This Week in Congress... and in Daily Kos Radio!

Before we get to Congressional stuff, a reminder that we'll be kicking off our New and Exciting^TM Daily Kos Radio feature at 9:00 a.m. EDT this morning (which might be right now, depending on how the morning posting schedule works out). You can read more about what the heck that is at the Daily Kos Radio group page, here. Or, you can go right to the stream player to start listening (provided it's between 9 and 11 a.m. EDT when you read this) by clicking here.

For this week, I'll be joined in the morning by Armando, while we get his show (and Jesse LaGreca's) ready to launch on its own. And we'll have Joan McCarter stop by and give us a little commentary on what she's been writing, and maybe even a sneak preview of some upcoming work as an added bonus for listening.

Recapping Last Week in Congress

The House was not in session last week. This is a good thing, from my perspective, because it means I can move directly on to the next item on my list. I'm not sure what it means for the country, but I'm just happy right now not to have to think of anything to say about them.

The Senate, on the other hand, continues to plague me. August can't come soon enough! Though I suppose I should count my blessings, in that even a week's worth of work in the Senate can often be summed up pretty quickly. And they did oblige in that last week. The major item of business for the week was the farm bill, which didn't see much actual progress, but was the subject of intensive negotiations between the parties, in the search for an agreement on the consideration of amendments. In the absence of an agreement, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has been exercising his prerogative to cobble a process together by "filling the amendment tree," enabling him to block unwanted amendments (particularly those that are not germane to the subject of the bill), and slowly allow others through the bottleneck and onto the floor. It's hoped that this pincers move creates a little added pressure for Senators to reach an agreement, rather than have to roll the dice and see if they'll be lucky enough to squeeze their amendments through for debate and a vote before everyone loses patience and cloture is filed on the entire bill, but so far, no luck on that front.

In the absence of any agreement on farm bill amendments, the Senate occupied itself with the confirmation of Andrew Hurwitz to the 9th Circuit Court, and then some ridiculous arguments about that confirmation, the upshot of which is that Republicans have now declared that they won't be permitting any more circuit court confirmations for the rest of the 112th Congress, period. And yet somehow, while that was going on, they confirmed Mari Carmen Aponte as Ambassador to El Salvador.

This Week in Congress

The House returns to DC this week, once again with no intention of doing anything about the economy, it seems. After its usual slate of suspension bills, they'll take up a couple bills that set off a bunch of low-level Orwell alarms: the "Conservation and Economic Growth Act" (a bill to de-list a portion of a river previously designated as "wild and scenic"), and the "Strategic Energy Production Act." What's that about? Come on. Duh. Give me a break. It's a "drill, baby, drill" bill.

Oh, and there will be yet another motion to instruct the conferees on the surface transportation bill. Remember that? Well, it's still in conference. And the word is that they're just getting nowhere on it, and we may actually see this thing die rather than get resolved and come back out of conference, which is a pretty rare thing. But if there's one party in Congress out to sabotage the economy, I suppose its one of those things you'll see from time to time.

The Senate will continue to seek an agreement on amendments to the farm bill, and no one knows how long that process might take, or when Harry Reid might decide he's had enough of trying, and will just file for cloture. In the meantime, there's a district court judicial nomination ready to move, and I assume we'll see a little more executive business this week, to help fill in the gaps if the stalemate on the farm bill continues.

Full floor and committee schedules are below the fold.

And don't forget us over at Daily Kos Radio, Monday-Friday, 9-11 a.m. EDT! LISTEN HERE.