Recapping Last Week in Congress

The House was not in session last week. So, good. I'm trying to take a vacation this week.

Major happenings in the Senate included the confirmation of Paul J. Watford to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the passage of the FDA user fees bill, the "failure" (with 51 votes) of the student loan bill, and the filing of cloture on the motion to proceed to the Paycheck Fairness Act.

This Week in Congress

The House is back in session this week, but thanks to the holiday weekend, they'll be coming in on Wednesday instead of the normal Tuesday return. Then they're back out of here again on Friday. Is it worth coming back to DC for just a few days like that? Well, it's appropriations season, so there's always lots of work to do, even though a lot of the House's appropriations bills are likely to face veto threats, since they'll mostly be working with numbers that throw wrenches into the works of the existing budget deal that came out of last summer's debt ceiling deal, and were ratified in the Budget Control Act.

That's something to keep in mind over the next several weeks, as the House works its way through their appropriations bills. House Republicans are working under the assumption that the relevant guidelines for spending are those contained in the plan they "deemed" adopted a few weeks ago. Congressional Democrats and the White House are working under the assumption that the relevant guidelines for spending are those contained in the Budget Control Act. So you literally have two sides reading from entirely different scripts. It'll be... interesting... to see how they resolve this. To say the very least.

The week actually begins with a slate of suspension bills, the first of which appears to be a House version of the FDA bill just passed in the Senate. Which is to say that they appear to be attempting the same play as with the VAWA, with the House ignoring the Senate's bill and passing its own, forcing the Senate to disagree with the House and request a conference, instead of vice versa. Also among the suspension bills, perhaps the most pretentiously-named measure of the year: Rep. Trent Franks' (R-AZ-02) "Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act." Naturally, it's an anti-abortion bill. Because what else would a House Republican be up to during appropriations season?

What do Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass have to do with abortion? Nothing. But Susan B. Anthony was female, and Frederick Douglass was black. And this bill would make it illegal to perform an abortion knowing that the abortion is sought based on the sex, gender, color or race of the child, or the race of a parent. So, uh... there you go. Presumably, either Trent Franks thinks no one would ever abort a white male embryo,  just couldn't think of which totally awesome white to name the bill after, or figures Frederick Douglass can do double duty. Ditto, black females. Asians are just S.O.L., I guess. And forget the rest of you. Whatever. The point is, there are totally famous names in this bill, and if you vote against it, you hate those people, and should move to Russia.

Thursday and Friday are given over to intelligence authorization, military construction (MilCon) and veterans' appropriations, a possible stab at energy and water development approps, and perhaps yet another motion to instruct conferees on the surface transportation bill. But it'll be a race against the clock to get back out of town for the weekend.

Full floor schedule is below the fold.

Remember, you can join me for an excruciatingly detailed look at all this and more on Daily Kos Radio each weekday morning, from 9-11 EDT. (Yes, podcasts will be available soon.) On Tuesday, I took some time to explain filling the amendment tree, and yesterday, I put a good hour and a half into explaining just how badly the filibuster can screw up relations between the two houses of Congress, and makes getting to an agreement in conference over differences between versions of a bill even more complicated, and a bonus discussion of motions to recommit.

Think you can hack it? Click here or on the button below to listen. I'm telling you, you could listen to NPR forever and not get this. Though there may be a good reason for that. Hmm.

Recapping yesterday's action:

The House spent the bulk of its day on debate of and amendments to what they're calling the "Domestic Energy and Jobs Act," which is just the latest "Drill Baby, Drill!" bill, with the word "jobs" tacked onto the end of it. But they also shoehorned in the voice vote passage of the Senate FDA user fee bill.

The Senate's day was mostly given over to farm bill amendments, and they've now made their way through 63 of the 73 amendments originally permitted under their agreement (though I believe I saw that they may have added one or two to the total, by a separate agreement).

Looking ahead to today:

The House has 10 more amendments to consider to the current fake jobs bill, and then they'll launch into a marathon of voting, having postponed 11 roll call votes on amendments from yesterday. In addition to this bill, there are two more motions to instruct conferees on the seemingly stalled surface transportation bill, plus a vote on a third one postponed from yesterday.

I have to say, I've never seen so many motions to instruct on a single bill. And keep in mind that all such instructions are non-binding on the conferees, anyway. Transportation has been an absolute mess, from start to finish, in this Congress. Multiple, patchwork extensions of previous authorizations to hold them over until the new bill could be passed, and then having to split the new authorization bill into multiple parts, followed by this complete $#*t-storm of motions to instruct. It's no wonder people are saying this thing could die before ever getting out of conference. What a joke. You know things have gone to hell when you can't pass a bill that spreads cash out all over the country to put people to work building roads and bridges.

The Senate has eight more amendments to the farm bill to consider today, all of which will be subject to "painless filibusters," that is, a 60-vote requirement to pass. The same will be required for final passage of the bill.

One other vote is possible, apparently depending on reaching an agreement to bump the vote up to today, on invoking cloture on the motion to proceed to consideration of the flood insurance bill.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

Don't forget to check in with Daily Kos Radio for commentary on all this and more, every Monday through Friday, from 9-11 a.m. EDT. Just click on the player below.

