Tag Archives: Senate

:::::: CONGRESS ::::::


 

March 2013
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The Senate stands in adjournment until 2:00pm on Monday, March 18, 2013.

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R.933, the continuing appropriations bill.

The filing deadline for all 2nd degree amendments to the Mikulski-Shelby substitute amendment #26 and H.R.933 is 4:30pm on Monday.

The managers of the bill will work on a finite list of amendments to the continuing appropriations bill over the weekend.

Senators should expect a roll call vote at 5:30pm. There will either be a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Mikulski-Shelby substitute amendment #26 or several votes in relation to amendments to the bill.

Senator Reid asked unanimous consent to withdraw the two cloture motions, the Senate consider a series of amendments to the Continuing Appropriations bill, and then proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as amended. Senator Ayotte objected. Senator Ayotte objected because amendment #46 (strikes $380 million in missile defense program) was not included in the request. Senator Moran said he would have also objected to the request because his air traffic control tower amendment (SA45) was not included in the agreement either.

In approximately 10 minutes (approximately 6:10pm), the Senate will proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on Mikulski-Shelby amendment #26 (substitute) to H.R.933, Continuing Appropriations.

Senator Reid asked the following consent.

Leader: I ask unanimous consent that the two cloture motions be withdrawn; that the following amendments be in order to the Mikulski-Shelby substitute:

Coburn #69 prohibit Urban Area Security Initiative Grants not improving homeland security);

Coburn #93 (transfer funds from National Heritage Partnership Program to fund White House public tours and maintenance at public parks/monuments);

Coburn #65, as modified with the changes that are at the desk (National Science Foundation funding);

Coburn #70, as modified with the changes that are at the desk (authorizing committees receive information from Homeland Security);

Inhofe #72, as modified with changes that are at the desk (require Secretaries of Military Departments to carry out tuition assistance programs);

Grassley #76, as modified with changes that are at the desk (report illegal aliens released dur to budget constraints);

– Mikulski-Shelby #98 (technical corrections); and

Leahy #129, as modified with changes that are at the desk (to revise language regarding cluster munitions); and

– Pryor-Blunt #82 (poultry inspections).

That no other first degree amendments to the substitute or the underlying bill be in order; that no second degree amendments be in order to any of the amendments listed above prior to the vote; that there be 30 minutes equally divided between the two Leaders, or their designees, prior to votes in relation to the amendments in the order listed; that upon disposition of the Pryor-Blunt #82; the Durbin second degree amendment to the Toomey amendment #115 be withdrawn; that all the amendments be subject to a 60 affirmative vote threshold; that the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the Toomey amendment #115; that upon disposition of the Toomey amendment, the Senate proceed to vote on the Mikulski-Shelby substitute amendment, as amended; that if the substitute amendment, as amended, is agreed to; the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as amended.

6:10pm The Senate began a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Mikulski-Shelby amendment #26 (substitute) to H.R.933, Continuing Appropriations;

Invoked: 63-35

Cloture on the Mikulski-Shelby substitute amendment to H.R.933, Continuing Appropriations, was invoked by a vote of 63-35. There will now be up to 30 hours for debate on the substitute. There will be no further roll call votes tonight.

WRAP UP

ROLL CALL VOTE

1) Motion to invoke cloture on the Mikulski-Shelby substitute amendment #26, as modified, to H.R.933, the continuing appropriations bill; Invoked: 63-35

LEGISLATIVE ITEMS

Discharged the Judiciary committee and adopted S.Res.66, A resolution designating the first week of April 2013 as “National Asbestos Awareness Week”.

Adopted S.Res.79, supporting the goals and ideals of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.

Completed the Rule 14 process of S.582, a bill to approve the the Keystone Pipeline. (Hoeven)

Completed the Rule 14 process of S.583, a bill to implement equal protection under the 14th Article to the Constitution, the right to life in each born and preborn human person. (Paul)

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Watch Live House Floor Proceedings

The next meeting is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. on March 18, 2013.

