TODAY IN CONGRESS (C-SPAN TV SCHEDULE) & More:
I am posting the daily C-Span TV schedule, when I can, for those here who may be interested in tuning in to see what Congress is up to. Also, I have provided the results of the previous day’s votes on some significant Bills/Resolutions, when Congress was in session the previous day and an update on the status of numerous Congressional Subpoenas and other Committee action.
Here’s today’s schedule with the events I think may be the most interesting in bold. You can watch C-Span HERE. NOTE: Sometimes C-Span posts additional Congressional events not on my list, later in the day.
NOTE #2: There will not be a TODAY IN CONGRESS tomorrow. Going to a Ballgame. Sorry! Be back on Thursday to catch you up.
House:
10:00 am — House Morning Session (General Speeches)
10:00 am — House Oversight and Reform Committee Hearing on TSA Vulnerabilities (TSA Administrator David Pekoske, along with government watchdog officials, testify about vulnerabilities at the agency before the House Oversight and Reform Committee.)
10:00 am — House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee Hearing on VA Services (Three whistleblowers and four non-governmental experts testify at a House Veterans' Affairs subcommittee hearing on the role whistleblowers played in exposing issues facing patients at VA facilities.)
12:00 pm — House Session (The House will finish work on a 5-bill $383.3B spending package for FY2020 and possibly consider a measure to provide $4.5B in emergency spending for humanitarian assistance for migrants and security measures at the U.S. southern border.)
Senate:
10:00 am — Senate Session (Following leader remarks, the Senate will resume debate on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a $750 billion defense programs and policy bill for 2020.)
Yesterday’s Votes:
House -
1. Amendments to House Resolution 3055 (H.R. 3055) — H.R.3055 - Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020 (This bill provides FY2020 appropriations to the Department of Commerce; the Department of Justice (DOJ); science agencies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF); and several related agencies.):
There were a total of 4 amendments voted on during yesterday’s session. Below is a summary breakdown of the results:
Democrat Introduced Amendments that were Agreed To (Passed): 1
Democrat Introduced Amendments that Failed: 0
Republican Introduced Amendments that were Agreed To (Passed): 0
Republican Introduced Amendments that Failed: 3
You can get voting results for each amendment HERE by clicking on the voting docket #s on the left.
You can get a summary of each amendment by reading through the Floor Proceedings HERE.
The text of the original Bill can be found HERE and a summary can be found HERE.
Senate —
1. Senate Bill 1790 (S.1790) - Vote on Motion to Proceed to Floor Debate on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (A Bill to To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2020 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes.)
Democrats- 37 Yes 6 No 0 Present 4 Not Voting
Republicans- 49 Yes 0 No 0 Present 4 Not Voting
Totals- 86 Yes 6 No 0 Present 8 Not Voting
PASSED
Voting Details HERE.
Comments:
Today’s Events –
House — Not much happening today, but if I had to pick something to watch it would be the House Session to see if they try to wedge in a $4.5B in emergency spending for humanitarian assistance for migrants and security measures at the U.S. southern border, between the numerous amendments of H.R. 3055. If so, it will be interesting to see how Democrats craft the emergency spending Bill to insure Trump actually uses the money to help rather than hurt asylum seekers.
Senate — The Senate will be debating the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Sounds boring. Still it will be interesting to see if Senate Democrats and some Republican Isolationists (e.g., Rand Paul) try to tack on an amendment to limit Trump’s war making power in light of Iran. We will see!
Yesterday’s Votes -
House — The House took up more amendments of another Appropriations Bill that was brought to the floor on June 3. This Bill provides appropriations to the Department of Commerce; DOJ; NASA; NSF; and several related agencies. Yesterday (yes, they actually worked a Monday too) they voted on 4 amendments for a total of 63 so far. Many more amendments to come for an expected total of over 200.
Senate — The Senate voted on a Motion To Proceed on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It’s the first Appropriations Bill the Senate has taken up since they decided to take a pause on the Trump nominations marathon. It figures with Republicans in control the first Bill would be about military spending.
SUBPOENA WARS —
House Judiciary Committee Barr Subpoena — No change. As Committee members and staff continue to review the documents put forth by the DoJ (i.e., FBI 302 Reports compiled during the Mueller investigation), we continue to wait for Judiciary Committee Chairman Nadler to decide if or when he will use the authorization granted him by the Full House and drag Barr to Court to enforce the subpoena for the unredacted Mueller Report and the rest of the all underlying documents. In the meantime, Pelosi has reviewed a less redacted version of the Mueller Report, taking Barr up on his previous offer. No word yet from the Speaker as to her impressions of the less redacted report.
House Judiciary Committee McGahn Subpoena — No change. Unlike Barr, it appears that Nadler will use his authority to drag McGahn into Court for defying his subpoena. It appears Nadler is simply waiting for Committee lawyers to draft their arguments. Hopefully, we will see a Court filing soon. I, like many of you, am growing more anxious with each passing day. It’s time to go to Court and get the White House’s totally fictitious and silly claim of “Absolute Immunity” struck down!
