In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader;
FLOOR SCHEDULE FOR WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2010
House Meets At: 10:00 a.m.: Legislative Business
First Vote Predicted: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted: 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
"One Minutes" (15 per side)
H.J.Res. 101 - Making Further Continuing Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2011 (Rep. Obey – Appropriations) (Subject to a Rule)
S. 3307 - Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (Sen. Lincoln – Education and Labor) (Subject to a Rule)
Suspensions (7 Bills)
- Senate Amendment H.R. 5283 - Help HAITI Act of 2010 (Rep. Fortenberry - Judiciary)
- S. 1338 - To require the accreditation of English language training programs (Sen. Carper - Judiciary)
- S. 1421 - Asian Carp Prevention and Control Act (Sen. Levin - Judiciary)
- S.Con.Res. 75 - A concurrent resolution authorizing the use of the rotunda of the Capitol for an event marking the 50th anniversary of the inaugural address of President John F. Kennedy (Sen. Kerry - House Administration)
- H.R. 6184 - To amend the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 to extend and modify the program allowing the Secretary of the Army to accept and expend funds contributed by non-Federal public entities to expedite the evaluation of permits (Rep. Larsen - Transportation and Infrastructure)
- S. 3250 - Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act of 2010 (Sen. Carper - Transportation and Infrastructure)
- H.Res. 1669 - Congratulating the National Air Transportation Association for celebrating its 70th anniversary (Rep. Duncan - Transportation and Infrastructure)
Postponed Suspension Votes (14 Bills):
- H.Res. 1217 - Honoring Fort Drum's soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division for their past and continuing contributions to the security of the United States (Rep. Owens - Armed Services)
- H.Res. 1724 - Commending the City of Jacksonville, Arkansas, for its outstanding support in creating a unique and lasting partnership with Little Rock Air Force Base, members of the Armed Forces stationed there and their families, and the Air Force (Rep. Snyder - Armed Services)
- H.Res. 1430 - Honoring and saluting golf legend Juan Antonio "Chi Chi" Rodriguez for his commitment to Latino youth programs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (Rep. Baca - Education and Labor)
- H.Res. 1638 - Supporting the goals and ideals of National GEAR UP Day (Rep. Fattah - Education and Labor)
- H.Res. 1598 - Expressing support for the designation of the month of October as National Work and Family Month (Rep. McCarthy (NY) - Education and Labor)
- H.Res. 1576 - Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that a National Day of Recognition for Parents of Special Needs Children should be established (Rep. Burton - Education and Labor)
- H.Res. 1313 - Expressing support for designation of May as "Child Advocacy Center Month" and commending the National Child Advocacy Center in Huntsville, Alabama, on their 25th anniversary in 2010 (Rep. Griffith - Education and Labor)
- H.Con.Res. 323 - Supporting the goal of ensuring that all Holocaust survivors in the United States are able to live with dignity, comfort, and security in their remaining years (Rep. Wasserman Schultz - Education and Labor)
- H.Res. 1690 - Supporting the observance of American Diabetes Month (Rep. DeGette - Energy and Commerce)
- S. 2847 - CALM Act (Sen. Whitehouse - Energy and Commerce)
- H.Res. 1735 - Condemning North Korea in the strongest terms for its unprovoked military attack against South Korea on November 23, 2010 (Rep. Berman - Foreign Affairs)
- H.Res. 527 - Commending the NATO School for its critical support of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) efforts to promote global peace, stability, and security (Rep. Tanner - Foreign Affairs)
- H.Res. 528 - Commending the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies for its efforts to promote peace, stability and security throughout North America, Europe, and Eurasia (Rep. Tanner - Foreign Affairs)
- H.Con.Res. 325 - Supporting the goals and ideals of National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day (Rep. Hastings (FL) - Financial Services)
- 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: 9:30am
Following any Leader remarks, there will be a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. The Republicans will control the first 30 minutes and the majority will control the next 30 minutes.
The Senate will recess from 12:30 until 3:30pm to allow for the Democratic caucus meeting.
The big deal on the House calendar here is the CR. That's the Hill-speak name for H.J.Res. 101, Making Further Continuing Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2011. CR stands for "continuing resolution." It's how the Congress keeps the government funded and running when it hasn't yet passed all of the 12 annual appropriations bills that pass out the cash to all of the executive departments and agencies. How many of the 12 have we missed? Well, all of them.
So when you miss the target, you pass a CR instead, for which the general practice is just to keep things funded at the previous year's levels for some short-term period of time. This will be the second CR for fiscal year 2011.
Are CRs uncommon? Not at all. Even in a good year, there are almost always at least one or two appropriations bills that haven't been finished up by the end of the previous fiscal year, so CRs are used quite frequently to fill the gaps.
Just for fun, would you like to see what Republicans tell their people about CRs? Why not? Because it will expose them as liars and raging hypocrites? Hey, that's no reason not to look, you wimp! Come on!
Lame Duck UPDATE: Continuing Budget Resolution on Deck
By Congressman Randy Neugebauer
[...]
Since the Democrat Majority failed to bring a budget up for consideration, Congress was forced to pass a CR that would continue funding the federal government through December 3rd. With that deadline approaching, we still don’t have a budget and Congress must pass yet another CR to keep the doors of the federal government open for business.
This is just another example of how the Democrat Leadership has grossly mismanaged their priorities.
Sounds horrible!
Let's also, just on a hunch, take a look at the record of the 108th Congress, Randy Neugebauer's first as an elected Member. The 108th was elected in 2002, and Neugebauer joined the House as a Member of the Republican majority. The first fiscal year for which Neugebauer and his colleagues were responsible was fiscal year 2004.
And... oh, day-um! Neugebauer's Republicans had to pass seven CRs for FY2004! And then on top of that, they had to pass an omnibus appropriations bill in January of 2004 that rolled up seven regular appropriations bills into one of those giant, horrible bills that no one ever wants to read and so are therefore fascism or something. Holy smokes! What kind of an a-hole goes around saying...? Oh, who am I kidding?
(But once again, just for fun, Neugebauer's colleagues also passed three CRs for FY05, three more for FY06, and finally three more for FY07 before being run out of town and leaving the whole stinking mess on the doorstep of the incoming Democratic majority, who had to pass a fourth.
Gosh, what a bunch of... what was it? Ah, yes. "Gross mismanagement." Right. Thanks, Randy.
On the Senate side, the big news is... there are no votes scheduled.
The upside of that, though, is that the Democratic Caucus is expected to meet to discuss the prospect of rules reform heading into the next Congress. What are they considering? Well, everything from proposals to gradually ratchet down the cloture threshold to a simple majority as proposed by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), to smaller tweaks like getting rid of "secret holds" (which you'll recall really are rooted in the filibuster, anyway) and speeding up other parts of the cloture process. Not everybody's on board with the broader and more aggressive goal of eliminating the filibuster. Lots of people have reservations about that (though Republicans won't if it ever gets in their way again), but there are a variety of more focused reforms that can be helpful even without the broader strokes.
So, you know, that's something. I've spent the better part of a year trying to get them to this point, so I'm glad to see there's at least enough agreement among Senators that they're gonna give it a serious go. They could really do themselves a favor with some good reforms, and it's pretty obvious they feel it.
And then, there's the committee schedule, below, to which we all really ought to be paying more attention, really. I'm gonna have to work on ways of making that easier and more engaging in the future.