12:00:13 P.M.   The House convened, starting a new legislative day.
12:00:23 P.M.   The Speaker designated the Honorable Brad R. Wenstrup to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.
12:00:51 P.M.   MORNING-HOUR DEBATE – The House proceeded with Morning-Hour Debate. At the conclusion of Morning-Hour, the House will recess until 2:00 p.m. for the start of legislative business.
12:11:52 P.M.   The Speaker announced that the House do now recess. The next meeting is scheduled for 2:00 P.M. today.
2:00:20 P.M.   The House convened, returning from a recess continuing the legislative day of March 18.
2:00:30 P.M.   Today’s prayer was offered by Rev. Andrew Walton, Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, Washington DC.
2:01:00 P.M.   POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS ON APPROVAL OF THE JOURNAL – The Chair announced that he had examined the Journal of the last day’s proceedings and had approved it. Mr. Hoyer demanded that the question be put on agreeing to the Speaker’s approval of the Journal and by voice vote, the Chair announced that the ayes had prevailed. Mr. Hoyer demanded the yeas and nays and the Chair postponed further proceedings on the question of agreeing to the Speaker’s approval of the Journal until later in the legislative day.
2:02:59 P.M.   PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – The Chair designated Mr. Hoyer to lead the Members in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
2:05:00 P.M.   ONE MINUTE SPEECHES – The House proceeded with one minute speeches.
2:15:12 P.M.   The Speaker announced that the House do now recess. The next meeting is scheduled for 5:00 P.M. today.

Presidential Citizens Medal 2012 —


Patience Lehrman (Philadelphia, PA)
Lehrman is an immigrant from Cameroon and the National Director of Project SHINE (Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders), an immigrant integration initiative at the Intergenerational Center of Temple University. SHINE partners with 18 institutions of higher learning, community-based organizations, and county and city governments across the country. SHINE engages college students and older adults to provide language and health education, citizenship and civic participation lessons to immigrant communities. Lehrman also mentors inner-city high school students, provides free meals to low-income children in the summer and serves as an election official. She holds three Masters Degrees from Temple University.

Jeanne Manford (New York, NY)
Manford and her husband, Jules, co-founded in 1972 a support group for parents of gay children that grew into the national organization known as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). Manford had always supported her son Morty, but was inspired to act after the police failed to intervene while Morty was beaten and hospitalized during a Gay Activists Alliance demonstration in April 1972. In the years that followed, Manford continued to march and organize, even after losing Morty to AIDS in 1992. Today, PFLAG focuses on creating a network of support and advancing equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Manford passed away in early January at the age of 92.

Maria Gomez (Washington, DC)
Gomez founded, Mary’s Center 25 years ago with the mission to build better futures through the delivery of health care, family literacy and job training. Mary’s Center is part of the working group launching First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Read Let’s Move Campaign.” Prior to establishing Mary’s Center, Maria was a public health nurse with the D.C. Department of Health. She has also worked for the Red Cross, directing community education programming and disaster services, and with the Visiting Nurses Association. She currently serves as Regional Representative for the South East to the National Council of la Raza, and previously served two terms on the board of the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington.

Terry Shima (Gaithersburg, MD)
Shima was drafted into the US Army on October 12, 1944 as a replacement for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. This unit was composed of Japanese Americans who volunteered for combat duty. In November 2011, the US Congress awarded the Congressional Gold Medal collectively to the 442nd RCT, the 100th Battalion and the Military Intelligence Service. Shima served as Executive Director of the Japanese American Veterans Association (JAVA), a nonprofit organization that publicizes and assists Japanese American military veterans and their families, from 2004 to 2012 and is now chair of its Outreach and Education Committee.

Michael Dorman (Fuquay-Varina, NC)
Dorman is the founder and executive director of Military Missions in Action, a North Carolina-based non-profit that helps veterans with disabilities, both physical and mental, achieve independent living. All veterans who have served are eligible to receive services including home modification, rehabilitation and family assistance. Since 2008, the organization has completed more than 100 home modification projects and shipped thousands care packages to soldiers.

Janice Jackson (Baltimore, MD)
Jackson is the creator and program director of Women Embracing Abilities Now, (W.E.A.N.) a nonprofit mentoring organization servicing women and young ladies with varying degrees of disabilities. She is also a professor at The University of Baltimore. Jackson has actively advocated on behalf of people with disabilities and currently serves on the board of directors for The League for People with Disabilities, the Hoffberger Center for Professional Ethics at the University of Baltimore, and The Image Center of Maryland. She also serves on the Community Advisory Council at the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities at Kennedy Krieger Institute, and is a counselor at Kernan Rehabilitation Center. She has also founded two support groups, We Are Able People (W.R.A.P.) and Women On Wheels & Walking (W.O.W.W.).

Mary Jo Copeland (Minneapolis, MN)
Copeland founded Sharing and Caring Hands in 1985, which has served as a safety net to those in the Minneapolis area through the provision of food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medical and dental assistance. Sharing and Caring Hands assists thousands of people a month, and is staffed almost entirely by volunteers. Copeland, who currently receives no salary for her work, has served as its director since its opening and still greets every client entering the center and conducts intake interviews.

