It's Friday, May 27 and Day 104 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell laid down his Supreme Court blockade: No meetings, no hearings, no votes on his replacement. It's also Day 72 since President Obama named Merrick Garland to be Scalia's replacement. What's the Senate doing today instead of considering the Supreme Court nominee?
According to the Senate’s website, today’s plan was:
12:30 p.m.: Convene for a pro forma session.
But most senators left town Thursday, and not just for the weekend. Monday is Memorial Day, which means it’s time for Memorial Day recess. Thursday, Democratic leaders called for recess to be cancelled:
"The Republican Congress is about to leave for an almost two-week recess. Republicans are leaving Washington without having completed any of the urgent business before Congress," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said Thursday on steps outside the Capitol. [...]
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), referring to Congress's impending exit, said, "Man, it's approaching noon now, and we're damn near out of here."
What didn’t get done? Any consideration of Merrick Garland is first on that list, of course. Which is why it’s so important to please donate $3 today to help turn the Senate blue. The future of the Supreme Court depends on it. But oh, there's more!
Even as reports of Zika cases in the United States increased this week, Congress did not come up with a final plan to help pay to fight the virus. The Senate has passed a bill providing $1.1 billion for mosquito eradication and the like, but the House version gives only $622 million and directs Congress to pay for it. The two sides will try to find a compromise after the Memorial Day recess.
A far less urgent bill, a bipartisan measure that would change how chemicals are regulated, was left for a later date after Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, asked for more time to read it. A need to read also caused Senate Democrats to slow down a broad defense policy bill, pushing that measure into the post-recess Congress.
An energy and water spending bill, about as contentious as vanilla low-fat yogurt, went down on the House floor on Thursday because conservative Republicans disliked an attached amendment banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Have a fun recess, guys!