Recapping Last Week in Congress
Zzzzzzz. Whuzzat? Huh? Who's there? Oh, yeah. Congress. Right. Well, uh, there wasn't any. It was August recess, and although both the House and Senate held pro forma sessions (aimed at preventing President Obama from making any recess appointments), there were no votes held, no debates, and no real business conducted. They did, however, start each session with the traditional prayer from the chaplains. What do you think a chaplain prays for, when convening a session at which no work will be done, and in fact the only purpose of which is to prevent things from getting done?
Just wondering.
This Week in Congress
A short week, especially in the House, thanks to the Labor Day weekend. The House won't convene for "real" business until Wednesday, which we know all too well has interfered with President Obama's original plan to address a joint session of Congress on that day. You may have heard that Speaker Boehner claimed that logistics and scheduling was what got in the way of a Wednesday evening speech. What was he talking about?
Well, the House is scheduled to convene at 2 pm on Wednesday (not bad work, if you can get it, right?), and is set to begin voting on bills at 6:30 pm. Logistically, it takes about three hours to do a security sweep of the House chamber and the Capitol building in order to prepare it for a presidential speech. Obama wanted an 8:00 start time, and that just wasn't going to work.
But just what's actually supposed to be going on in the House on Wednesday? What is it they'll be working on from 2:00 to 6:30, and voting on thereafter?
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2011
On Wednesday, the House will meet at 2:00 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.
Suspensions (3 Bills)
- H.Con.Res. 67 - Authorizing the use of the Capitol Grounds for the District of Columbia Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run (Rep. Norton - Transportation and Infrastructure)
- H.R. 2061 - Civilian Service Recognition Act of 2011 (Rep. Hanna - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. 2832 - To extend the Generalized System of Preferences, and for other purposes (Rep. Camp - Ways and Means)
That's it. Awesome, huh?
All three bills are coming to the floor under suspension of the rules, which limits their debate to 40 minutes apiece. So that's two hours worth of "debate" on what are normally non-controversial bills. That brings us from 2 pm to about 4 pm. But votes, as you can see, are being postponed until 6:30 pm. That's a routine practice for the first day back from a break, whether a month-long recess or just a regular weekend. The idea is that the non-controversial bills will be "debated" during the mid-to-late afternoon, but votes are postponed until the evening in order to give Members the bulk of the day to actually get back to Washington in time to vote on the bills most of them skipped the debate on.
The voting can be finished relatively quickly as well. Under the rules, votes are typically 15 minutes or less, with time for stacked votes (that is, votes taken one immediately after the other) reduced to as little as two minutes. So the voting could certainly have been completed in under an hour. Which technically means the House could have completed its scheduled business for the day by 5 pm, leaving three hours to handle security before the 8 pm speech start time.
That's not really optimal, of course. So it'd probably be worth remembering that the votes which would otherwise take place at the conclusion of debate on each of the three scheduled bills are postponed at the discretion of the Speaker, and that they can just as easily be postponed until the next day as they are postponed an hour and a half. Which means that the House could have kept its planned "debate" schedule intact, bumped the votes until the next day, and been out of the way for the security sweep by 4:00.
But as we know, he's not doing that. Oh well.
Oh yes, there's also the Senate. Almost forgot. They'll somehow manage to convene a day earlier, on Tuesday, to vote on the appointment of a single federal appeals court judge, and then immediately afterward head into yet another cloture vote, this one on a motion to proceed to the patent reform bill.
Due to the holiday weekend, the full committee schedules are not yet prepared. But we'll get them compiled and ready for Today in Congress postings by tomorrow, ahead of the convening of the Senate. The full floor schedules, however, are posted below the fold as usual.
In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip:
THE WEEKLY WHIP: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2011
First Vote Of The Week: Wednesday 6:30 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted: Friday 3:00 p.m.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2011
On Monday, the House is not in session.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2011
On Tuesday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for pro forma session. No votes are expected in the House.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2011
On Wednesday, the House will meet at 2:00 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.
Suspensions (3 Bills)
- H.Con.Res. 67 - Authorizing the use of the Capitol Grounds for the District of Columbia Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run (Rep. Norton - Transportation and Infrastructure)
- H.R. 2061 - Civilian Service Recognition Act of 2011 (Rep. Hanna - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. 2832 - To extend the Generalized System of Preferences, and for other purposes (Rep. Camp - Ways and Means)
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011 AND THE BALANCE OF THE WEEK
On Thursday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for Morning Hour debate and 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. At approximately 4:00 p.m., the House will recess to allow for a security sweep of the House Chamber prior to the President’s address. The House will meet again at approximately 7:00 p.m. in a joint session with the Senate for the purpose of receiving an address from the President of the United States. On Friday, the House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business with last votes no later than 3:00 p.m.
H.R. 2218 - Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act (Rep. Hunter - Education and Workforce) (Subject to a Rule)
H.R. 1892 - Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Rep. Rogers (MI) - Intelligence) (Subject to a Rule)
H.Res. __ - A resolution relating to the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 (Rep. Cantor - Foreign Affairs) (Subject to a Unanimous Consent Agreement)
In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
When the Senate convenes at 10:00am on Friday, September 2nd, it will adjourn until 2:00pm on September 6, 2011. Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business until 5:00pm with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.
Following morning business, the Senate will be in Executive Session to consider Calendar #109, Bernice Bouie Donald, of Tennessee, to be United States Circuit Judge for the 6th Circuit with 30 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled between Senators Leahy and Grassley.
The next roll call votes will be at 5:30pm on Tuesday, September 6th. The first roll call vote will be on confirmation of the Donald nomination. The 2nd will be a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to H.R.1249, the Patent Reform bill.