Recapping yesterday's action: The House debated six suspension bills yesterday, passing two (H.R. 2947 and H.R. 491) by voice vote, H.R. 2157 by a recorded roll call vote, and postponing three more votes for today.
The Senate considered and rejected the resolution of disapproval seeking to block the new NLRB rules, then went on to run through 16 of the 39 pending amendments to the postal reform bill. Of those that got roll call votes, only one (Akaka amendment #2049, managerial organizations) went down despite majority support. (All amendments were subject to the "painless filibuster," that is, an agreed-upon requirement of 60 votes to pass.) They did manage to muster the 60 votes needed to waive the Budget Act with respect to the bill, however. Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III (R-AL) had objected that the bill's provisions transferring back the USPS's now-infamous forced overpayments for its pension system was a violation of pay-for requirements. But that's not accurate, and 62 Senators collectively told him to go take a flying leap. And that was that.
Looking ahead to today:
The House takes up two more suspension bills today, which I didn't even realize were coming to the floor under suspension at all when I wrote This Week in Congress for Monday. But yes, the DATA Act and the Small Business Credit Availability Act are both in fact being voted on under suspension of the rules.
The big news of the day, though, is that they're bringing up a motion to go to conference on the latest transportation bill, which is the first indication that the House is finally be ready to talk to the Senate about a compromise position that'll get a full-fledged reauthorization passed, at long last. The Senate has had its own bill passed (with 72 votes) and waiting since mid-March, but until now the House had held out and refused to take it up. Now they can consider the Senate's position mostly away from prying eyes, in the conference room setting, rather than under the glaring lights of the House, where they'd have been forced to give up their ridiculous and overly partisan positions in full view of the C-SPAN cameras.
The Senate starts off its day with a few more hours of debate on the motion to proceed to the Violence Against Women Act renewal, but then switches gears at 2:00 p.m. to take up the 20 or so remaining amendments to the postal reform bill, followed by a vote on passage of the bill itself. Why the debate on a different bill first, when you know you have so many votes to take care of? Well, setting aside the time until 2:00 for this other debate gives Senators time to hold and finish up the bulk of their committee meetings, before their presence is required for a long series of back-to-back votes. So although the scheduling may seem backward to the rest of us, to Senators it makes sense.
Hey, you have to take what you can get and hold on to it tight when you find something in the Senate that makes sense.
Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.
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