TODAY IN CONGRESS (C-SPAN TV SCHEDULE):
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 yesterday’s votes on some significant Bills/Resolutions and important Committee action, when Congress was in session the previous day, as well as other Congressional Events of possible interest.
Sorry I missed posting yesterday. It finally stopped raining here so my bicycle was begging me to peddle it on a morning 50 mile ride. I couldn’t say no.
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.
House:
10:00 am — House Morning Session (General Speeches)
10:00 am — House Oversight Hearing on HIV Prevention Drug (The House Oversight and Reform Committee examines the high pricing of the HIV prevention drug Truvada.)
10:00 am — House Science, Space and Technology Committee Hearing on Event Horizon Telescope (The House Science, Space and Technology Committee holds a hearing on the Event Horizon Telescope, which captured the very first image of a supermassive blackhole.)
10:00 am — House Ways and Means Hearing on Maternal Maternity (The House Ways and Means Committee convenes a hearing to discuss maternal health and mortality in the U.S.)
11:30 am — House Democrats News Conference & Reading of Mueller Report (House Democrats hold a news conference on the special counsel investigation into Russia’s interference into the 2016 campaign. Following the news conference, the lawmakers read the Mueller report.)
12:00 pm — House Session (The House will debate and vote on the Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act (HR 987) from the House Energy and Commerce Committee to address health care and prescription drug costs.)
2:00 pm (maybe 10:00 am?) — House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing on Khashoggi killing (Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, testifies on the reporting of human rights before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.)
Senate:
10:00 pm — Senate Session (The Senate will resume debate on the nomination of Wendy Vitter to be U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Senators limited debate and advanced her nomination on a 51-45 near party line vote during Wednesday’s session.)
Yesterday’s (Friday’s) Voting Results:
House:
1. House Resolution 377 (H.R. 377) On Agreeing to the Resolution — Vote on a resolution that sets forth the rule for consideration of the bill (H.R. 5) to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes; providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 312) to reaffirm the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe reservation, and for other purposes; and providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 987) to amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to provide for Federal Exchange outreach and educational activities.)
Democrats- 229 Yes 2 No 0 Present 3 Not Voting
Republicans- 0 Yes 186 No 0 Present 11 Not Voting
Totals- 229 Yes 186 No 0 Present 14 Not Voting
PASSED
Voting Details HERE.
Senate: Votes on various Trump nominees.
Comments:
Today’s Events –
House — Today’s most interesting event will actually take place outside the Halls of Congress. House Democrats will hold a Press Conference where they will first take questions on the Mueller Report and then take turns reading the entire redacted report outloud. The first part should prove interesting as it may give some insight on how Dems. intend to proceed with getting the entire report and underlying documents. The second part might be a little boring, but it’s something that every American who has not read the entire redacted report should be tuning in to hear.
As described further below, the House will take up and likely vote on H.R. 987, a Bill intended to strengthen the ACA and lower prescription drug costs. It will be interesting to see how Republicans justify their not so veiled support of the Drug Companies extortion of the American people over people’s needs for life preserving medications.
Lastly, Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It will be interesting to see how Republicans squirm in their chairs (if any bother to show up at all) as they offer their hollow condolences to Khashoggi’s fiance.
Senate — Just another Trump nomination day in the Senate.
Yesterday’s Votes –
House — The House passed H.R. 377, a Resolution to set the rules for debating three (3) seperate Bills, H.R. 5, H.R. 312 and H.R. 987. I posted this vote to provide a “heads up” with regard to H.R. 987 which would strengthen the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and push back against Trump’s slow but steady ACA destruction program. Specifically the Bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to conduct outreach and educational activities regarding federally-facilitated exchanges (i.e., health insurance exchanges that are established and operated within states by HHS). The activities must inform potential enrollees of the availability of coverage and related financial assistance under the exchanges and must be provided in culturally and linguistically appropriate formats. It should be interesting to see how this Bill plays out in the coming days.
Senate — In the senate, the broken record of cloture votes and confirmation votes on Trump appointees continues.
Other Events — SUBPOENA WARS —
House Judiciary Committee Subpoena — AG William Barr continues to ignore the House Judiciary Committee’s subpoena for the un-redacted Mueller Report and all supporting documents, despite the contempt citation passed by the Committee and awaiting action on the House floor. Yesterday, Committee Chairman Nadler, who is growing increasingly frustrated with Barr each passing day raised the specter of imposing LARGE Daily Fines on Barr for each day he ignores the subpoena. For the House to impose such fines on its own it would have to vote on holding Barr in “Inherent Contempt of Congress” a phrase that is recently becoming more widely known in the political lexicon. It is basically an authority granted to Congress (and confirmed by past SCOTUS Rulings) to use its own Sargent-At-Arms to enforce such things as subpoenas instead of the DoJ, which is now being operated by Trump’s Roy Cohn (Bill Barr). Nadler said the idea is being considered in addition to the use of civil contempt, a process by which a court is asked to impose penalties for the defiance of the subpoena. Also, as a little sidebar to this saga, AG Barr and Speaker Pelosi had a little exchange of words on this topic at a formal get-together they were attending. When Barr approached Pelosi to shake her hand he was overheard saying “you didn’t bring any handcuffs for me, did you”. To which Pelosi replied, “No but the House Sargent-At-Arms is standing by”. In response Barr only laughed. Anyone who laughs in the face of Nancy Pelosi is treading on very thin ice.
House Intelligence Committee Subpoena — Yesterday was the deadline for AG Barr to respond to the House Intelligence Committee’s subpoena for “documents and materials related Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, including all counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials produced during the Special Counsel’s investigation, the full unredacted report, and the underlying evidence”. Late yesterday, Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said they were still in discussions with DoJ lawyers on the matter.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Subpoena — No word yet from Judge Amit Mehta on how he will rule on the case involving the subpoena of Mazars, Trump’s former accounting firm, for Trump’s past financial records. While Mazars was apparently willing to turn over these records, Trump is attempting to block the subpoena by suing his former accounting over the release of his records. Although we are still waiting for the Judges ruling, his questioning of Trump’s lawyers suggest that they are unlikely to win and that his decision will be made in a few days (not months as Trump lawyers were hoping).
House Ways & Means Committee Subpoena (Trump’s Tax Returns) — Not much news on the Trump tax returns front where Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is still trying to dodge a subpoena for 6 years of Trump’s tax returns. Except Mnuchin did issue this statement yesterday:
“We haven’t made a decision but I think you can guess which way we’re leaning on our subpoena,” Mnuchin said, adding, “I take great comfort that there is a third branch of government to deal with this important issue.”
Sure he would love this to go to court rather than to face the personal consequences of a Congressional Inherent Contempt citation.
White House Letter on Congressional Subpoenas — White House lawyers issued an amazing letter yesterday on all these Congressional Subpoenas. Here’s how TPM's Josh Marshall eloquently describes their ridiculous argument:
“They argue that the Congress has no legitimate oversight role with respect to the executive branch at all, a stunning argument that would clip the wings of Congress permanently. They are arguing first that the only legitimate document requests or subpoenas are those tied specifically and narrowly to shaping upcoming legislation. That’s an aspect of oversight but only a smallish part of it. Secondly, anything that is tied to wrongdoing or malfeasance or possibly crimes is “law enforcement”, which is the exclusive purview of the executive branch. In other words, from both sides of the equation, they argue that Congress has no oversight role at all.”
AMAZINGLY STUPID ARGUMENT!
Thanks for Reading!