In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip:
First Vote Of The Week: Tuesday 6:30 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted: Friday 3:00 p.m.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2011
On Monday, the House is not in session.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2011
On Tuesday, the House will meet at 2:00 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.
Suspensions (2 Bills)
- H.R.514 - To extend expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and Intelligence Reform of Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 relating to access to business records, individual terrorists as agents of foreign powers and roving wiretaps until December 8, 2011 (Rep. Sensenbrenner - Judiciary)
- H.R. __ - To extend trade adjustment assistance and the Andean Trade Preference Act (Rep. Camp - Ways and Means)
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2011 AND THE BALANCE OF THE WEEK
On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for Morning Hour debate and 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. No votes are expected before 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, the House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business with last votes no later than 3:00 p.m.
Suspensions (2 Bills)
- S. 188 - A bill to designate the United States courthouse under construction at 98 West First Street, Yuma, Arizona, as the "John M. Roll United States Courthouse" (Sen. McCain - Transportation and Infrastructure)
- H.R. __ - To cut the United Nations Tax Equalization Fund (Rep. Ros-Lehtinen - Foreign Affairs)
H. Res. __ - Directing certain standing committees to inventory and review existing, pending, and proposed regulations and orders from agencies of the Federal Government, particularly with respect to their effect on jobs and economic growth (Rep. Sessions – Rules) (Subject to a Rule)
In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
Convenes: 2:00pm
Following any Leader remarks, there will be a period of morning business until 3:00pm with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.
At 3:00pm, the Senate will resume consideration of S.223, the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization bill. If senators have amendments to the bill they would like to offer they should contact the bill managers.
At 4:30pm, the Senate will proceed to Executive session to consider the following nominations with one hour for debate equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees.
- Calendar #3 Paul Holmes, of AR, to be US District Judge for the Western District of Arkansas;
- Calendar #6 Diana Saldana, of TX, to be US District Judge for the Southern District of Texas;
- Calendar #8 Marco Hernandez, of OR, to be US District Judge for the District of Oregon.
At approximately 5:30pm, the nomination of Marco Hernandez will be confirmed by unanimous consent and the Senate will immediately proceed to a series of 2 votes on confirmation of the Holmes and Saldana nominations.
As a result, senators should expect 2 stacked roll call votes at 5:30pm on confirmation of the following nominations:
- Calendar #3 Paul Holmes, of AR, to be US District Judge for the Western District of Arkansas; and
- Calendar #6 Diana Saldana, of TX, to be US District Judge for the Southern District of Texas.
They're trying to renew the USA PATRIOT Act under suspension of the rules.
That either means that they think renewing the Patriot Act is now considered so non-controversial that they don't anticipate a problem getting a 2/3 vote, or they're so cynical that they anticipate not getting 2/3, and are probably thinking they can win some political points by tearing their hair out about terrorism and pointing fingers at Democrats and blaming them for delaying the renewal. Either one is pretty sad.
Also kind of sad: the constitutional authority statement for the bill.
By Mr. SENSENBRENNER:
H.R. 514 .
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant to the following:
The authority to enact this bill is derived from, but may not be limited to, Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution.
That's it? All that wild expansion of search and seizure powers, and all we get is a sort of vague nod to "the common defense and general welfare"? And "may not be limited to?" This constitutional authority crap is bullshit, folks.
Not much else going on in the House, either. The only thing that's even got a bill number is coming over from the Senate -- naming a federal courthouse after Judge John Roll, killed in the attack at Tuscon. What's that mean? It means the bills are too new to even have numbers yet. Which also likely means that no one has read them. Remember when people gave a crap about that?
On the Senate side, they're still on the FAA bill they were working on last week. You remember... they were trying to repeal health care. In the FAA bill. Ah, Senate! You're so wacky! But they're going to jump off of that and try to handle a few judicial nominations and see how that goes. Coming off of the rules reform effort, everyone's got an interest in making it go smoothly, and when lower court nominations get to the floor, it's usually pretty much a done deal.
In the committees, it's an action-packed week, with the House Judiciary Committee jumping right into the nutterism with a hearing on H.R. 3 to kick things off on Tuesday afternoon.
The full committee schedule appears "below."