The House of Representatives recessed last Friday and will not return to town until the week of September 13. With the House out, all eyes in Washington are focused on the Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has laid out a full agenda for the Senate’s last week of work before they follow the House and adjourn for the rest of the summer.
The Senate will vote on Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court this week. The debate will be spread out over the course of several days, and while such high profile nominations normally ensure some fire works, none are expected this time around. Five Republicans have already indicated they will support the Kagan nomination, and at least 24 are on record in opposition, which leaves 12 undecided. One of the undecided, Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.), has requested a meeting with Kagan prior to the vote. So far only one Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson (Neb.) has indicated he’ll vote no.
The nomination of James R. Clapper Jr. to become the Director of National Intelligence had been planned for Senate consideration this week, but it appears to be in trouble. First, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) relented on his hold of the nominee in exchange for the promised delivery of a long-delayed classified report on an intelligence system. Now two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who supported Clapper’s nomination last week are now threatening to hold it up over threat assessments of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Energy is also on the agenda for the week. The Senate is scheduled to debate side-by-side energy plans – the Democratic plan (S 3663) vs. the Republican plan (S 3643). The procedure governing the debate on these bills requires a threshold vote of 60 in order to move either one forward. This is unlikely to happen as the Democrats remain divided on the question of lifting the cap on an oil company’s liability for a spill as well as the whether or not states should share the revenue from offshore energy production. The Republican plan lifts the Administration’s six month moratorium on deep-water drilling, which is, in and of itself, controversial.
There was an effort to move legislation on Monday to extend increased Medicaid payments to states and provide $10 billion for states to pay teachers: both provisions were included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in early 2009. Last minute scoring by the Congressional Budget Office showed that the offsets meant to make the package deficit-neutral were insufficient, so the effort was set aside while new offsets are sought. The Senate plans to make another run at this bill as soon as the offsets are found.
The leadership of the Senate Agriculture Committee is working out a deal that would allow the Senate to reauthorize the child nutrition programs. The bill would provide the first increase in meal reimbursements to schools since 1973 and would give the Agriculture Department authority to set nutrition standards for foods sold in vending machines and a la carte lines in schools. While the bill has bipartisan support, a rarity these days, the offset provisions included to make the bill deficit-neutral have sparked some opposition.
Just how much the Senate will get accomplished this week remains to be seen. All that is sure is that whatever items they fail to act upon will be waiting for them when they return in September.