In the House, courtesy of the Majority Leader his-own-damn-self:
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today it adjourn to meet at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow and further when the House adjourns on that day it adjourn to meet at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6, 2009, for morning hour debate.
In the Senate, courtesy of that Majority Leader his-own-damn-self:
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate resumes consideration of H.R. 3326 on Tuesday, October 6, the following first-degree amendments be the only amendments remaining in order to H.R. 3326 other than any other pending amendments, if not listed...
So what does this mean? Well, at the time I sat down to write this, the House had been out for the day for several hours, with no schedule announced for today, which would usually be the case if they were going to be doing any voting. They're meeting, as you can see, but with no schedule. That said to me that they'd be in pro forma session today, especially since the Senate sounded like it wasn't going to be meeting at all.
What difference does it make that the Senate isn't meeting? Let's take a quick peek at the definition, linked above, of the pro forma session:
A daily meeting of the House or Senate during which no votes are held and no legislative business is conducted. The session "in form only" is held for purposes of meeting the 3-day rule in the Constitution. It requires each House to gain the permission of the other for recesses longer than 3 days. When the permission is not forthcoming, or not requested in time, the affected chamber convenes briefly with hardly anyone in attendance [the opening prayer, routine announcements, and sometimes short non-legislative speeches are conducted], and then adjourns.
Friggin' Constitution!
There's a little bit of committee business happening today. The schedule still tells us that the Senate Finance Committee has a meeting on the books for today, but the news tells us that they stayed up late last night to finish up, so they probably won't meet today. They'll convene again next week to vote on reporting their bill out. Or if they operate on Baucus Standard TimeTM, maybe next February.
House
Senate
Committee | Date | Time | Purpose | View Online? |
Finance | Fri., 10/2 | 10:00 a.m. | Business meeting to continue consideration of an original bill entitled "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009" | Yes |