In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
FLOOR SCHEDULE FOR FRIDAY, JULY 30, 2010
House Meets At... 9:00 a.m.: Legislative Business
First Vote Predicted... 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Last Vote Predicted... Evening
"One Minutes" (5 per side)
H.R. 3534 - Consolidated Land, Energy and Aquatic Resources Act (Reps. Rahall/Oberstar – Natural Resources/Transportation and Infrastructure) (Subject to a Rule)
H.R. 5851 - Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act (Rep. George Miller (CA) – Education and Labor) (Subject to a Rule)
Possible Further Action on H.R. 1264 - Multiple Peril Insurance Act (Rep. Taylor – Financial Services)
Suspensions (3 Bills)
- H.R. __ - To increase the flexibility of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development with respect to the amount of premiums charged for FHA single family housing mortgage insurance (Rep. Frank – Financial Services)
- H.R. 4862 - To permit Members of Congress to administer the oath of allegiance to applicants for naturalization (Rep. Serrano - Judiciary)
- H.R. __ - Small Business Tax Relief Act (Reps. Murphy (NY)/Owens – Ways and Means)
Postponed Suspension Votes (4 Bills)
- H.Res. 1558 - Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that fruit and vegetable and commodity producers are encouraged to display the American flag on labels of products grown in the United States, reminding us all to take pride in the healthy bounty produced by American farmers and workers (Rep. Cardoza - Agriculture)
- H.R. 5901 - Real Estate Jobs and Investment Act (Rep. Crowley - Ways and Means)
- H.Res. 1566 - Recognizing and commemorating The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the National Sit-In Movement (Rep. Lewis (GA) - Judiciary)
- H.R. 5414 - To provide for the conveyance of a small parcel of National Forest System land in the Francis Marion National Forest in South Carolina (Rep. Brown (SC) - Agriculture)
- 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 proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.
There will be no roll call votes during Friday’s session of the Senate. The next vote will occur around 5:30 and 5:45pm on Monday, August 2. That vote will be on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur with amendment #4557 (Teacher Funding and FMAP) with respect to HR1586.
The House gets ready to close up shop for six weeks after today's work, so there's a lot of clean-up going on. Three substantive items to be brought subject to a rule top the list, though they might not get to all of them. First on the chopping block, it seems, is the continuing struggle of Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MS-04) to wring some relief for Gulf Coast home and business owners out of insurance companies who denied policy holders adequate coverage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Not that Taylor could be bothered to do the same for people all over the country similarly victimized by their health insurers, but hey, it's a nice thought, I'm sure.
Also up under regular order, two bills responding in different ways to the Gulf oilcano disaster, including new BANANAS candidate, the CLEAR Act. CLEAR stands for "Consolidated Land, Energy and Aquatic Resources." That's not so awful. I'll give that just a 2. Aquatic is a little bit of an unnecessary flourish, but it's not crazy. What's it do? It reforms mineral extraction leasing policy, and establishes a new Office of Federal Energy and Minerals Leasing within the Department of the Interior.
The other oilcano-related bill up today is the Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act -- or as I call it, OOGWWPA. I like to say it as, "Ooga-whoppa" and insert it into the lyrics of Blue Swede's 1974 hit, "Hooked on a Feeling." But that's just me.
Also of interest, the as-yet unnumbered bill being brought to the floor under suspension of the rules (Did we get a waiver for suspensions on Friday? I don't recall seeing that.) and designated the Small Business Tax Relief Act. I suppose this is another stab at isolating stuff from the Small Business Jobs bill that's stalled in the Senate and sending it through on its own, as they did with unemployment benefits extensions not long ago, when combining it with other items appeared to bog it down.
On the Senate side, another interesting move. Harry Reid will move to strip out the text of an FAA authorization bill and substitute instead language to address the additional domestic spending that was itself stripped out of the supplemental appropriations bill the other day. That's $10 billion for teacher job retention and $16.1 billion for FMAP (Federal Medical Assistance Percentage) payments. (That's Medicaid money for the states.) Like the House did and appears to be doing again, the Senate will now isolate out a popular piece of a bill that's stalled and try to get that to a vote.
Why strip out the contents of an FAA authorization? Because the offset for the spending comes in part from closing the foreign tax credit loophole, which means it's a revenue measure. And revenue measures are supposed to originate in the House, under the Constitution. Remember? So they're taking a bill from the House and "amending" it so that they can comply with the rule. This bill originated in the House. They're just taking every single thing in it out and putting in something completely new. Ta-da!
Anyway, that'll require a cloture vote (of course!), so the Senate will be back in next week, even as the House heads out on recess.
No committee meetings are scheduled for today, so that's it. Nothing below the fold!