Today in Congress: energy & water development appropriations (we-we-we so excited)

Recapping yesterday's action:

The House churned through its entire schedule yesterday, working until just after 10 p.m. and clearing both the intelligence authorization bill and the MilCon appropriations bill. They even found time to reject (as predicted) the nonsense PRETENDA anti-abortion bill. The MilCon bill, like all the House appropriations bills, is under veto threat from the White House, since they're all based on budget assumptions (those "deemed" passed by the House) that aren't in compliance with the caps set by the Budget Control Act adopted last summer. But the bill passed with over 400 votes anyway, probably because it was a freebie vote in favor of a sizable increase in spending on veterans. And who doesn't want to be seen doing that?

But of course, it's almost impossible to imagine Republicans trying to pass a bill that doesn't include some kind of attack on workers, and this one was no exception. What was interesting about it, though, was that they lost. The original bill included language prohibiting funding for construction projects requiring contractors to enter into Project Labor Agreements (PLAs). Republicans regard those as pro-union, and to some extent, that's true. But PLAs benefit all the workers on a project, union or otherwise, so crying about them is really about trying to find ways to screw people who sweat for a living building these things the Congress demands. Not nice, and it didn't work. In fact, it was a Republican, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY-13), who proposed the amendment that successfully stripped that language out. And Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ-02) was denied on his amendment to prohibit the use of funds for enforcing Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements on VA projects. So Franks was a two-time loser today.

Looking ahead to today:

The House will continue with the Energy & Water Development appropriations bill that they began late last night, moving into the consideration of amendments. They're looking to wrap up for the week by early-to-mid afternoon, whether they've made it all the way through the amendments or not, so it's likely that bill could remain unfinished business they return to next week.

Today's floor and committee schedules appear below the fold.