House Judiciary Committee Mueller Testimony — No change. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) has said he would issue a subpoena for Mueller's testimony, though his committee is still negotiating with the former special counsel. However, according to this POLITICO Report, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is turning up the heat on Nadler:
”House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said lawmakers intend to reach a decision this week about whether to subpoena special counsel Robert Mueller to testify.
“We have been in private discussions with the special counsel's office,” Schiff said Sunday during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.
“I’d hope we reach this decision this week,” the California Democrat added.
Last week, Schiff warned that time was “running out” for Mueller to publicly testify about his investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election, citing the looming August recess.”
It’s not clear to me if the decision on subpoenaing Mueller will be a joint decision made by both committees and House Leadership, or if Schiff is deciding to go it alone. But I really think that deep down inside, Mueller wants this subpoena. There is little doubt that Mueller (the Eagle Scout) will honor and not fight a subpoena. So I think it would be more like a “friendly” subpoena where the witness wants to be subpoenaed to insulate him/her from partisan accusations. In fact, a subpoena would help Democrats bolster Mueller’s already high credibility. Anyway, a subpoena could come anytime this week. Stay Tuned!
House Judiciary Committee Hicks and Donaldson Subpoenas — The transcript of Hope Hick’s (minimal) testimony has been released. You can read the transcript through this TPM Post. All indications are that Nadler will be using the White House’s claim of “Absolute Immunity” invoked multiple times during the Hick’s testimony to prevent her from answering, in order to reinforce the pending Court fight against McGhan.
With regard to Donaldson, she has struck a deal with the Committee to provide written responses to the Committee’s questions and testify in person in November. The deal is to accommodate the fact that Donaldson is in her third trimester of a pregnancy and is unwilling to travel to D.C. at this time. Seems a little hokey to me. Why can’t she testify via video link right from her home.
Anyway, according to this POLITICO report, the White House is expected to intervene:
“But the White House, which has been involved in the negotiations, is expected to assert its claims that former aides have “absolute immunity” from testifying to Congress about their service in the White House, sources said. Democrats have said that claim is legally baseless and are vowing to defeat it in federal court. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”
House Intelligence Committee Subpoena — No change. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) Continues to hold off on enforcement action against the Justice Department since it has agreed to turn over documents related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Schiff said that the department has agreed to turn over 12 categories of counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials. So we are waiting to see what the Committee will do after it reviews the documents from Barr. We are also waiting to see if the Committee subpoenas FBI Director Wray as Schiff has threatened.
On another front, the infamous Felix Sater who was supposed to testify voluntarily before the Intelligence Committee on Friday was a “no Show” He has claimed an unexpected illness. LoL!
House Financial Services Committee and House Intelligence Committee Deutsche Bank and Capital One Subpoenas (Trump’s Banking Records) — No change. A federal judge ruled from the bench and rejected President Trump's effort to block congressional subpoenas seeking his financial records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One. But the Trump Organization has filed an Appeal. The appeals court said it will speedily consider President Donald Trump’s challenge to congressional subpoenas seeking financial records from two banks with which he did business. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued a brief order setting a schedule for written arguments to be submitted by July 18, with oral arguments to soon follow.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Subpoena (Financial Records) — No change. A three-judge panel on the appeals court will hear oral arguments on July 12 to determine whether the accounting firm Mazars can hand over Trump's financial records to House Democrats. The court also set a series of deadlines spanning June and July for parties to submit filings arguing their positions in the case.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Subpoena — No change. The House Oversight Committee has voted to recommend to the Full House that Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross be held in Contempt of Congress for for refusal to comply with subpoenas to provide documents and information related to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The contempt resolution includes citations for both civil and criminal contempt. It is unclear what will happen now that the committee has voted on the resolution.
House Ways & Means Committee Subpoena (Trump’s Tax Returns) — We are waiting for the Committee to enforce its subpoena against Mnuchin and the IRS, and get this dispute into Court. However, in anticipation of the legal battle ahead DoJ has now filed a legal opinion with respect to Trump’s taxes. In it “the DOJ acknowledged that a plain-language reading of Section 6103(f) of the Internal Revenue Code required compliance and an obligation on the part of the IRS to turn over the requested tax returns — but then the DOJ divined and opined that Chairman Neal’s request had no legislative justification and was a pretextual means to a public disclosure end result that was ultimately motivated by politics.” So they acknowledge Democrats have a strong case via a plain reading of the law, but they can’t have Trump’s tax returns because the DoJ feels the Democrats have illicit motives. Yeah, that will fly in Court when a pig flys.
Other BREAKING NEWS: If you have not already seen it, there is an excellent diary on the Rec. List from ericlewis0 who has caught a “Raw Story” exclusive report that AG Barr killed seven (7) investigations launched by Mueller 10 days after the release of Barr’s BOGUS summary of the Mueller Report. I know there is a lot going on in the news these days with all the Trump distractions, but why this story is not headline news in the MSM is beyond me! I just hope someone in Congress takes this ball and runs with it, because this is a blatant attack on our country’s Rule of law all to protect one A’Hole!
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