Today in Congress: day ends in -y, so GOP attempts some union busting

Recapping yesterday's action:

Quick recap on action in the House:

 

Yes, the House was in pro forma session yesterday, and nothing happened.

The Senate reported in for work yesterday, though, and went through their schedule as planned, confirming the judicial nomination of Brian C. Wimes to the federal district court in Missouri, and debating the motion to proceed to the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, as well as a motion to proceed to the resolution of disapproval of the proposed NLRB rule.

In the course of yesterday's work, the Senate reached a unanimous consent agreement to approve the motion to proceed to the VAWA reauthorization once they've wrapped up the postal reform bill, but in any case not until tomorrow. That probably has to do with the Republican move to start a Rule XIV process (by which they can get it on the schedule without going through the committee process) for their own alternative to the bill, which won't be complete until then. So it looks like the plan is to be ready to propose their own bill, perhaps as a substitute for S. 1925. Though really, they could do that without going through the Rule XIV process. So maybe this is indicative of Republican intent to filibuster the bill, but insist that they stand ready to consider their own alternative instead. We'll see.

Looking ahead to today:

The House is looking at its normal first-day-of-the-week slate of suspension bills. Really not much to it. It's six bills dealing with adjustments to the boundaries of parklands, land swaps, and the like.

The Senate has another day of crazy, over-choreographed debate, beginning with half an hour on the motion to proceed to the VAWA reauthorization (despite the fact that they've already agreed to adopt that motion tomorrow). Then it's two hours on the NLRB resolution, followed by 20 more minutes on VAWA and a break for lunch. Then at 2:15, they return for a vote on the motion to proceed to that NLRB thing. If it succeeds, then it's on to the resolution, which now labors under a veto threat from the White House. If it fails, it's back to work on the amendments to the postal reform bill, which is still hanging out there. In years past, floating a veto threat might have been enough to convince some moderate Republican Senators not to bother voting for such a resolution, since it's ultimately doomed anyway. But since there aren't any of those around anymore, a veto threat probably just signals that voting for it can make you can look like a Freedom Kamikaze, flying straight into the teeth of the President's threat. So once again, well... we'll see.

I find myself saying that a lot, lately.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold. Except the House schedule, which for some reason was still missing as of midnight last night.