Today in Congress. Maybe.
by David Waldman
Tue Feb 09, 2010 at 06:18:03 AM PDT
In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
Majority Leader Hoyer Statement on House Floor Schedule
WASHINGTON, DC – House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement tonight on the schedule for the U.S. House of Representatives:
"Due to the weather affecting the ability of Members to travel to Washington, DC, there will no votes in the House tomorrow. We remain focused on completing our work for the week, but will assess the state of the weather tomorrow and move forward accordingly."
In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
Convenes: 2:00pm
Executive Session to debate concurrently the nominations of Joseph Greenaway (US Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit) and Craig Becker (Member of the National Labor Relations Board) until 5:00pm, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees.
Votes:
At 5:00pm the Senate will proceed to a series of 2 roll call votes in relation to the following nominations:
- Confirmation of the nomination of Joseph Greenaway, of New Jersey, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit; and
- Cloture on the nomination of Craig Becker, of Illinois, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board.
Does that Senate schedule look familiar? Well, the schedule for Monday changed during the day yesterday, and now reads:
The Senate will convene for a brief session in order to change the order of the previously scheduled roll call votes. There will no longer be no roll call votes during Monday's session of the Senate. We expect to move the votes to 5pm Tuesday.
Given what we have from the House Majority Leader's Office, though, it doesn't look like that's a great plan, either. This snow thing is nuts, man.
By the way, did you know that if the Senate moves simply to go to executive session, that motion is non-debatable and therefore not subject to filibuster, but the later motion to actually bring up a nomination is debatable and can be filibustered, but if the Senate moves to go to executive session for the purpose of considering a particular nomination, then the motion is non-debatable and automatically makes the nomination the pending business on adoption of the motion?
Neat trick, eh? Robert Byrd came up with that one in 1980.
Someone should ask him about his 1977 move that killed the post-cloture filibuster loophole and his 1987 maneuver that shut down the GOP's dilatory games in messing with the Journal approval. I think someone will want to know about those if Judd Gregg continues to fantasize about filibustering a reconciliation bill with endless b.s. amendments. Just sayin'.
Today's committee schedule appears below. As of last night, those still listed were still on, though some cancellations and postponements now seem likely. The heavier Senate schedule may stick, since Senators were already back in town, whereas House Members are still returning and may find their plans altered by the weather. We'll have to wait and see.
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