The Blue Skies Netroots Radio Player

We'll be taking to the "air" again this week on Daily Kos Radio, live from 9-11 EDT, and now finally making our way into podcast format as well. We'll doubtless be obsessing about not just the ACA ruling, but also the Arizona "papers, please" case, with help from Armando, Adam B, and perhaps still more members of our legal issues peanut gallery. Plus, we'll talk contempt of Congress, dive back into the weeds on any number of procedural issues, and generally do the things the rest of the radio dial won't touch. Join us Monday through Friday from 9-11, and bring the kiddies out to the park, why don't ya? Well, maybe not kids. But tell a friend, at least.

Recapping Last Week in Congress

The House delivered up its quota of Orwellianism in passing the "Conservation and Economic Growth Act" and the "Domestic Energy and Jobs Act." So congratulations to all of you who are reaping the benefits of the economic growth and new jobs.

The Senate spent its week on a boatload of farm bill amendments, finally wrapping that bill up in time to move on to slogging through the now-routine cloture motions on motions to proceed to the items on this week's agenda.

This Week in Congress

Everyone's eyes will be pointed across the street this week, toward the Supreme Court, which we all anticipate will be handing down its opinion on the Affordable Care Act. But there won't likely be any floor action in either house having to do with that. The band plays on. And there's a lot to play, some of which is not really reflected in the floor schedule. On top of the scheduled floor business for the week are the looming deadlines for reauthorizing surface transportation programs and for blocking the increase in interest rates on federally-supported student loans. Both will have to be addressed, but the pathway to the floor is not yet charted.

In the House, a bundle of suspensions (including five more post office namings), the Transportation/HUD and Agriculture appropriations bills (these not yet under specific veto threat), two postponed votes on motions to instruct conferees in the interminable surface transportation bill conference, and... the full House vote on the motion to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

In the Senate, it's business as usual. Which is to say that they'll begin the week by burning off post-cloture time on the motion to proceed to consideration of the flood insurance bill, even though they've already agreed to adopt the motion to proceed by unanimous consent some time before 5:30, so that they can get to the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to consideration of the House's amendment to the FDA user fees bill. Two cloture procedures on two motions to proceed. And it's only Monday.

Full floor and committee schedules are below the fold.

Don't forget to check in with Daily Kos Radio for commentary on all this and more, every Monday through Friday, from 9-11 a.m. EDT. Just click on the player below.

The Daily Kos Radio Player

Well, it was a total madhouse yesterday on Daily Kos Radio, but easily our best day ever. How could it not be? We had the hottest topic in the country, extended hours of coverage, plus for the first time, the ability to have you join in the fun with a call-in number. Thanks for that bit of engineering goes to the brain trust of Netroots Radio, most especially yuriwho, who rigged the system up, and winkk, who agreed to make himself available to facilitate a three-hour call-in marathon. If you missed the show, you can listen to the podcast(s) here. And what a party it was! We had calls from brooklynbadboy, Bill in Portland Maine, Joan McCarter, Militarytracy, and several other community members who stopped by.  But if you ask me, this was the best part: when Monica from Maryland called to tell us how glad she was that she was listening when we got it right and CNN got it wrong:

Join us this morning for yet another early morning drop-in from DemFromCT, who'll not only let us know what's happening in the world of polling, post-SCOTUS, but also offer us a sneak preview of his upcoming Sunday essay, the subject of which I think you'll find pretty fascinating.

Hear that, people? You can get a sneak preview of front page stuff that hasn't been posted yet, if you listen to Daily Kos Radio. If you thought reading Daily Kos was like getting the newspaper a day early, imagine what it'll be like to get Daily Kos a day early.

Recapping yesterday's action:

The House turned away from appropriations business for the day, instead mopping up postponed votes on suspension bills, and then considering the contempt of Congress resolution against Attorney General Eric Holder, plus the resolution authorizing the Oversight Committee to go to court to seek a declaratory judgment enforcing its subpoenas. Both measures passed easily, with the bulk of the Democratic Caucus following the Congressional Black Caucus's lead in walking out of the chamber in protest of the contempt vote.

The Senate once again held no roll call votes, using the flood insurance bill to keep the wheels turning, but all the while working on finalizing a deal to pass that bill, a student loan fix, and the surface transportation conference report. That deal does finally appear to have come together, and will likely be embodied in a single measure rolling them all into the conference report.

Looking ahead to today:

The House will convene early, and likely make its first order of business to dispense with the transportation conference report, along with the other bills wrapped up in it. Since they were already scheduled to be in for some votes on Friday, they may then return to the Transportation/HUD appropriations bill and finish that up before adjourning for the July 4th week.

The Senate will also convene early, and most likely stay in a holding pattern until the House can send over whatever deal package has been worked out. There's some chance the Senate may be able to vote earlier, if they can get unanimous consent to do so (that is, to vote on the package notwithstanding having not received the papers from the House, I guess). But the plan is to wrap this all up before the weekend, and break camp.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

Don't forget to check in with Daily Kos Radio for commentary on all this and more, every Monday through Friday, from 9-11 a.m. EDT. Just click on the player below.

