Today in Congress

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

FLOOR SCHEDULE FOR TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2009

House Meets At... 2:00 p.m.: Legislative Business
First Vote Predicted... 6:30 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted...  7:00 p.m.

"One Minutes"

Suspensions (7 Bills)

1. H.Res. 742 - Congratulating the Warner Robins Little League softball team from Warner Robins, Georgia, on winning the 2009 Little League Softball World Series (Rep. Marshall - Oversight and Government Reform)
2. H.R. 3634 - To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 109 Main Street in Swifton, Arkansas, as the "George Kell Post Office" (Rep. Berry - Oversight and Government Reform)
3. H.R. 3667 - To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 16555 Springs Street in White Springs, Florida, as the "Clyde L. Hillhouse Post Office Building" (Rep. Crenshaw - Oversight and Government Reform)
4. H.Res. 727 – Expressing support for greater awareness of ovarian cancer (Rep. Israel - Oversight and Government Reform)
5. H.Res. 743 - Honoring the life of Frank McCourt for his many contributions to American literature, education, and culture (Rep. Murphy (CT) - Oversight and Government Reform)
6. H.R. 3029 - To establish a research, development, and technology demonstration program to improve the efficiency of gas turbines used in combined cycle power generation systems (Rep. Tonko – Science and technology)
7. H.R. 3598 - Energy and Water Research Integration Act (Rep. Gordon - Science and Technology)

• Conference Reports may be brought up at any time.
• Motions to go to Conference should they become available.
• Possible Motions to Instruct Conferees.

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

Convenes: 10:00am

Resume consideration of HR3590, Health Care Reform.

11:30am proceed to Executive session to consider the nomination of Jacqueline Nguyen to be US District Judge for the Central District of California.

Recess from 12:30 until 2:15pm for weekly caucus luncheons.

Votes:
12:00pm Roll call vote on confirmation of the nomination of Jacqueline Nguyen to be US District Judge for the Central District of California

Additional roll call votes expected throughout the day.

Another exciting day filled with suspensions in the House, and semi-directionless jawing in the Senate, though there the topic will at least nominally be the health insurance reform bill and a judicial nomination.

Two substantive but apparently non-controversial bills are mixed in among the suspensions for the day. And in an exciting development, Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA-08) has had his resolution congratulating the Warner Robins Little League softball team from Warner Robins, Georgia, on winning the 2009 Little League Softball World Series moved up from the third bill on the list from yesterday's weekly schedule to the first bill on today's daily schedule. Woohoo! How about that, huh?

Over in the Senate, debate on the health insurance reform bill continues, with a brief interlude for a judicial nomination and... lunch. But although they're officially underway, I get the sense that they're still sort of feeling each other out in terms of how the debate is going to go, how long it might last, and what agreements, if any, they might consider regarding amendments. So for now, they'll just start talking and see what happens, with the only sure thing being that they won't be voting on final passage any time soon. And as long as someone's talking on the floor, the rest of them can negotiate somewhere else. (Actually, they can just ask for quorum calls and negotiate during those. But it looks good for TV if someone's talking.)

It's a light day in the committees, too. For some reason, there are no meetings at all scheduled on the House side, which is a little unusual. They must be giving everyone some extended travel time after the holiday break. The Senate side has a few things going on, but not all that much. They'll make up for it tomorrow, though. Today's mini-schedule appears below the fold.

In the committees:

House

No meetings scheduled

Senate

Committee	Date	Time	Purpose	View Online?
Foreign Relations	Tues. 12/1	10:00 am	Nomination: Rajiv J. Shah, Admin. of the US Agency for Int'l Development (USAID)	Yes
Judiciary	Tues. 12/1	10:00 am	Judicial Nominations Hearing	Yes
Commerce, Science and Transportation	Tues. 12/1	10:15 am	Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security: Aviation Safety: Pilot Fatigue	Yes
Homeland Security	Tues. 12/1	12:00 pm	Business Meeting	Yes
Foreign Relations	Tues. 12/1	1:00 pm	Nominations: Anne Slaughter Andrew, Amb. to the Republic of Costa Rica; David Daniel Nelson, Amb. to the Oriental Republic of Uruguay; Betty E. King, Rep. of the US to the Office of the UN & Other Int'l Organizations in Geneva, with the rank of Amb.; Laura E. Kennedy, for the rank of Amb. during her tenure of service as US Rep. to the Conference on Disarmament; Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, for the rank of Amb. during her tenure of service as the US Rep. to the UN Human Rights Council	Yes
Select Intelligence	Tues. 12/1	2:30 pm	Open Hearing: Nomination of Philip S. Goldberg to be Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research and Caryn A. Wagner to be Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, Department of Homeland Security	?