Adam Burke (Jacksonville, FL)
Burke is an Iraq combat veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart which he received for injuries occurred by a mortar attack while running combat operation in Iraq. In 2009 he opened “Veterans Farm,” a 19 acre handicap-accessible farm that helps teach veterans of all ages how to make a living from the find healing in the land. He has been awarded numerous accolades for his work, including the 2011 Good Person of the Year award from the Good People Foundation and the Star of Honor from Work Vessels for Veterans.

Pamela Green Jackson (Albany, GA)
Green Jackson is the Founder and CEO of the Youth Becoming Healthy Project (YBH), a non-profit organization committed to reducing the epidemic of childhood obesity through nutrition, fitness education and physical activity programs. YBH was created in memory of Pamela Green Jackson’s only brother, Bernard Green, who died in 2004 from obesity-related illnesses. YBH provides resources for during and after school wellness programs for elementary and middle school students as well as a summer wellness camp where the students learn about exercise, nutrition and can participate in martial arts, walking club and dance programs.

Billy Mills (Fair Oaks, California)
Mills co-founded and serves as the spokesman for Running Strong for American Indian Youth, an organization that supports cultural programs and provides health and housing assistance for Native American communities. Mills gained prominence during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, when he unexpectedly won a Gold Medal in the 10,000 meter run. Today, he remains the only American to ever win this event. At the time Mills competed in the Olympics, he was a First Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. After the Olympics, Mills, an Oglala Lakota, was made a warrior by his tribe. In 1986, Mills and Eugene Krizek, president of Christian Relief Services, joined forces to found Running Strong.

Harris Wofford (Washington, DC)
Wofford served as a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1991 to 1995, and from then to 2001 was the chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service. From 1970 to 1978 he served as the fifth president of Bryn Mawr College. He is a noted advocate of national service and volunteering. He began his public service career as counsel to the Rev.Theodore Hesburgh on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and was an early supporter of the Civil Rights movement in the South in the late 1950s. He became a volunteer advisor and friend of Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1961, Kennedy appointed him as special assistant to the President for civil rights. He was instrumental in the formation of the Peace Corps and served as the Peace Corps’ special representative to Africa and director of operations in Ethiopia. On his return to Washington in 1964, he was appointed associate director of the Peace Corps. In 1966 he became the founding president o…

Dr. T. Berry Brazelton (Boston, MA)
Brazelton is one of the foremost authorities on pediatrics and child development as well as an author, and professor. One of Brazelton’s best known achievements was the development of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), which is now used worldwide to recognize the physical and neurological responses of newborns, as well as emotional well-being and individual differences. In 1993, he founded the Brazelton Touchpoints Center® (BTC) at Boston Children’s Hospital where he continues to promote strengths-based, family-centered care in pediatric and early education settings around the world.

What do you believe in? National Women’s Law Center


National Women's Law Center
What do you believe in?
Whether for our families or our country, we believe in making responsible and balanced budget decisions. We believe in making sure the wealthiest Americans and corporations pay their fair share. And we believe in protecting the programs and services that millions of vulnerable women and their families count on.
Are you with us?
Take a stand in support of fair budgets by sharing our button today! The more shares, the more visibility for our cause.
Graphic - Say Yes to a Fair Budget

There were key developments on the federal budget this week.
The House and Senate each released its own budget for FY2014. They could not be more different. The House budget slashes critical services for vulnerable families while the Senate invests in early childhood programs, protects programs vital to women and families, and advances tax fairness.
Here’s what you need to know.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan‘s budget would:

  • Give massive tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and corporations by lowering the top individual and corporate tax rate to 25 percent.
  • Repeal the Affordable Care Act — denying millions of women and families access to affordable health insurance.
  • Dramatically cut funding for programs like Head Start and child care assistance, which help women work and children learn.
  • Dismantle core safety net programs by turning Medicaid and SNAP (Food Stamps) into block grants.
  • Cut funding for K-12 education, Pell Grants, job training, and domestic violence prevention.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray’s budget would:

  • Increase investments in early learning and home visiting programs, giving more children access to the prekindergarten, child care, Head Start and Early Head Start opportunities.
  • Protect Social Security and core safety net programs.
  • Permanently extend the improvements in the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit that lift millions of women and children out of poverty.
  • Expand access to affordable health insurance and preventive care services by continuing to implement the Affordable Care Act.
  • Close corporate tax loopholes and limit unfair tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

Two budgets. Two visions. We need to speak up for the vision that puts women and their families first.
Please join us in support of fair budgets by sharing our button today.
Thanks for all your support!
Sincerely,

Joan Entmacher Vice President for Family Economic Security National Women’s Law Center    Judy Waxman Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights National Women’s Law Center     Helen Blank Director of Child Care and Early Learning National Women’s Law Center    

P.S. For more information about what’s happening with the House and Senate budgets, please check out NWLC’s latest resources.