The Daily Kos Radio Player

This is your daily reminder that Daily Kos Radio is on the air, Monday through Friday, now from 9 a.m. to noon, ET. Just click here or on the player below to listen in. And hey, why not send me a tweet during the show, to @KagroX? Why? Well, how about just to confound OLinda?

What's going on in Congress today?

In the House

The House is scheduled to complete its "consideration" of the Patients’ Rights Repeal Act today, after a whopping five hours of debate (consumed yesterday), with no amendments allowed. The only other scheduled piece of business is the consideration of the rule for the "National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act," the debate and vote on which will be held over until Thursday. Busy day, then, eh?

In the Senate

Having invoked cloture yesterday by a vote of 80-14 on the motion to proceed to consideration of the Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act, the Senate will spend today... burning some or all of the 30 hours of post-cloture time on the motion to proceed! So far, there's no agreement in place to move more quickly to a vote on the actual motion, much less to consideration of the bill. No, the vote of 80-14 isn't enough to just get started already. Senators are, no doubt, wrangling over amendments, and if they're not satisfied they'll get to offer the ones they want, they'll let the full 30 hours run. But if an agreement can be reached, they can waive the balance of the time and even agree by unanimous consent to adopt the motion to proceed, and finally get to work on the bill itself.

On the Radio

We'll look forward to the triumphant return of DemFromCT today, after which we'll review the news and chatter, plus hit the longer term stories we've been watching, like how Wall Street scams counties into bankruptcy, how it turns out that maybe Romney didn't really leave Bain in 1999 like he says he did, and more. Plus (fingers crossed) an explainer on LIBOR, featuring Ozymandius, author of a recent Recommended List diary on the subject.

And don't forget that my two-hour morning kick-off ("working" title: Kagro in the Morning) is now followed from 11 a.m. to noon ET by The Ministry of Truth with Armando, starring Jesse LaGreca.

The Daily Kos Radio Player

This is your daily reminder that Daily Kos Radio is on the air, Monday through Friday, from 9-11 a.m. ET. Just click here or on the player below to listen in. And hey, why not send me a tweet during the show, at @KagroX? Yes, I realize that reads, "at at KagroX." But something seemed wrong about leaving the "at" out just because there was an @ in the address.

What's going on in Congress today?

In the House

It's Former Members Association day in the House, so non-embittered former Members will hold their annual meeting on the floor at 8:00 a.m. This will be Thad McCotter's first, and that's always a special occasion. We wish him well with it.

Once they're done playing Glory Days, the House undertakes the Very Serious Business of pretending to repeal your preexisting condition protection, and kicking your kids off your insurance, with the Patients’ Rights Repeal Act.

In the Senate

At about noon, expect a vote on the nomination of John Thomas Fowlkes, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Tennessee.

12:30 - 2:15pm Caucus lunches.

At 2:25pm, there will be a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S.2237, the Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act.

On the Radio

Here's hoping traffic to and from the kids' camps isn't as bad today as it was yesterday, and I'll make it back to the microphone with slightly more than thirty seconds to air!

As always, I'll be browsing the day's news stories and Twitter chatter, playing the hits of our friend Crashing Vor, but sorely missing our daily pearls of wisdom from DemFromCT, whose "real life" apparently interferes with today's broadcast schedule.

By the way, I've been thinking we could experiment with ways to open the floor in the morning the way the House does, with "one minutes." Record your own one minute missive in mp3 format, and email it to me, and we'll try and work them into the show. Just tell us how you'd like to be identified when we do.

Hey, it's not quite as cool as listener calls (which we'll get to), but it's a little bit of Today in Congress in your Daily Kos Radio, so we'll go with that for the time being.

In the meantime, tune in to win (just an expression), and bring a friend (that part is serious).

The Daily Kos Radio Player

Yes, Congress is back in session this week. And we also roll into week four of Daily Kos Radio. Time to transition into some new kind of hybrid post, as both time and front page real estate are limited. We'll see what we finally settle on in the future, but for now, we'll wing it like this:

In the House

Returning from recess, the Republican House will seek to fan the flames that died down last week in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act. Just as most of the county has come to grips with the reality of the law's constitutionality, House Republicans will throw a symbolic hissy fit and vote on an as-yet unwritten and as-yet unnumbered bill they're calling the "Repeal of Obamacare Act," but which Dems are calling the, "Patients’ Rights Repeal Act." What's in it? I dunno! They dunno! Nobody knows! But it doesn't matter, since the Senate will never pass it, and that suits Republicans just fine, since (for whatever reason) they want to run in November against a still-living ACA. The "repeal" bill will be a two-day affair, followed by the suspiciously-titled "National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act, " which basically declares any mine producing "strategic and critical minerals" (whatever they may be) to be an "infrastructure project" as described in the Presidential Order "Improving Performance of Federal Permitting and Review of Infrastructure Projects." In other words, it's a hurry up the permitting process bill. What a change of pace!

In the Senate

Also returning from a week in recess, the Senate has scheduled a vote on Tuesday on the nomination of John Thomas Fowlkes to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Tennessee, and then yet another cloture vote, this time on the motion to proceed to consideration of the "Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act."

