House

At about 10 p.m. Friday, the House concluded a series of votes in which it accepted two key healthcare amendments to the FY 2011 spending bill, as well as an amendment limiting renovations at the United Nations.

The House accepted an amendment from Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) that says no funds in the bill can be used to enforce the medical loss ratio requirement in the healthcare law. This was accepted in a 241-185 vote.

"If this is open government, I think I'm going to have to look for something else," Barney Frank said.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) offered an amendment on Friday to ban all foreign aid to Saudi Arabia because of their “propensity for exporting terrorists.”

“Why we would be giving any aid to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at all is a bit of an eternal mystery to me given their propensity for exporting terrorists and given that they exported 15 of the 19 homicide bombers on Sept. 11,” he said.

Weiner also quoted a Wikileaks cable in his floor speech that suggested Saudi Arabia has been uncooperative with some U.S. counterterrorism efforts.

Foreign aid to Saudi Arabia is already banned by law but the executive branch is allowed to make exceptions.

Weiner complained that the Department of State had exercised that waiver.

“It [aid] keeps rising back up like a Shakespearean specter,” said Weiner. “My amendment strikes the presidential waiver and says no more aid to Saudi Arabia.”

But Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) argued that Saudi Arabia is a key ally of the U.S. and that they had helped stop a package bomb sent to the U.S. last year.

“We share mutual enemies and mutual threats,” said Granger.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) offered an amendment to the Republicans’ budget on Friday that would pull most U.S. troops and military infrastructure out of Europe.

Polis called U.S. bases in Germany, Austria, France, Denmark and other European nations “relics of the past” and said it was time to bring American soldiers home.

“The need for these bases was understandable in a different geopolitical context,” said Polis. “But what is the justification now? Our European allies are some of the richest countries in the world. Why are we subsidizing their defense?”

But Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) argued that the U.S. must maintain bases in Europe as a deterrent and to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“They are providing wartime support and act as an affective deterrent for our ourselves and our allies,” said Turner.

Over the last couple of hours members of the House have continued to pile amendments onto the budget proposal. Votes on the amendments are planned for late Friday night.

One amendment would defund an Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms program to check purchasers of multiple semiautomatic firearms in some Western border states.

Another amendment that was proffered by members of the Virginia delegation would delay the closure of the military’s Joint Force Command Center, which is located in Virginia.

Another amendment would suspend the Department of Defense’s “entertainment fund” until it produces audited finance reports as required by the law.

Since a series of votes Friday afternoon, the House has moved on to several other amendments to H.R. 1, the FY 2011 spending bill. There are still rumors that the House may complete its work on the bill tonight, but there is a chance that some work on Saturday is needed.

Since the afternoon, the House has debated nearly a dozen amendments, which would, among other things:

-- Stop funding for the issuance of new offshore drilling leases to oil companies currently receiving unlimited waivers from royalty payments (from Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass.)

-- Reduce agricultural subsidies so recipients can only receive up to $250,000

-- Reduce funding for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security by 3.5 percent (from Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif.)

-- Block the payment of U.S. dues to the United Nations (from Rep. Broun)

-- Prevent implementation and enforcement of the medical loss ratio in last year's healthcare law (from Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga.)

Votes on these amendments and others are expected around 8 p.m. Friday night, and other votes are possible after that.

In a Friday speech opposing GOP efforts to defund the United Nations, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said the U.N. should be spared in part because it can be used to get an apology and explanation for the assault against CBS reporter Lara Logan.

"As you watch the conflict in Egypt, where we celebrated what happened, but many of you are aware of the tragedy that happened to one of our American reporters, Ms. Logan," Jackson Lee said. "The United Nations is where we can call upon the Egyptian government to explain themselves and to apologize, and call upon the U.N. ambassador from Egypt to apologize to Ms. Logan and apologize to the American people for the tragedy that happened to this woman who was doing her job — the sexual assault, the vicious sexual assault that occurred to her."

More broadly, Jackson Lee said, the UN can help broker other disputes between countries. She was responding to an amendment from Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) to defund the U.N. A vote on that amendment could occur later on Friday.

Other Republicans argued that defunding the U.N. is no great loss. "Where the heck were they during Rwanda?" asked Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.). "Where were they?"

An amendment to cut another $22 billion from the Republican's FY 2011 spending bill was defeated, 147-281, Friday afternoon as several Republicans joined Democrats in opposition.

Eight other amendments, including several to defund Democrats' healthcare law, were also tacked on to the House GOP spending bill in the same series of votes. Just five amendments failed.

Amendments agreed to would:

• end taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood;

• prevent the Department of Education from implementing "gainful employment" regulations on for-profit schools;

• prevent funds from being used to invalidate permits issued for outer continental shelf oil-and-gas resources;

The House on Friday afternoon agreed to accept en bloc amendments to the fiscal 2011 spending bill. This is a voluntary arrangement that members can seek if they wish, and would be used to help speed the consideration of amendments by taking them in groups, as opposed to one by one.

Earlier on Friday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said there are still 100 amendments left, which would take more than 16 hours to dispose of if everyone sought to pass his or her amendment and take 10 minutes of debate time.

Cantor said it is still possible to finish today, but did not say whether this is likely.

Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) is seeking to pass a measure that would ban the federal government from using funds to challenge Arizona's new immigration law.

Poe will seek to attach his measure to the House GOP spending bill being considered on the House floor.

“This is an issue of public safety, and that’s why its important for the federal government to get out of the way of the state of Arizona,” Poe said. “The sovereign state of Arizona is being overrun by dangerous people.”

Arizona's controversial law requires police to question a person's immigration status while enforcing laws if there is reasonable suspicion he or she is in the country illegally.

But Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.) argued that Congress should allow the law to see its day in court.

“Let the process occur, and then we will know whether or not Arizona has the power to deal with immigration in this way,” Pastor added.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), in floor debate Friday, called for the elimination of an annual $140 million subsidy to Brazilian cotton growers, characterizing the program as “lunacy.”

“Sending money to subsidize cotton over there so that we can continue to subsidize cotton here is pure lunacy,” said Frank, who introduced an amendment to end the foreign subsidy.

The federal government subsidizes to domestic cotton growers, which has driven down the price of domestic cotton and allowed U.S. growers to undercut foreign suppliers. The payments to the Brazilian cotton industry are designed to assuage growers there who lose business as a result of the U.S. subsidies.

The payments were put in place as a way of settling a World Trade Organization dispute in which Brazil successfully argued against the U.S. subsidies.

Republicans joined the call for cutting the foreign payments.

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said he supports the amendment “to force the issue so we can get out of these and other subsidy programs.”

Other members, however, argued that the move could create a trade war if Brazil decided to retaliate.

A vote on the amendment was postponed.

The House, as it debated a continuing resolution to keep the government financed for the next several months, considered numerous amendments, including one to cut useless weapons systems and weapon procurement systems, and another that would redirect public funds towards charter schools.