In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
FLOOR SCHEDULE FOR THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2010
House Meets At: 10:00 a.m.: Legislative Business
First Vote Predicted: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted: Evening
"One Minutes" (10 per side)
Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendment to H.R. 4853 – Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 (Rep. Levin – Ways and Means) (Subject to a Rule)
Suspensions (5 Bills)
- Senate Amendment to H.R. 6198 - Bankruptcy Technical Corrections Act of 2010 (Rep. Conyers - Judiciary)
- Senate Amendment to H.R. 1107 - To enact certain laws relating to public contracts as title 41, United States Code, "Public Contracts" (Rep. Conyers - Judiciary)
- Senate Amendment to H.R. 628 - To establish a pilot program in certain United States district courts to encourage enhancement of expertise in patent cases among district judges (Rep. Issa - Judiciary)
- S. 4005 - Preserving Foreign Criminal Assets for Forfeiture Act of 2010 (Sen. Whitehouse - Judiciary)
- Senate Amendment to H.R. 2941 - To reauthorize and enhance Johanna's Law to increase public awareness and knowledge with respect to gynecologic cancers (Rep. DeLauro - Energy and Commerce)
Postponed Suspension Votes (6 Bills)
- S. 841 - Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act (Sen. Kerry - Energy and Commerce)
- S. 3860 - A bill to require reports on the management of Arlington National Cemetery (Sen. McCaskill - Veterans' Affairs)
- S. 3447 - Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010 (Sen. Akaka - Veterans' Affairs)
- S. 987 - International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2010 (Sen. Durbin - Foreign Affairs)
- H.Res. 20 - Calling on the State Department to list the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as a "Country of Particular Concern" with respect to religious freedom. (Rep. Royce - Foreign Affairs)
- H.Res. 1377 - Honoring the accomplishments of Norman Yoshio Mineta (Rep. Honda - House Administration)
- 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, the Senate will turn to Executive session and begin consideration of the New START Treaty. Amendments are in order to the treaty and, as a result, roll call votes are possible throughout the day. Senators will be notified when any votes are scheduled.
The House gets right to business on the tax bill. And the way they're going to deal with the face-saving amendment is this: the rule allows motion to concur in the Senate amendment with a single amendment (a two-year extension of the 2009 estate tax rates), and if the amendment fails, then the rule pretends that the House is just considering a straight up motion to concur instead. Clever enough. I was a little puzzled as to how they intended to start out with a motion to concur in the Senate amendment with a further amendment, but then switch back to a simple motion to concur later if the new House amendment failed. And the answer is, they just... will. I can get with that. There's no magic like procedural magic! Note, however, that there will be no need for any self-executing provisions in the rule this time. The House will simply take its chances with this estate tax provision, and swallow "the deal" if it doesn't work out.
In the Senate, they're on to the START treaty. After initially threatening to force the whole thing to be read aloud, Actual Minority Leader Jim DeMint has apparently changed his mind, which makes sense the treaty has been available for examination for months. Instead, he'll force the upcoming CR to be read aloud instead, when that comes up. Why? Just to try to run out the clock.
And speaking of running out the clock...
Just two committee meetings scheduled today. They appear in the listings below the fold.
Oh, by the way, for those wondering, the Senate can use the same expedited procedure to pass DADT repeal that it used for the tax bill earlier this week. That is, make a motion to concur in the House amendment to the bill that was used as a vehicle for the repeal yesterday. Just like the tax bill, DADT repeal comes as a substitute amendment for the text of a bill previously passed back and forth between the House and Senate. That means no motion to proceed, and just one shot at the filibuster instead of two or more.
But that's not today. And this is Today in Congress.