On the Radio

I'll be browsing the day's news stories and Twitter chatter on Daily Kos Radio all week, Monday through Friday, from 9-11 a.m. EDT, with our regular house call from the Doc, Greg Dworkin (DemFromCT) for a polling update in the 9:00 hour. And starting tomorrow, I'll be followed by an additional hour of Daily Kos programming, with Armando and Jesse LaGreca (Ministry of Truth).

Just click here or on the player below to listen in.

The Daily Kos Radio Player

This is the calm before the storm, as everyone anticipates the Supreme Court's ruling on the ACA case today at 10:00 a.m. ET. But aside from any stray comments that might be made on the case during "one minute" speeches in the House, or "one week and a half" speeches in the Senate, there's no real or ongoing discussion of it planned for today. You can be sure Members will be lining up to put out press releases and do satellite TV appearances on the ruling, however.

We'll of course be all over it from the moment the decision is handed down, and even beforehand, anticipating the events of the day. In addition to ongoing coverage here, it'll be the topic of the day in a special, expanded edition of Daily Kos Radio. We're already planning on running long, adding two extra hours to the show, which means we'll be on from 9 a.m. ET to 1 p.m. I'll be joined by Armando, who'll be on hand to read through and analyze the opinion as soon as it's available. So for a sneak preview of what you're likely to see in the post-release written analysis on the front page, stop by Daily Kos Radio and give us a listen.

We're even getting set up to take your calls today, starting in the 10 o'clock hour. For details on how you can reach out and touch various parts of Armando's body of knowledge, stay tuned to the Daily Kos Radio group page.

Recapping yesterday's action:

The House basically spent all day (and all night) on the Transportation/HUD appropriations bill amendments, minus a couple hours out around dinner time for the White House-Congressional picnic. That's all there is to say about that. It's a real thing. The picnic, I mean. In case you thought I meant the Transportation/HUD bill. Which is also real. Real annoying and real long and really taking forever, that is.

The Senate? A big nothing, floor-wise. Lots of work behind the scenes, though, trying to work out deals on amendments to the flood insurance bill, the student loan bill, and the long-stalled surface transportation bill. But no roll call votes on anything.

Looking ahead to today:

The House will continue with the Transportation/HUD appropriations bill, and it will at some point take up two resolutions related to the contempt of Congress citation Republicans are seeking against Attorney General Eric Holder, during which the Congressional Black Caucus reportedly plans a mass walkout. The first will be a straight up finding of contempt, and a referral of that charge to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. The second authorizes the Government Reform & Oversight committee to seek a declaratory judgment in federal court affirming Holder's duty to comply with their subpoenas. This second resolution mirrors the action House Democrats authorized a few years ago, when it was Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten who were in contempt of Congress, and frankly, it stands a far better chance of being adjudicated before the whole thing is mooted by the dissolution of the 112th Congress than the contempt charges do. It just might not come out the way they think, since any judge weighing the administration's claims of deliberative privilege and the Committee's pleas to override it would likely include some inquiry about just what it is the Committee seeks, what it thinks it will find, and the likelihood that it's findable or even exists. And that might not go all that well for them. But to show they're "serious," it makes sense for them to seek the authorization, regardless. Truthfully, it might not be a bad idea for the administration to file such a motion on its own.

The Senate will keep on keepin' on, ostensibly debating the flood insurance bill, while seeking to finalize any deals there are to be had on amendments to it, plus student loans and transportation. Senators will just have to stand by to see if there's going to be any work to do before this recess, and when it will hit.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

Don't forget to check in with Daily Kos Radio for commentary on all this and more, with special, expanded hours plus your calls, from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. EDT. Just click on the player below.

The Daily Kos Radio Player

We continue to bring you our daily installments of Daily Kos Radio, whether you like it or not, Monday through Friday, from 9-11 a.m. ET. Today we'll be joined by DemFromCT, Meteor Blades and Jesse LaGreca, aka Ministry of Truth. And don't forget to join us on Thursday for SCOTUS-palooza, as we anticipate the issuance of the Court's opinion on the Affordable Care Act case.

Recapping yesterday's action:

The House ran through the debate part of its schedule of suspension bills, postponing requested roll call votes, threw in a resolution making some new committee assignments, and then dove headlong into the Transportation/HUD appropriations bill and a pile of amendments, which I thought they might put off beginning until today. But no! They went right to it, working through a dozen or so until late last night.

About that appropriations business, there was a bit of an uproar on the floor today as the Republicans offered the rule covering both the Transportation/HUD and the upcoming Agriculture appops bills with a provision waiving the rule that would otherwise prohibit the House from adjourning for more than three days during the month of July if, as is currently the case, they have not finished passing all their annual appropriations bills. The total currently stands at just four, and the Republicans want the rule waived in advance of next week's recess for the July 4th holiday.

They won. That's all it takes to ignore the rules in the House. A majority vote. Oh wells. It ain't like it's never been done before. But I'll bet you could find some fiery invective against the practice from Republicans in years past that suddenly disappeared yesterday. That's the way they roll in Congress.

The Senate confirmed the nomination of Robin S. Rosenbaum to the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and adopted the motion to concur in the House amendment to S.3187, the FDA user fees bill. Good news there. But the rest of the day was given over to fumbling around trying to get a deal on amendments to the flood insurance bill. And that's proving to be a challenge that's dragging on into today, as we once again find that such deeply serious players as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) are insisting on bringing abortion amendments to the flood insurance bill.

