Thursday: 142 NDAA amendments in the House, FDA bill in the Senate

By Pete Kasperowicz - 05/17/12 08:13 AM ET

The House meets at 10 a.m. for speeches, then at noon to start work on the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), H.R. 4310. After debate and approval of the rule, likely around 1 or 2 p.m., the House will start work on scores of amendments to the bill.

To be precise, the House Rules Committee made seven score and two amendments in order.

Consideration of 142 amendments makes for a long day. Each amendment is eligible for 10 minutes of debate, which means if all are considered and debated, the House faces nearly 24 hours of debate.

However, some are likely not to be offered, some might not need the full 10 minutes, and others are likely to be considered en bloc, saving some time. The House has all of Thursday and part of Friday to debate them, and is looking to finish work on the bill by Friday afternoon. That could make for work late Thursday and very early Friday.

Members made it clear during Wednesday debate on the bill that they will push for amendments dealing with detainee policy, same-sex marriage and Iran.

Late Wednesday, Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) sought to rescue the nearly 100 amendments not made in order, by asking the Rules Committee to vote on motions to make them in order, one at a time. McGovern's own amendment, to accelerate the withdrawal of the U.S. military from Afghanistan, was not accepted.

McGovern's tactic was in essence a protest move, and a waste of time, as each of his requests was turned down in a party-line vote, one after the other. His lengthy effort to consider each of the rejected amendments created tensions as the meeting continued toward midnight.

At one point, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) wondered openly whether some Rules Committee members had been drinking. McGovern responded by saying Republicans offered 95 amendments in committee to the 2010 healthcare law, and continued on. Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) and other Republicans fidgeted throughout the process, or were reading unrelated materials.

The committee finally adjourned at 11:58 p.m. after McGovern said he had gone through about 85 amendments.

At some point Thursday, the House will consider two Democratic motions to instruct conferees on H.R. 4348, the surface transportation bill. Two suspension votes might also occur: one on H.Res. 568, a sense of the House on the importance of ensuring Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons, and H.R. 5740, a 30-day extension of the National Flood Insurance Program, which was debated Wednesday.

The Senate meets at 9:30 a.m. and will take up S. 3187, a bill establishing a program under which generic and biosimilar drug manufacturers would pay user fees to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as part of the process of having their products reviewed.

The bill expands on the current user-fee program that already applies to brand-name prescription drugs and medical devices. The details of these programs are negotiated by affected industry groups, which generally support them because the user fees go to hire staff that work on product applications.

The existing user-fee programs have been renewed every five years, and they expire at the end of September. Reauthorizing them has traditionally been the time to consider expansion and alterations to FDA's mission, and members of both parties have been working methodically for months, along with industry groups, to expand the program to generic and biosimilar drugs.

The Senate bill is broadly similar to a House bill, H.R. 5651, that the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved last week by a unanimous vote.

At 10:30 a.m., the Senate will start consideration of two nominations to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System — Jeremy Stein of Massachusetts and Jerome Powell of Maryland.

— Jeremy Herb contributed. This story was originally posted at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, and was updated at 11:59 p.m. and again at 8:13 a.m. Thursday.