:::::: CONGRESS ::::::


EmptyhouseChamber

The Senate stands in adjournment until 2:00pm on Monday, March 18, 2013.

The filing deadline for all 2nd degree amendments to the Mikulski-Shelby substitute amendment #26 and H.R.933 is 4:30pm on Monday.

The managers of the bill will work on a finite list of amendments to the continuing appropriations bill over the weekend.

Senators should expect a roll call vote at 5:30pm.  There will either be a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Mikulski-Shelby substitute amendment #26 or several votes in relation to amendments to the bill.

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Watch Most Recent House Floor Activity

Last Floor Action:
6:48:40 P.M. -The House adjourned. 3/14

The next meeting is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on March 15, 2013.

:::::: CONGRESS ::::::


March 2013
S M T W T F S
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The Senate stands in adjournment until 10:00am on Thursday, March 14, 2013.

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R.933, the continuing appropriations bill.

  • There will be up to one hour of debate equally divided between Senators Mikulski and Shelby or their designees for debate on the Harkin amendment #53 (Labor-HHS).
  • Upon the use or yielding back of time (at approximately 11:15am), there will be a roll call vote in relation to the Harkin amendment #53 (Labor-HHS)(60 affirmative-vote threshold).
  • We will continue to work through amendments to the bill during Thursday’s session. During Wednesday’s session, cloture was filed on the Mikulski-Shelby substitute amendment #26 and on H.R.933. Under the rule, the first cloture vote would be on Friday. We hope to reach an agreement to complete action on the bill on Thursday.
  • The Senate has resumed consideration of H.R.933, the Continuing Resolution. There will be 1 hour to debate concurrently the Harkin amendment #53 (Labor-HHS) and Coburn amendment #66 (temporary hiring freeze on Non Essential Federal Employees), prior to votes in relation to the amendments.
  • The debate time will be equally divided in the usual form.
  • Each amendment will be subject to 60-affirmative vote thresholds.
  • No amendments to the amendments are in order prior to the votes.
  • The following amendments are pending to H.R.933, the continuing appropriations bill:

    The following amendments have been considered to H.R.933:

    • Cruz amendment #30 (defund Obamacare) Not Agreed to: 45-52
    • McCain amendment #33 (Guam) Not Tabled: 48-50; agreed to by voice vote
    • Harkin amendment #53 (Labor HHS flexibility)(60 affirmative-vote threshold) Not Agreed to: 54-45
    • Coburn amendment #66 (temporary freeze on non-essential federal employees) (60 affirmative-vote threshold) Not Agreed to: 45-54
    • Inhofe amendment #29, as modified (Farms-EPA oil spill and prevention rule) Agreed to by Unanimous Consent
  • There is a good chance that we vote tonight (sooner rather than later) in
    relation to the Coburn amendment #65, as modified (political
    science funding at NSF). Another message will be sent once an agreement is
    reached.

    • WRAP UP
    • ROLL CALL VOTES1) Harkin amendment #53 (Labor-HHS) to H.R.933, the continuing appropriations bill; Not Agreed to: 54-45 (60 affirmative-vote threshold)2)      Coburn amendment #66 (hiring freeze for federal employees) to H.R.933; Not Agreed to: 45-54 (60 affirmative-vote threshold)

      LEGISLATIVE ITEMS

      Began the Rule 14 process of S.582, the Keystone Pipeline Act. (Hoeven)

      Began the Rule 14 process of S.583, the Life at Conception Act. (Paul)

      Completed the Rule 14 process of S.558, To prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from awarding any grant, contract, cooperative agreement, or other financial assistance under section 103 of the Clean Air Act for any program, project, or activity outside the United States. (Paul)

      No EXECUTIVE ITEMS

    • Well, folks, we were unable to reach an agreement to vote in relation to the Coburn or Toomey amendments tonight. Senator Coburn wouldn’t agree to vote in relation to his amendment, as modified.Senator Reid has asked the managers of the bill to work over the weekend on a small, finite list of amendments and we could complete action of the bill on Monday. If they are unable to come to an agreement, there would be a cloture vote at approximately 5:30pm on Monday. Next week the Senate will consider the Budget resolution.The Senate is in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each. There will be no further roll call votes this week.

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Watch Most Recent House Floor Activity

Last Floor Action: 3/14
7:24:35 P.M. – The House adjourned.

The next meeting is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on March 14, 2013.