I took that one up on Daily Kos Radio:

Looking ahead to today:

The House will spend the day on continued consideration of amendments to the Transportation/HUD appropriations bill.

The Senate, for its part, will spend the day on continued negotiations over amendments to the flood insurance bill. Whether any of them will actually get to the floor, we have no idea. But word is that there's a deal floating out there somewhere on student loan rate legislation, and maybe even a breakthrough on the surface transportation bill, and that they could even make a strong run at beating the looming expiration deadlines. That might require working into the weekend, or if they're really lucky, they'll get a quick deal on amendments to the flood insurance bill and be able to get to it all in rapid succession. Without a deal on the flood insurance amendments, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) could be forced to move for cloture, burning valuable days leading up to the July 4th recess and those student loan and highway fund deadlines, and basically ruining everything. Recesses, though, are a powerful motivator for Senators, so there's actually some chance that some combination of deals and/or short-term extensions on expiring legislation could yet save the day(s).

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

Don't forget to check in with Daily Kos Radio for commentary on all this and more, every Monday through Friday, from 9-11 a.m. EDT. Just click on the player below.

The Daily Kos Radio Player

And if you missed the Monday or Tuesday shows, podcasts are now available on the Daily Kos Radio group page.

Recapping yesterday's action:

The House was in pro forma session yesterday.

The Senate was in regular-a session. That's not a word, though. I'm just kidding. Their unanimous consent to adopt the motion to proceed to the flood insurance bill went off without a hitch, and they even voted without incident to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the House message on the FDA user fee bill. So although the day was pretty much burnt on procedural motions, it was a Monday, and that's not all that unusual for the Senate.

Looking ahead to today:

The House returns to a full plate this week, but this being its first work day of the week, much of it is given over to the usual batch of non-controversial suspension bills. Also tacked on to the back end of today's agenda are two postponed votes on two more motions to instruct conferees on the surface transportation bill. They might perhaps squeeze those votes in at the end of the day, or they might move them up right behind the suspensions, before moving on to the substantive work for the day: the Transportation/HUD appropriations bill, for which they'll likely handle only passage of a rule and general debate, beginning the amendment process tomorrow.

As nice as it was to see the Senate make procedural progress yesterday, the fact remains that they'll waste the bulk of today on the same crap, insisting on running the post-cloture clock on the motion to proceed to the FDA bill. After a brief pause to consider the nomination of Robin S. Rosenbaum to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, and then a break for the party caucus luncheons, the Senate will return to burn another 6+ post-cloture hours on the motion to proceed. Awesome.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

Don't forget to check in with Daily Kos Radio for commentary on all this and more, every Monday through Friday, from 9-11 a.m. EDT. Just click on the player below. Even if, for some reason, it doesn't say that our awesome show is on, being all awesome and stuff. If it's between 9 and 11 am Eastern, we're there. Go on, click and find out.

The Daily Kos Radio Player

And just in case you missed yesterday's show, here's another chance to catch up.

Recapping yesterday's action:

The House made its way through the raft of amendments to, and final passage of, the "Conservation and Economic Growth Act." So presumably, the economy is going to grow now, which is awesome. But it's going to do so without requiring that the gift shops in our National Parks sell only items made in America, because that was in the motion to recommit the bill that Republicans rejected. Just thought you might want to know.

The Senate also moved a pile of amendments today, these to the farm bill. Just 47 left to go! Among those considered: one from Rand Paul (R-KY) forbidding any subsidy payments to anyone with more than $250,000 in income (failed), and one from Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) restoring some of the cuts made in SNAP (also failed). Two others that would have cut SNAP even more also went down.

And just so you know, the Senate also agreed to congratulate the Los Angeles Kings for winning the Stanley Cup, and to declare today (the 20th) "American Eagle Day." So for those of you who were perhaps thinking of assaulting an eagle, maybe you want to put that off for now, out of respect for the day.

Looking ahead to today:

The House today considers the "Domestic Energy and Jobs Act," so by this time tomorrow, there should be a whole bunch of jobs and stuff. Maybe. I mean, the Republicans in the House keep adding the word "jobs" to every bill they bring up (this one was known as the "Strategic Energy Production Act" as recently as Monday), but for some reason it doesn't seem to do anything. Maybe running a government isn't really all that much like ordering a sandwich, after all. Oh well. Anyway, there are 27 amendments to the bill to deal with before we get to final passage, so it looks like this one will stretch out into tomorrow's schedule, too.

Oh, and P.S., I heard yesterday afternoon that the Oversight Committee might take up the contempt of Congress resolution that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA-49) has been threatening against Attorney General Eric Holder, in connection with the "Fast & Furious" probe. More about that on today's radio show. Tune in and I'll tell you all about the problems with contempt of Congress proceedings. Or, if you can't, well, search my archived posts on it. I'd do it for you, but it's 1:00 in the morning as I write this.

