The Week Ahead in Congress

January 30, 2012 by Donny Shaw

It’s the week after the State of the Union, and while the Senate is moving forward with bipartisan legislation requested by the President during the speech, the House is continuing its highly-partisan, mostly-symbolic agenda.

The first bill up in the Senate this week is the STOCK Act, which would apply insider tading laws to members of Congress and its staff. Specifically, it would amend the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 to state that “no Member of Congress and no employee of Congress shall use any nonpublic information derived from the individual’s position as a Member of Congress or employee of Congress, or gained from performance of the individual’s duties, for personal benefit.”

Here’s a quick overview of what the House will be voting on:

• A bill to require all states that provide TANF assistance funds to enact policies that would prevent recipients from using the funds at liquor store, casinos, and adult entertainment businesses.
• A bill to formally extend the federal employee pay freeze to members of Congress. Congress has voluntarily given up their pay increases for the past two years and would likely do so again this year even without this bill.
• A bill to repeal the CLASS Act, a provsion of the health care bill that the Department of Health and Human Services has already decided not to implement.
• Ban the Congressional Budget Office from considering inflation adjustments in annual budgeting estimates, thereby effectively loweing the budget baseline year after year.
• Require Congressional Budget Office bill reports to include analysis on how bills would impact gross domestic product, business investment, the capital stock, employment, and labor supply.

The full official House clanedar is below, with links to the OpenCongress bill pages so you can learn more and easily send an email to your members of Congress.

THE WEEKLY WHIP: FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012

First Vote Of The Week: Tuesday 6:30 p.m.
Last Vote Predicted: Friday 3:00 p.m.

MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2012
On Monday, the House is not in session.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012
On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12:00 p.m. for Morning Hour debate and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.

Motion to go to Conference on H.R. 658 – FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act

H.Res. 522 – Rule providing for consideration of the bill H.R. 1173 – The Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act of 2011 (Rep. Sessions – Rules) (One Hour of Debate)

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2012
On Wednesday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. Morning Hour debate and 12:00 p.m. for legislative business.

Suspensions (3 Bills)

1. H.R. 3835 – To extend the pay limitation for Members of Congress and Federal Employees (Rep. Duffy – Oversight and Government Reform)

H.Res. 496   – Adjusting the amount provided for the expenses of certain committees of the House of Representatives in the One Hundred Twelfth Congress (Rep. Lungren – House Administration)

2. H.R. 3567 – Welfare Integrity Now for Children and Families Act of 2011, as amended (Rep. Boustany – Ways and Means)

H.R. 1173 – The Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act of 2011 (Rep. Boustany – Energy and Commerce/Ways and Means) (Subject to a Rule)

The Rule provides for one hour of general debate and makes in order only those amendments that have been preprinted in the Congressional Record no later than the legislative day of Tuesday, January 31, 2012. The Rule also provides that the bill shall be considered for amendment for a period not to exceed three hours.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2012 AND FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2012
On Thursday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. Morning Hour debate and 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. On Friday, the House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for Legislative business with last votes expected no later than 3:00 p.m.

H.R. 3582 – Pro-Growth Budgeting Act of 2011 (Rep. Price (GA) – Budget/Rules) (Subject to a Rule)

H.R. 3578 – Baseline Reform Act of 2011 (Rep. Woodall – Budget) (Subject to a Rule)

Members are advised that Conference Reports may be brought up at any time

And here’s what we know so far about the Senate’s plans for the week:

Senate Floor Schedule for Monday, January 30, 2012

Convenes: 2pm

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 4:30pm with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

At 4:30pm, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to Calendar #301, S.2038, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act with the time until 5:30pm equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees.

At 5:30pm, the Senate will conduct a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.2038, the STOCK Act.