Today in Congress

In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Democratic Whip:

TOMORROW?S OUTLOOK
On Thursday, the House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business.
Last votes expected no later than 3:00 p.m.

?One Minutes? (5 per side)

H.Con.Res. 28 - Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan (Rep. Kucinich ? Foreign Affairs) (Unanimous Consent Agreement) The unanimous consent agreement provides for two hours of debate evenly divided between Rep. Kucinich and the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
H.R. 1076 - To prohibit Federal funding of National Public Radio and the use of Federal funds to acquire radio content (Rep. Lamborn ? Energy and Commerce)

In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

Convenes: 9:30am

Following any leader remarks, the Senate will proceed to a period of morning business until 10:30am with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each with the Republicans controlling the first half and the Majority controlling the final half.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of S.493, SBIR and STTR Reauthorization.

At 12:00pm, the Senate will proceed to the consideration of H.J.Res.48, the continuing resolution through April 8, 2011 with up to 3 hours of debate equally divided and controlled between the two leaders and their designees.

Senators should expect up to 2 roll call votes at approximately 3pm in relation to the following:
- Passage of H.J.Res.48, 3-week CR

- Confirmation of Executive Calendar #11, Amy Jackson, of the District of Columbia, to be US District Judge for the District of Columbia.

Kind of an exciting day, by comparison to the rest of the week. First up in the House, Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH-10) resolution directing the President to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Some enormous majority of Americans no longer believe this war is worth it, so of course, the resolution is considered to have zero chance of passage.

After that, it's on to the very important race to defund NPR, even though the video supposedly damning it was largely faked, just like pretty much every other James O'Keefe video has been. But as you know, nothing rocks the Congressional world like Republican outrage. Fake video about ACORN, defund ACORN. Fake video about Planned Parenthood, defund Planned Parenthood. Fake video about NPR? Defund NPR. And while you're at it, let's put O'Keefe on the Sunday talk shows to gripe about how no one pays attention to him and The Man is keeping him down.

On the Senate side, more slow progress on everyone's favorite small business legislation, followed by the (expected) passage of the new 3-week continuing resolution, followed by the (expected) confirmation of yet another non-controversial federal judicial nominee, after just nine months in limbo.

And after that? A one week recess, just to make sure that it's as tough as possible to negotiate the next attempt to avoid a government shutdown.

There's still a ton going on in committees, of course. It being budget season, at least nominally, the appropriations committees are meeting constantly, trying to gauge the needs of the various departments and agencies within their jurisdiction. Check out the schedule of events below the fold, and tune in the online video from any committee on the Main Street Insider Committee Dashboard.

UPDATE: Looks like the House has switched up the schedule a bit, and will vote on the NPR funding bill (or at least the rule for it) first, before getting to the Afghanistan resolution. I'm not sure why they're doing it this way, unless it's to let Republicans vote on defunding NPR and then skip town for the weekend before the war vote. I'm sure they'd prefer not to have to cast that vote, and their absence could make it tough on members who want to vote to bring the war to a close, but worry about imposing limitations on the president this way. If there aren't as many Republicans around to vote no, there are fewer "free" yes votes available.

Maybe that also means you won't be treated to the spectacle of Republicans crying poverty and the unfairness of making taxpayers fund something with which they don't agree when it comes to NPR, but the argue the exact opposite when it comes to war spending.

UPDATE 2: With the rule on the NPR bill passed, the House has instead jumped back to take up the Afghanistan resolution first.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/ZdId1qzh0-U/-Today-in-Congress

Evangeline Lilly Eve Fergie Foxy Brown Freida Pinto