The Senate will start the day with some debate on, and then a motion to proceed to, the resolution of disapproval of the EPA mercury rule. The expectation is that the motion will fail, and the plan thereafter is to return to the amendments to the farm bill, and hopefully to final passage as well. But there are still 47 amendments standing in the way of that, and even though not all of them are likely to require roll call votes, there's still a substantial number that will, and we could be in for a long night. The expected sequence of the votes can be found here.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

And don't forget to check in with Daily Kos Radio for commentary on all this and more, every Monday through Friday, from 9-11 a.m. EDT. Just click on the player below.

The Blue Skies Netroots Radio Player

Daily Kos Radio is going live again this morning for a record-breaking second 9 a.m. EST broadcast in a row! Click here, or on the embedded stream player below to listen in!

Recapping yesterday's action:

The House met yesterday to run through its traditional start-of-the-week suspension bills, passing the bulk of them by voice vote, two by roll call vote, and postponing one roll call vote for today.

The Senate, while working towards an agreement on amendments to the farm bill, confirmed the nomination of Mary Geiger Lewis to be United States District Judge for the District of South Carolina.

So that's nice.

Even better, they actually did reach an agreement on the farm bill. Sort of. I mean, they definitely do have an agreement and are going to move forward, it's just... well, you'll see.

Looking ahead to today:

The House takes up the "Conservation and Economic Growth Act" today, which you just know has got to be a crock, since the Republicans who control the chamber don't give a crap about conservation or economic growth. Basically, the bill purports to promote economic growth by undoing decisions aimed at actual conservation. It's not being well-received in the White House, which has so far stopped short of threatening to veto it. But it's certainly clear that they have a close eye on it. Maybe not that close, though, since the White House usually isn't shy about saying quite clearly that if things don't change in the amending process, they'll consider a veto. And they didn't bother saying that here (PDF).

Oh, and of course, they'll have a motion to instruct the conferees on that transportation bill that looks increasingly doomed with each passing week.

In the Senate, it's on to the work of plowing through the now agreed-upon amendments to the farm bill. And here's what I mean about this being a "sort-of" agreement: prior to the agreement, there were about a hundred proposed amendments. This agreement covers 73 of them, eight of which are subject to a 60-vote threshold. Eight's not bad, considering how many amendments were floating out there. But allowing 70%+ of the amendments offered, including such non-germane items as Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) amendment to eliminate federal funding for the major party conventions, seems like a less than efficient outcome from more than a week of negotiations. Still, there were some real stinkers in the mix there, and a lot of Senators interested in causing trouble with votes on them, so it was pretty clear from early on that the price of convincing Republicans to exclude them was going to be a very high number of amendments allowed.

Late in the day, the Senate will also begin work on a resolution of disapproval on the EPA rule limiting mercury emissions from electric plants. Because everyone could use a little more mercury in their lives, don't you think? The measure won't come to a vote until tomorrow, though, so I'll wait until then to tell you that it's under an explicit veto threat. Until tomorrow, then, you didn't hear that from me.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

Don't forget to check in with Daily Kos Radio for commentary on all this and more, every Monday through Friday, from 9-11 a.m. EDT. Just click on the player below.

The Blue Skies Netroots Radio Player

Recapping yesterday's action:

The Senate was the only house in session yesterday, and its activity can be summed up by saying that it voted twice to table the only two amendments to the farm bill it considered.

That's the bottom line of it, but the interesting part is how the votes came about, and why. Recall that in yesterday's post, I mentioned that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had "filled the amendment tree" in an effort to block Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) from offering his non-germane amendment cutting off foreign aid to Pakistan. With the ability to offer amendments effectively blocked, but 100+ amendments having been proposed, Reid began slowly opening the bottleneck by selecting a few amendments at a time to offer as second-degree amendments to his own amendment that was strategically blocking the path to the floor. That's something he can do on a larger or smaller scale, as he chooses. And right now, it makes sense to let amendments through only in drips and drabs, as an incentive to others to reach a broader deal covering more amendments and moving at a faster pace.

Reid started with two amendments that were narrow in scope, but which generated wide interest among Senators—one by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) to phase out the sugar subsidy program, and another by Rand Paul to replace the food stamps program (now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) with state block grants—both of which he opposed. Then, he moved to table each amendment, effectively killing them. In so doing, he technically gave each amendment a vote, which is supposed to satisfy the proponents, even while they see their amendment buried. That begins to relieve some of the pressure from other Senators to get votes for their amendments, albeit very slowly, while continuing to hold out reason for them to reach wider agreements that will get their amendments the same or similar opportunities.

Looking ahead to today:

So that's where things stand now for the Senate, with over a hundred other amendments proposed, two dispensed with, the second degree amendment pipeline bottled up, and Democrats in talks with Republicans about how many more and which ones ought to be let through, and Reid all the while calculating how many and which ones will have to get votes before 60 Senators will be satisfied enough to vote yes on cloture on the bill and finish things up.

That means today is about keeping the wheels turning on the floor while the dealing is done in private. Nobody knows how many votes there will be, or on which amendments. Senators will just be standing by on the assumption that there's going to be something to vote on, and waiting for those details to come out.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

Recapping yesterday's action:

The House met in pro forma session only.

