Today, the House is expected to consider and possible vote on the following bills:
H Res 568 — Iran nuclear weapons
H.R. 4310 — Appropriations for fiscal year 2013 for military activities of the Dept of Defense
H.R. 5740 — National Flood Insurance Program
Yesterday, the House passed:
HR 4119 (416-4) — Border tunnel prevention: "Reduce the trafficking of drugs and to prevent human smuggling across the Southwest Border by deterring the construction and use of border tunnels."
HR 2745 (by voice vote) — "Amend the Mesquite Lands Act of 1986 to facilitate implementation of a multispecies habitat conservation plan for the Virgin River in Clark County, Nevada."
HR 2621 (by voice vote) — "Establish the Chimney Rock National Monument in the State of Colorado"
H.R. 4970 (222-205) — "Reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994."
Today, the Senate reconvened and has already considered and voted to confirm the nominations of Jeremy Stein (70-24) and Jerome Powell (74-21) to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The Senate then resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 3187 , a bill concerning FDA user fees.
Yesterday, not one Senate Democrat would vote for any of the five budget proposals Republicans forced votes on. Also, President Obama’s budget was again rejected unanimously (0-99Rep. Paul Ryan’s House-passed budget and budget proposals offered by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Mike Lee (R-UT) all received more votes than the president’s budget.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jamie Dupree wrote last night, “For a second straight year, Republicans engineered a vote in the Senate on President Obama's budget in a bid to embarrass Democrats politically, as Senators voted 99-0 against Mr. Obama's spending plans. Democrats labeled it a stunt, while GOP lawmakers said it was evidence that the White House isn't serious about tackling the budget deficit. ‘Once again, the Senate spoke unanimously against the President’s unserious budget,’ said Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell in a statement after the vote. ‘The President should put forward a budget that earns at least one vote in Congress,’ said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).”
The New York Times noted, “Senate Republicans engineered the green-eyeshade activities, using an obscure provision in the 1974 Budget Act that gives any senator the right to bring a budget to a vote if none reaches the Senate floor by April 1. The aim was to highlight the Democratic majority’s failure for the third straight year to produce a budget blueprint — and to embarrass President Obama by bringing his budget to a vote.”
And CNN added, “In this case, Republicans called up five budgets: one that closely mirrored President Obama's budget proposal submitted earlier this year; another, authored by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, which the House approved; and three from very conservative senators aimed at making drastic reductions to entitlements costs, government spending and taxes.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Free Beacon makes some important points: “The Senate last year voted down the president’s budget 97-0. Not a single federal lawmaker has voted in favor of Obama’s budget proposals over the past two years. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently concluded that the president’s budget, if enacted, would have a negative impact on long-term economic growth. . . . The House also considered Obama’s most recent budget, rejecting it 414-0. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have not proposed a budget in more than three years.”
Having surveyed this frustrating spectacle, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said this morning, “Yesterday in the Senate, we got a vivid look at why the challenges we face in this country are so difficult to address. With a looming fiscal crisis some have called the most predictable in history. With a national debt at a level none of us ever imagined. With millions unemployed and millions more underemployed. With the biggest tax hike in history looming at the end of the year. And with entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security drawing closer every day to insolvency.
“Here’s what Senate Democrats did yesterday: they ducked. They were presented with five different options for dealing with these problems, and they voted against every single one. . . . [E]very American should be surprised that Democrats didn’t offer a single plan of their own, and that they didn’t even support the plan offered by a president of their own party.
“But, sadly, that’s what passes for leadership in the Democrat-led Senate these days: oppose everybody else — including a President of your own party — and hope nobody notices you’re not doing anything yourself. Most people would say it’s the responsibility of the party in power to propose solutions. And they’d be right. . . . And yet Democrats continue to duck any responsibility for addressing them.”
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