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, and (fingers crossed) open up the phone lines for your calls! 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.
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