S E N A T U S

It’s a pretty quiet day in Washington with the President out of town and the House and Senate not in session. With that, we will be taking a little break from posting today and will provide limited posting over the weekend if something important goes down.  See you on Monday for an exciting non-voting session in the Senate sure to be filled with short speeches and lengthy quorum calls!  

The Senate has unanimously confirmed William Joseph Burns to be Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs at the U.S. State Department. This position is the third highest within the department. Mr. Burns recently served as U.S. Ambassador to Russia.

Durbin Amendment

The Senate has agreed to an amendment offered by Senator Durbin (D-IL) dealing with watershed-related insurance premium rate hikes by a vote of 68 (Y) to 24 (N). The amendment requires that an entire watershed must be completed before flood insurance rates are increased on nearby property owners, specifically in the Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District. 

Schedule Update

A quick update on the upcoming schedule for the Senate and the underlying flood insurance legislation. Democratic and Republican leaders have agreed to hold off on a vote on final passage of the flood bill until Tuesday of next week. The Senate will vote Tuesday on two energy-related amendments to the bill, as was discussed in this post, and upon their disposition will vote on final passage of the bill.

Also being scheduled for Tuesday is an unrelated cloture vote on another bill, the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (H.R. 980), which deals with collective bargaining rights for public safety officers employed by local and state governments.

The Senate will not be in session Friday. Additionally, they will not conduct any roll call votes during Monday’s session.

Earlier today, the Senate agreed to waive a budget-related point of order requirement by a vote of 70 (Y) to 26 (N). The point of order was made by Senator Coburn (R-OK) on the basis that funding within the bill was not paid for by using the pay-as-you-go, or PAYGO, rules.  More information on the point-of-order can be found here.

The Crypt reports that Senator Byrd (D-WV), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, has decided to cancel today’s scheduled markup of the war supplemental bill. The House was forced to pull their version of the bill off of the calendar after facing protest votes from Republican members and opposition from some Democratic members, namely the “Blue Dog” coalition, over spending concerns.

Senator Byrd released the following statement regarding the cancellation, which can be found here:

“In view of House inaction on the legislation this week, I have very reluctantly agreed to the request of the House and Senate Democratic leadership to postpone the Senate Appropriations Committee scheduled mark-up of the Supplemental Appropriations bill until next Thursday, May 15.”

“My patience is growing thin. I am putting my colleagues in both the House and Senate on notice that whether the House acts or not next week, the Senate Appropriations Committee will move forward with a mark-up of the Supplemental Appropriations bill. We must not delay this matter further. We need to mark up in full view of the public before we take this supplemental request to the Senate Floor.”