Steve King Amendment #1
Rep. Steve King Amendment #2
Rep. Scott Garrett Amendment
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Amendment #2
Rep. Steve Scalise Amendment
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Amendment #3
Rep. Mazie Hirono Amendment
Special Order Speeches
In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
Senate Floor Schedule for Thursday, June 16, 2011
Convenes: 10:00am
Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of S.782, the Economic Development Act. The Feinstein amendment #476 and McCain amendment #411 will be debated concurrently with up to 4 hours of debate with the time equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees.
Upon the use or yielding back of time (at approximately 2pm if all time is used), the Senate will proceed to 2 roll call votes in relation to the amendments in the following order:
- Feinstein #476 (to repeal the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit)
- McCain #411 (prohibit Federal funds to construct ethanol blender pumps/storage facilities);
Each amendment will require 60 votes in the affirmative. Upon disposition of the McCain amendment, the Majority Leader will be recognized.
6/15 Senate wrap-up:
Adopted S.Res.208, expressing the sense of the Senate regarding Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Ibegdorj’s visit to Washington, D.C., and its support for the growing partnership between the United States and Mongolia.