Today in Congress

In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

House Meets At... 10:00 a.m.: Legislative Business
Fifteen "One Minutes" Per Side

Last Vote Predicted... 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.

H.R. 2 - Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (Reps. Pallone/Waxman/Dingell – Energy and Commerce) (Subject to a Rule)

Suspensions (1 Bill)    

1)     H.Res. 40 – Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to require each standing committee to hold periodic hearings on the topic of waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement in Government programs which that committee may authorize, and for other purposes (Rep. Tanner – Rules)

H.R. 384 – TARP Reform and Accountability Act (Rep. Frank – Financial Services) (Subject to a Rule)

Get yer leadership talking points on today's bills from The Whip Pack, put out by Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06). You'll enjoy such hits as:

• What the hell is in this thing?
• Who wrote this?
• What's wrong with Republicans, that they don't like it?

...and much, much more!

In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

Convenes: 9:30am

Resume consideration of S.22, the Lands bill, with the time until 10:30am equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees.

10:30am roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on S.22.

The filing deadline for second degree amendments to S.22 is 10:00am.

Still plodding along on S. 22, which should give you an idea of why the Senate likes to avoid filibusters, or even the prospect of filibusters, even when there are plenty of votes for cloture to be had. This is a bill with substantial bipartisan support, and almost no continuing support for Coburn's delay tactics, and on which the Senate invoked cloture on the motion to proceed on Sunday. Yet here we are on Wednesday, still working on it. And we could still be working to finish it up tomorrow. So from the point where Reid decides he's had enough (which was last year, really, but in this particular case was last Friday) and starts the first of the cloture plays in motion, to the point where we actually get to vote to pass the thing ends up taking nearly a week.

In the Committees:

House

Committee	Date	Time	Purpose
Small Business	Wed., 1/14	10:00 a.m.	Open Forum on "The State of the Small Business Economy and Identifying Policies to Promote an Economic Recovery."

Senate

Committee	Date	Time	Purpose
Agriculture	Wed., 1/14	10:00 a.m.	Confirmation: Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture
Environment	Wed., 1/14	10:00 a.m.	Confirmation: Lisa Jackson, EPA Admin.; Nancy Helen Sutley, Chair, CEQ
Health, Ed., Labor	Wed., 1/14	10:00 a.m.	Business mtg.: pending calendar business and nominations cleared for action
Veterans' Affairs	Wed., 1/14	10:00 a.m.	Confirmation: Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans' Affairs
Homeland Security	Wed., 1/14	2:00 p.m.	Confirmations: Peter Orszag, OMB Director; Robert Nabors, Deputy Director