House

The House Rules Committee at 5 p.m. Tuesday will meet to approve rules for several bills, including two resolutions aimed at defunding last year's healthcare law and Planned Parenthood. The panel will also attend to the FY 2011 spending bill, which the House will now consider on Thursday, not Wednesday as originally planned.

Rules will consider all three of these bills on an "emergency" basis, meaning the committee is giving short notice of the meeting.

Tuesday could give House members a chance to vent over Republican spending plans, in particular plans to vote this week to defund Planned Parenthood and last year's healthcare law. But the serious work on spending bills will wait until later in the week.

The House returns Tuesday at noon for morning debate, and then at 2 p.m. takes up two non-controversial bills under a suspension of House rules.

The first is H.R. 1308, which would extend the duration of the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act. The second is S. 307, which names a West Virginia courthouse.

The Senate returns at 10 a.m. to consider two district judgeships.

The House bill implements the accord reached between Republicans, congressional Democrats and the White House to cut about $40 billion.

House Democrats last week introduced legislation that would require more employees to adhere to the Family Medical Leave Act and broaden the scope of that law to allow more employees time off to participate in school activities with their children and grandchildren.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced the Family and Medical Leave Enhancement Act on Friday. The bill, H.R. 1440, would require all companies with more than 25 employees to follow the 1993 law, as opposed to current language which only requires compliance from companies with more than 50 employees.

The bill would also require companies to allow parents to leave work to "participate in or attend an activity that is sponsored by a school or community organization and relates to a program of the school or organization that is attended by a son or daughter or a grandchild of the employee." Also required is leave time for "routine family medical care needs," including appointments for children or grandchildren.

The bill would limit eligible time off to four hours per month, and no more than 24 hours per year.

A handful of House Republicans demonstrated in the first few months of the new Congress that they are not afraid to vote against bills that cut government spending when those bills don't cut enough, or don't de-fund Obamacare.

Reps. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Steve King (Iowa) and Justin Amash (Mich.) have so far voted against all four of the temporary spending resolutions brought up by Republicans this year. In the early Saturday vote for a one-week spending stopgap that cuts $2 billion in spending, Bachmann cited Obamacare and the related agreement to cut $39 billion for the rest of FY 2011 as reasons to oppose it.

"Instead, we've been asked to settle for $39 billion in cuts, even as we continue to fund Planned Parenthood and the implementation of ObamaCare," Bachmann said. "Sadly, we're missing the mandate given us by voters last November, and for that reason I voted against the Continuing Resolution."

Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) said that by late Monday evening, he expects to see the text of FY 2011 budget legislation that is based on last week's late agreement between Congress and the White House.

Campbell added in his "laptop report" Monday that he intends to support the full-year FY 2011 spending bill because he believes a $38 billion cut is "probably as good a deal as John Boehner could get."

The House returns at 11 p.m. Monday night to file the bill, which will allow House Republicans to take up the bill on Wednesday. Under rules passed earlier this year, Republicans said they would make all bills public for three days before voting on them.

Reps. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) and Todd Platts (R-Pa.) last week introduced legislation that would require auto manufacturers to make the tools and technology needed for auto repairs available to local repair shops so that consumers are not forced to seek repairs at the dealer. It would also provide for enforcement of this requirement through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or civil action by states.

"Our constituents deserve the ability to choose where, how and by whom to have their vehicles repaired," Towns said. "That choice may be an automotive independent repair shop or a new car dealership, or even the ability for do-it-yourselfers to repair vehicles, but that choice should remain with the consumer."

Monday is sort of the calm before the storm and after the storm all at once. After late-night heroics on Friday to keep the government running, the Senate is out today, and the House returns for a pro forma session at 11 p.m.

Then, the battle begins anew. At some point, legislative language for a bill funding the rest of FY 2011 along the lines of the House-Senate-White House agreement will be introduced, and the House plans to pass it on Wednesday. The Senate should be ready to take that bill up Thursday.

But also on Thursday, the House will consider a controversial budget resolution for FY 2012. More details can be found here, in our week-ahead roundup.

The House, Senate and White House narrowly escaped a government shutdown by passing a one-week spending stopgap early Saturday morning (text here, summary here), and agreeing to the outlines of a spending agreement for the rest of FY 2011. While there's always a chance the devil shows up in the details the two parties are hammering out, the federal government finally seems to be working in concert, and next week is expected to conclude all debate on a FY 2011 spending bill.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) returned from her Boston trip late Friday in time to vote in favor of the one-week spending agreement. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) also supported it.

Only 28 Republicans voted against the bill, and 42 Democrats joined them. Notable "no" votes included Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Paul Broun (R-Ga.), Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), John Larson (D-Conn.) and Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).

A full listing of the yeas and nays can be found here.