In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
FLOOR SCHEDULE FOR FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2010
House Meets At: 9:00 a.m.: Legislative Business
First Vote Predicted: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted: Evening
"One Minutes" (5 per side)
Possible Further Action on Making Further Continuing Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2011 (Rep. Obey – Appropriations)
Suspensions (11 Bills)
- S. 3592 - A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 100 Commerce Drive in Tyrone, Georgia, as the "First Lieutenant Robert Wilson Collins Post Office Building" (Sen. Chambliss - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.Res. 1733 - Recognizing Mark Twain as one of America's most famous literary icons on the 175th anniversary of his birth and the 100th anniversary of his death (Rep. Snyder - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.R. 2142 - Government Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Performance Improvement Act of 2009 (Rep. Cuellar - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.Res. 1621 - Recognizing the 100th anniversary of the historic founding of Catholic Charities USA (Rep. Holt - Oversight and Government Reform)
- H.Res. 1767 - Commending the Wisconsin Badger football team for an outstanding season and 2011 Rose Bowl bid (Rep. Baldwin - Education and Labor)
- H.R. 5510 - Aiding Those Facing Foreclosure Act of 2010 (Rep. Kaptur - Financial Services)
- H.Res. __ - Honoring the exceptional achievements of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and recognizing the monumental contributions he has made to United States national security, humanitarian causes, and peaceful resolutions of international conflict (Rep. Lowey - Foreign Affairs)
- S. 3874 - Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act (Sen. Boxer - Energy and Commerce)
- H.R. 6533 - To implement the recommendations of the Federal Communications Commission report to the Congress regarding low-power FM service (Rep. Doyle - Energy and Commerce)
- Senate Amendment to H.R. 5809 - Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (Rep. Inslee - Energy and Commerce)
- H.R. 6523 - Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 (Rep. Skelton - Armed Services)
Postponed Suspension Votes (3 Bills)
- H.Res. 1377 - Honoring the accomplishments of Norman Yoshio Mineta (Rep. Honda - House Administration)
- 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)
- 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 resume consideration of the New START Treaty. The treaty will be open to amendments tomorrow. Senators are encouraged to come to the floor to offer and debate their amendments. Roll call votes are possible to occur throughout the day.
As a reminder, Senator Reid filed cloture on the motion to concur with respect to HR5281, DREAM Act and on the motion to concur with respect to HR2965, DADT. The first cloture vote will occur early Saturday morning at a time to be determined.
The CR is probably the last major piece of business the House needs to take care of, though it's not entirely certain they'll be able to deal with it today, nor that anything they come up with today won't require them to come back next week to clean up after the Senate on it. But they'll be trying to figure out what can and can't get through the other side today, and see if they can't nail that down so they can at least take off for the weekend.
And while they're trying to figure that out, there are 11 new suspensions and three postponed votes to keep them busy.
On the Senate side, more debate of the START treaty (and Republican attempts to screw things up by passing amendments that would require renegotiating the accord with the Russians), while waiting for the cloture motions on DREAM and DADT to ripen for tomorrow. As a reminder (though that strays into tomorrow in Congress), DREAM and DADT come to the Senate as House amendments to Senate amendments to House bills, which means the Senate can take them up as motions to concur. The important part of that is that once they get cloture on the motion, they're guaranteed a yes or no vote on its passage within 30 hours. In other words, just one filibuster per bill instead of two or more. Plus, Harry Reid gets to "fill the amendment tree," blocking out hostile amendments, so that there's a straight shot at the issue.
But again, that's tomorrow.
After which, there's still the CR, and the outcome of START.
No committee meetings are scheduled today. But every day still counts, because it's one day closer to...