The Senate held no roll call votes, approving the nomination of Andrew Hurwitz to the 9th Circuit by voice vote, which somehow became a matter of great controversy, at least for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). In addition, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) moved to take up and adopt his resolution regarding the alleged White House security leaks, but his request was objected to by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Other than those items and a few non-controversial unanimous consent items, the day was given over to trying to work out deals on amendments to the farm bill. There have been over 100 amendments proposed, and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is hoping to keep the work manageable so that the underlying bill doesn't bog down. To that end, he and other Dems are looking at a minimum to restrict things to amendments directly germane to the bill. But to no one's surprise, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has insisted on testing the limits, by attempting to bring an amendment to cut off U.S. aid to Pakistan until that country frees a prisoner said to have helped the CIA locate and target Osama bin Laden. What does that have to do with the farm bill? Nothing. But this prisoner presents a sympathetic figure, and Rand Paul probably doesn't want to pass a farm bill, anyway, so he figures he can gum up the works for a bit, while still looking good for trying to stand up for this guy, even though the situation has nothing to do with agriculture.

Reid responded by moving a basic package of just a few amendments that he hopes will be sufficient to get the bill the necessary support, and then filling the amendment tree in order to block Paul's amendment. The move, however, also blocks everyone else's amendments. So it's something of a calculated risk in terms of whether or not it pisses off enough supporters of the farm bill to turn them into no votes, either on the underlying bill or on cloture. The opportunity is still available to employ some additional parliamentary maneuvering to allow more and different amendments later on, if necessary. But for right now, and for the purposes of Today in Congress in particular, the story is that they'll be moving ahead with just this modest package of amendments.

Looking ahead to today:

That's the set-up you need in order to understand the Senate's day, which will consist of two votes, both of which are technically on amendments offered by Reid, but which actually contain the text of an amendment offered by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) on sugar subsidies, and a different one by Rand Paul on food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. After that, it's anyone's guess as to where they'll go. But that's a problem for tomorrow in Congress, and we'll leave that mess for whichever sucker ends up writing that column to figure out!

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

Recapping yesterday's action:

The House is not in working session this week.

The Senate just barely managed to invoke cloture on the nomination of Andrew Hurwitz to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, voting 60-31 to end debate—later—on the nomination. The actual confirmation vote doesn't happen until today.

And that was pretty much it. Except that the Republicans also started the Rule XIV process to try to bring the House's "Protect Medical Innovation Act" to the floor.

Looking ahead to today:

The House meets in pro forma session today.

The Senate will be letting the entirely useless post-cloture time on the Hurwitz nomination run as a way of killing time until after the weekly party caucus luncheons today. Why is post-cloture time on a nomination useless? Well, the whole reason there's such a thing as post-cloture time at all is to give Senators time to amend the pending measure before the final vote on passage. But of course, you can't amend a nomination at all. So the existence of post-cloture time is an accident of history, basically arising from poor drafting during the updating of the cloture rule in 1949. Prior to that, cloture on nominations wasn't permitted at all. At the time the original rule was written, filibustering a nomination wasn't a serious consideration, but of course, it did eventually happen that it became necessary, and thereafter the language of Rule XXII allowed cloture to end debate on "any measure, motion, other matter pending before the Senate." The drafters appear to have simply forgotten, however, that post-cloture time on nominations would be nonsensical, at least for the reason post-cloture time was originally contemplated for all other measures. So no exception was ever written in, and that's how we got here today.

Yay, Senate! You're Very Serious!^TM

Where were we? Oh, yes. So after lunch, they'll probably agree unanimously to yield back any remaining time and hold the actual confirmation vote. Then after that, they'll start working on amendments to the farm bill. Or at least they'll go back to officially debating the farm bill, while continuing to try to work out an agreement on the side over how to deal with amendments to it. I suppose that might become another excuse not to actually wind up the Hurwitz nomination early. If you can let the clock keep running on that even after lunch, that gives the Senate something else to do while they work on a deal for farm bill amendments. It's six of one, a half dozen of the other, though. Either way, the situation is that they'll just be wasting C-SPAN2 time until they work something out on the farm bill, or just give up and file for cloture on that, too.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

Programming note: We'll be pausing to regroup a little bit on Daily Kos radio, but are preparing to return next week, with a slightly less hectic schedule.

Recapping Last Week in Congress

Last week, the House completed work on the Energy & Water Development, Homeland Security, and Legislative Branch appropriations bill, and voted to eliminate the tax on medical devices put in place by the Affordable Care Act. I believe every single one of those things is under veto threat.

The Senate waited around for a cloture motion to ripen on the motion to proceed to the Paycheck Fairness Act, but it "failed" by a majority vote. They then burnt most of the rest of the week waiting for a cloture motion on the motion to proceed to the farm bill to riper. That motion was adopted, cloture was invoked overwhelmingly, and while the Senate began to run the clock on the 30 post-cloture hours of debate, amendments began to pile up, and a deal to find some limit to them was sough, but never reached.

This Week in Congress

The House is not in session this week.

The Senate is scheduled to burn the bulk of the day finishing up post-cloture time on the motion to proceed to the farm bill, before ultimately adopting the motion under the terms of a unanimous consent agreement. And at 5:30, they'll vote on cloture on the nomination of Andrew David Hurwitz to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That's how the Senate handles Monday travel time these days. They keep the clock running on post-cloture, and use the time to travel back to DC.

