In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2010
On Tuesday, no votes are expected in the House, which is a change to the previously announced schedule.
In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
Convenes: 10:00am
Following any Leader remarks, there will be a period of morning business until 11:00am. The Majority will control the first 30 minutes and the Republicans will control the final 30 minutes.
At 11:00am, the Senate will resume the motion to proceed to S.3454, the Department of Defense Authorization bill, with the time until 12:30pm equally divided and controlled between Senators Levin and McCain or their designees.
The Senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15pm to allow for the weekly caucus meetings.
At 2:15pm, the Senate will proceed to a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.3454, the Department of Defense Authorization bill. That will be the first vote of the day.
The House does its best imitation of the Senate today, holding no votes at all. The Senate, meanwhile, springs into action to answer Lady Gaga's call, and will hold a vote at 2:15 to decide whether or not to end debate on the question of whether or not to begin debate on the the defense bill, and the DADT provisions that go with it.
How's that going to come out? Well, lysias tipped me off on that yesterday:
CQ reported no vote on DADT till after election.
They reported it Friday evening in Lawmakers’ Fall Agenda Wiped Out (subscription required):
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Sept. 16 that completion of the $725.7 billion fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill (S 3454) would have to wait until after the elections. Republicans had signaled they would block the bill from even coming to the floor because they have not been allowed votes on their priorities.
In shelving the defense bill, Reid also prevented a vote on an amendment encompassing a bill (HR 1751, S 729) that would provide a pathway to legal residency for some children of illegal immigrants. The move also delayed action on the proposed repeal of the 1993 ban (PL 103-160) on openly gay people serving in the military.
Also being Reid put off according to the article: the food safety bill (S. 510), stem cell research legislation (S. 3766), and extensions of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.
And while that speaks to timing, here's what we might expect on substance:
But even if Tuesday's vote succeeds, Senate aides said Republicans may introduce an amendment this week that would remove the repeal from the defense bill.
Now, what would become of such an amendment? How many votes would it need to pass? Democrats, of course, are used to seeing a 60-vote threshold imposed on their amendments, whether from the necessity of invoking cloture on a filibuster of those amendments, or by unanimous consent as a shortcut around a filibuster (i.e., the "painless filibuster"). But Republican opponents of DADT repeal -- or for that matter, DREAM Act passage -- might be perfectly happy to see a filibuster of that or any amendment, since they don't particularly care to see anything at all accomplished. The less Democrats do, the better for Republicans in November. So the only way forward may in fact be letting the removal of the DADT provisions (and other weakening amendments) come to a straight up, majority rules vote.
So, you know, have a nice day.
Today's committee schedule appears below. If that's OK with Republicans.