Today in Congress

Cross-posted from Congress Matters.

In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

House Meets At… 10:30 a.m.: Morning Hour
12:00 p.m.: Legislative Business

Unlimited “One Minutes” Per Side

Last Vote Predicted… 5:00 p.m.

S. 181 – Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (Sen. Mikulski – Education and Labor) (Subject to a Rule)

H.R. 1 – American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Reps. Obey/Rangel/ Waxman/Miller/Oberstar/Gordon/Frank/Velazquez/Towns/Spratt – Appropriations) (Subject to a Rule)

Suspension (1 bill)

1)     S. 328 – To delay the Digital Television Transition until June 13, 2009, as amended (Sen. Rockefeller – Energy and Commerce)

In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

Convenes: 10:00am

Resume consideration of Calendar #18, H.R.2, the Children’s Health Insurance Program Improvements Act.

12:30pm Senator-appointee Gillibrand will be sworn in. Following the swearing in, the Senate will stand in recess until 2:15pm to allow for the weekly caucus luncheons.

Roll Call Votes are expected during Tuesday’s session of the Senate.

In the Committees:

Senate

Committee	Date	Time	Purpose	View Online?
Armed Services	Tue., 1/27	9:30 am	To receive testimony on the challenges facing the Department of Defense. Witness: Robert M. Gates, Sec. of Defense	Yes
Judiciary	Tue., 1/27	9:30 am	Health IT: Protecting Americans’ Privacy in the Digital Age	Yes
Health, Ed.	Tue., 1/27	10:00 am	Access to Prevention and Public Health for High Risk Populations	Yes
Finance	Tue., 1/27	10:30 am	Open Executive Session to consider an original bill entitled “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”	No*

* Note: There’s no indication on the Senate Finance Committee page that there will be live online video coverage of today’s hearing, but videos of previous hearings are available on their page. So it may be that they’ll stream the video live and then archive it, or it may only be available after the fact. I don’t know what the committee’s practice is yet.

House

Committee	Date	Time	Purpose	View Online?
Energy & Commerce	Tue., 1/27	10 a.m.	DTV Markup (Discussion Draft PDF)	Yes
Foreign Affairs	Tue., 1/27	10:00 a.m.	The Status of Human Rights in China: The U.N. Universal Periodic Review (UPR)	Yes
Judiciary	Tue., 1/27	10:00 a.m.	Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties: H.R. 157, the “District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009″	Yes
Transportation & Infrastructure	Tue., 1/27	10:00 a.m.	Subcommittee on Highways and Transit: Energy Reduction and Environmental Sustainability in Surface Transportation	Yes
Financial Services	Tue., 1/27	10:15 a.m.	Organize Committee Membership for the 111th Congress	Yes
House Administration	Tue., 1/27	1:00 p.m.	Committee Organizational Meeting. Commitee Meeting Agenda: Adoption of Committee Rules for the 111th Congress (Committee Resolution #111-1); Election of Subcommittee Chairs and Members (Committee Resolution #111-2); Adoption of Oversight Plan for the 111th Congress (Committee Resolution #111-3); Adoption of amendments to House Parking Policy (Committee Resolution #111-4)	Yes
Judiciary	Tue., 1/27	1:00 p.m.	Markup of: H.R. 200, the “Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act of 2009″ and the Committee’s Oversight Plan	Yes
Veterans’ Affairs	Tue., 1/27	1:00 p.m.	Organizational Meeting	Yes
Veterans’ Affairs	Tue., 1/27	??? p.m.	Roundtable with the veterans service organizations and military associations to discuss legislative priorities for the 111th Congress	Yes
Armed Services	Tue., 1/27	1:30 p.m.	To receive testimony on the priorities of the Department of Defense in the new Administration.Witness: Robert M. Gates, Sec. of Defense	Yes
Rules	Tue., 1/27	3:30 p.m.	H.R. 1– The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009	No

Depending on how hard they worked overnight, you may find that the text of H.R. 1 is unavailable to you at the link above. But never fear, they worked overnight at Open Congress, so all the bill text is available to you there.

Quite a day in the House. The Ledbetter equal pay bill first, and the stimulus next. The equal pay bill will be a straight up or down vote on the Senate version, so when that passes, it’s headed straight for President Obama’s desk. Note that the stimulus, though, like Barney Frank’s (D-MA-04) TARP rejiggering bill, will be debated under two separate rules. One, H. Res. 88, covers just the general debate. (Three and a half hours worth.) Another will be adopted tomorrow evening after the Rules Committee meets again, and that rule will decide which amendments will be in order, and under what terms they’ll be debated. Members had a 7 pm Monday deadline for submitting their amendments for consideration, and we’ll find out some time tonight (probably) which ones, if any, will make it to the floor.

Interesting approach with the bifurcated rules. I guess that’s supposed to help minimize dissent on rules that restrict amendments. Nobody can rationally object to the terms of the general debate rule, right? It doesn’t by itself restrict amendments, and who can object to having general debate on a bill? Then they spring the one about the amendments on you later, and if the restrictions piss you off and you get a bunch of your allies to help you kill that rule, then fine. There’s no rule for bringing any amendments to the floor, general debate is over, and we vote on the bill as is. It kind of puts you in a corner, if you’re a dissenting member of the majority. The minority’s gonna vote against it all, anyway, with very few exceptions.

Might be a fascinating committee day, too, for those with an interest in procedure. Lots of organizing meetings, many of which will be viewable online, wherein committee members will go through the mechanics of splitting up into subcommittees, adopting rules of procedure, etc. Like a mini version of the organization of the House and Senate themselves, and a good reminder that none of this stuff happens by magic. There’s a process for everything, and everyone who ends up on some subcommittee somewhere, with some certain set of powers and responsibilities gets there as a result of a motion made and a vote taken somewhere earlier along the line.

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