Word is that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will be attempting to offer a resolution calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate alleged security leaks in the administration, some time later in the week.

Full floor schedule below the fold.

Before we get to the "good" stuff, just a reminder that we'll be launching Daily Kos Radio this morning, live from Netroots Nation. With big thanks to the community at the Netroots Radio group at Daily Kos, we'll be turning the key on this thing in the 9 a.m. hour, and I'll kick things off by walking you through everything I'm spelling out below, and more.

If you're here at Netroots Nation, come by the Daily Kos booth in the exhibit hall and make rude noises. If you're catching the "action" at home (it's 2 a.m. as I write, and we're on the air at 9), tweet me (@KagroX) with questions, comments, and the written transcripts of rude noises, and we'll see if I get confused enough to read 'em on the air.

Recapping yesterday's action:

The House was in session until nearly midnight, which explains the use of "Today's Outlook" instead of the normal "Tomorrow's" in the Nightly Whip, below the fold. Amendments to the Energy & Water Development and Homeland Security appropriations bills were the order of the day, with a brief detour for votes on another two motions to instruct conferees on the surface transportation bill. Energy & Water work wrapped up and the bill was passed, and Homeland Security got underway and is still pending. Both bills still face veto threats, and both saw several amendments aimed at cutting spending defeated by a fractured Republican caucus that just can't quite get itself to walk the game they talk.

The Senate ticked another judicial nomination off the list today, with the confirmation of Jeffrey J. Helmick to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, which is a nice, if minor, accomplishment for a day otherwise being burnt waiting for the cloture motion on the motion to proceed to consideration of the farm bill to ripen.

Unanimous consent and other routine business of interest today included the adoption of S. Res. 485, a resolution to authorize representation by the Senate Legal Counsel in the case of Common Cause, et al. v. Joseph R. Biden, et al. That's Common Cause's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the filibuster.

And secondly, the initiation of the Rule 14 process of S.3268, To amend title 49, United States Code, to provide rights for pilots, and for other purposes, sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK). Why is that interesting? Recall Inhofe's motivation:

Classic. Senator James Inhofe (R-Entitlement) lands his small plane on a clearly-marked closed airport runway, in the process bunny hopping the plane over airport vehicles and workers on that runway to avoid killing them and himself during his, let's call it "landing." The workers are furious. The FAA investigates and makes him attend a "remedial training" program (no word on whether he also had to take a breathalyzer test ... just sayin'.)

So let's say you're a pissy, ultraconservative Republican senator and this happens to you. What do you do? Why, you introduce legislation to stop "overreach" by the mean regulators who made you feel "desperation" after you nearly killed some poor airport workers repairing a closed runway.

Well... here it is. That's all I have to say about that.

Looking ahead to today:

The House is set to begin its day with the Protect Medical Innovation Act, protecting medical innovation—of course—by cutting taxes. Take two tax cuts and call me in the morning. Then take another tax cut to protect your phone innovation. After that, it's more Homeland Security appropriations amendments, plus yet another motion to instruct the surface transportation bill conferees. They've probably just about had their fill of instruction by now, thanks. But hey, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA-10) probably just wants to instruct them on the fact that he's a homespun country doctor who just happens to hate U.N. lightbulbs. So how bad could that be?

The Senate's plan is the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the farm bill. There's still no deal in place on amendments, but the schedule makes it look like they've got the votes to get cloture, noting that the vote will take place at 10:30 a.m., that the hour afterward will be equally divided between the party leaders for debate, and that they hope to get an amendment agreement in place during the day. It's the plan for the hour following the vote that makes it sound like they think they've got their 60 votes for moving ahead, though it could certainly also mean they don't have them, and are just resigned to losing the vote and are at a loss as to what to do afterward. But I've seen no serious indication of any plans to block consideration of the bill. Still, you never know. Some of them fellers is crazy.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.

Recapping yesterday's action:

Another late night of voting in the House, with the Energy and Water Development appropriations bill keeping them busy with 40+ amendments considered, not to mention their slate of ten suspension bills and a couple of last-minute unanimous consent items. Highlights of the day: two Republican lightbulb derangement syndrome amendments, and the passage of the International Child Support Recovery Improvement Act by voice vote, sparing non-deabeat dad Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL-08) the potential embarrassment of going on the record on that one.

The Senate met to determine that they would not go forward with a debate on the Paycheck Fairness Act today, because only a majority of them wanted to have it. So there will be no paycheck fairness for one half of the population, because more than half but less than three-fifths of the Senate wanted it.

Looking ahead to today:

The House will continue with and wrap up its consideration of the Energy and Water Development bill, and from there it's on to still more motions to instruct the conferees on the surface transportation bill, then the next veto-targeted appropriation bill, Homeland Security.

The Senate moves on from the Paycheck Fairness filibuster into a potential farm bill filibuster. They're holding out some hope of a deal on the motion to proceed, but for right now, the plan is to spend the day debating that motion to proceed while waiting or the cloture motion on it to ripen. But that doesn't happen until Thursday. So absent a deal, today will be spent on yet another motion to proceed, which that gentlemen's agreement on filibuster reform was supposed to have resolved a year and a half ago. But you already knew that was a failure.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.