In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip:
TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK
On Tuesday, the House will meet at 2:00 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. There will be no Morning Hour debate.
"One Minutes"
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)
In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:
Convenes: 10:00am
Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of S.223, the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act.
At 10:20am, there will be 10 minutes for debate prior to a vote in relation to the Nelson (FL) amendment #34 (NASA).
Senators should expect a roll call vote at approximately 10:30am in relation to the Nelson (FL) amendment #34 (NASA) to S.223, FAA Authorization.
That will be the only roll call vote of the day.
Once again, I'll remind you that in order to get these posts prepared for early morning, I'm relying on Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer's "Nightly Whip" reports, prepared the evening prior to the session. These are often a little lighter on the detail than we used to get when Hoyer was Majority Leader, since Hoyer was in fact in charge of the floor schedule then. Eric Cantor's office, though, isn't putting out much more information than what you see here.
A little later in the day -- sometimes only about half an hour to an hour after these posts go up -- you can check in on Hoyer's "Daily Whip" posts, which often have a little more detail about amendments being offered, etc. But so far, they haven't been available in time to get posted at 9 a.m.
So here we are, with a USA PATRIOT Act extension under suspension of the rules. Forty minutes of debate, max, needs 2/3 to pass. Which really is pretty disturbing, if you think about it.
Now, this is a short-term extension of just some of the provisions of the act, but still, forty minutes? And as I mentioned yesterday, it's either sad that you could pass a renewal under suspension, or cynical that you'd bring it to the floor under suspension knowing it might well fail, but that you can blame it on Democrats if it does.
Plus, it's annoying that the constitutional authority statement for something as broad as the provisions of the act is just basically, "Well, uh, maybe common defense and general welfare, or maybe something else." What a joke.
The Senate? Still on the FAA bill. We'll get one amendment voted on today. One. And how many are there? Yesterday's Senate schedule was updated to let us know:
The following amendments are pending to S.223:
- Wicker amendment #14, as modified (Excludes TSA from collective bargaining)
- Blunt amendment #5 (private screening company)
- Nelson (FL) #34 (NASA)
- Paul #21 (reduce authorization for FAA to FY2008 levels)
- Wyden #27 (increase test sites for unmanned aerial vehicles)
- Inhofe amendment #6 (liability protection to volunteer pilots)
- Inhofe amendment #7 (flight time limitations/rest requirements)
- Ensign amendment #32 (military remotely piloted aerial systems)
- McCain amendment #4 (Essential Air Service)
This could take a while.
Committee schedule appears below.
UPDATE: This is what I'm talking about in terms of updates from Hoyer's office. Here's today's Daily Whip:
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) This legislation would extend three provisions that are scheduled to expire on February 28, 2011 – 1. "Roving Wiretap" authority, which allows government to wiretap multiple electronic devices used by a single suspected terrorist; 2. "Lone Wolf", which allows government to pursue warrants to conduct surveillance on non-U.S. citizens, engaged in ‘international terrorist activities’ alone; 3. Provision granting government access to business records relating to a terrorist investigation.
- H.R. __ - To extend trade adjustment assistance and the Andean Trade Preference Act (Rep. Camp - Ways and Means) This legislation would extend the Trade Adjustment Assistance program and the Andean Trade Preference Act through June 30, 2011. Both TAA and ATPA are set to expire on February 13, 2011. To offset the cost, this measure would cut $238 million from the TAA Community College and Career Training grant program from FY2014 funding levels. Under current law, $500 million is available for the program in FY2014.
Better, right? But not available in time for night-before pre-publication.