Today on the Hill

Like most Mondays on the Hill, today will be rather slow – at least as far as the official schedule goes. The prime discussion among staffers, however, will clearly be the fact that Rep. Gabby Giffords decided to step down from her position in the House this week. While she obviously has her differences of opinion with some members, folks I’ve talked to on both sides of the aisle have nothing but respect for her and wish her a speedy recover.

Since the two year anniversary of the Citizens United ruling has received a lot of attention, today's event at the Center for American Progress discussing the case's impact on our electoral system will likely to be well attended.

As far as the official schedule goes, Members of the House of Representatives will be back in DC today as the House will convene at noon for morning hour and will begin legislative business at 2pm. According to Eric Cantor’s office, there are two bills that will be considered – both of which are sponsored by Republican members of the Natural Resources Committee. They are:

1) H.R. 1141 - Rota Cultural and Natural Resources Study Act (Sponsored by Del. Gregorio Sablan / Natural Resources Committee)

2) H.R. 3117 - Permanent Electronic Duck Stamp Act of 2011 (Sponsored by Rep. Robert Wittman / Natural Resources Committee)

Cantor’s office also highlighted a hearing that will be held by the Rules Committee at 5pm this evening to consider HR 3575, the Legally Blinding Budget Act of 2011.

The Senate will also be in session today and will start their day at 2pm for “morning business.” I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find it rather humorous that they still call it morning business when it starts so late in the day. I guess we can’t really complain, however, as at least the Senate is back in action and is no longer simply having pro-forma sessions every three days.

After morning business, they’ll proceed to executive session at 4pm to consider the nomination of John M. Gerrard to be United States District Judge for the District of Nebraska. The floor action is the only thing scheduled on the Senate side today, however, as there aren’t any committee hearings scheduled (those start tomorrow). You can see the full schedule of Committee hearings in the House below the fold though.


ARMED SERVICE-----------------------------------------------------------------------3:00-Open

Full Committee. Doing Business with DOD: Getting Innovative Solution from Concept to the Hands of the Warfighter. 2212 RHOB.


RULES-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5:00-Open

Full Committee. On H.R. 3575 – Legally Blinding Budget Act of 2011. H-313 Capitol.