Legislative Debate

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) will seek a unanimous consent agreement on the Senate floor on Thursday to extend the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA) and Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program for 18 months.

"I am hopeful we will be able to get a unanimous consent agreement, but if not we will just keep trying," said Brown on Thursday.

TAA offers benefits to U.S. workers hurt by international trade, and ATPA lowers duties on goods from Andean countries. Both programs expire this weekend.

A Senate vote would put pressure on the House to act, but House Republicans this week postponed a vote to extend both measures in order to pressure the Obama administration to move on the Colombia and Panama free trade agreements.

The House on Thursday began a heated two-day debate over how best to create jobs, in which Democrats immediately accused Republicans of wasting time and ignoring real jobs proposals, and Republicans replied that jobs creation will happen when government gets out of the way.

Debate began when Republicans put forward a rule for considering H.Res. 72. The rule allows for nine and a half hours of debate on a resolution that instructs 10 committees to search for regulations that are impeding business and job growth. Republicans cast the long debate, and the resolution itself, as an open way to begin the detailed work needed among various committees to cut back regulations in order to maximize job growth.

But Democrats were having none of it. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took to the floor to repeat the charge made by many Democrats that nine and a half hours of debate is a waste of time, since House committees already have the authority to conduct oversight hearings.

A recurring theme in today's House debate was whether House Republicans are pursuing an effective "jobs agenda," and as might be expected, the two parties disagree.

Democrats today hammered away on this point in the run up to a vote on legislation aimed at getting the United Nations to repay the U.S. $179 million in unused funds. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said that bill and others Republicans are pushing in the House are doing nothing to promote job growth.

House Republican efforts to pass a bill taking back $179 million that the United Nations owes to the U.S. appears to be on shaky ground, and could be the second vote in as many days that fails on the House floor.

Debate on the bill, H.R. 519, started just before 1 p.m., with Democrats lined up to oppose it. While Democrats are not normally needed to pass a bill in the Republican-controlled House, the GOP is trying to pass the bill under a suspension of House rules, which requires two-thirds of voting members to support it — 290 if all members vote.

The House on Tuesday night failed to approve legislation to extend surveillance authorities in the Patriot Act. 

The Obama administration wants a three-year extension of surveillance authorities, while a GOP plan would extend the act until December.

A debate over adding more long-distance flights to and from Reagan Washington National Airport is holding up the entire Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a floor speech Tuesday morning.

Reid said he would file cloture on the FAA bill Monday even if senators had not managed to come to an agreement. He also suggested senators should finish backroom dealings and bring all amendments to the floor for a vote.

Federal law allows only 12 long-distance flights (non-stop over 1,250 miles) to and from Reagan each day. The remaining long-distance flights are diverted to Dulles Airport and Baltimore-Washington Airport (BWI), both about 30 miles from the District.

West Coast senators in particular, such as Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), want to add slots at Reagan National to stimulate long-distance travel to and from their states. They say their constituents have a right to easy access to the nation’s capital.

Members of Congress who represent districts including, or near, BWI and Dulles airports, however, fear their districts could suffer if Reagan National is given more long-distance slots.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has argued such a move would “subvert” and “undermine” the local transportation economy.

Reid Monday called on members to reach an agreement.

"We all know there is a lot of feigning going on around here and a lot of posturing," said Reid. "It will not be resolved except for here on the Senate floor."

“We are not playing around with this slot issue for another year,” said Reid. “This issue [FAA funding] has to pass."

Legislation that would allow states to obtain an earlier waiver from last year's healthcare law cleared a procedural hurdle last night, bringing it one step closer to possible consideration on the Senate floor.

The Senate agreed by unanimous consent that the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is discharged from considering the Empowering States to Innovate Act (S. 248), and that the bill is referred to the Senate Finance Committee for further consideration.

The bill would allow states to get a waiver as early as 2014 from certain elements of the healthcare law, such as the individual mandate, the employer penalty for not providing coverage, federal standards that healthcare plans must meet, and the requirement to create health insurance exchanges.

Under last year's healthcare law, states can apply for this waiver in 2017. But S. 248, sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.), would let states apply for the waiver in 2014.

Wyden and Brown introduced similar legislation late last year, and both see it as a way of giving states an option to develop their own healthcare policies outside federal requirements approved last year. But Republicans continue to focus on repealing the healthcare law, and Brown is so far the only Republican to co-sponsor Wyden's bill in this Congress and the last Congress.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) indicated Monday his bill could come to the Senate floor as early as Tuesday morning. 

The Senate will welcome Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor to the U.S. on Monday afternoon.

Pahour, a centrist social Democrat, is on a working trip to the U.S, invited by Vice President Joe Biden.

The Senate will pause floor consideration of the Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill at about 4:20 p.m. to welcome Pahor.

At 4:30 p.m. the Senate will take up the nominations of three federal judges: Paul Kinloch Holmes to be a United States District Judge for the Western District of Arkansas; Diana Saldana to be a United States District Judge for the Southern District of Texas; and Marco Hernandez to be a United States District Judge for the District of Oregon.

The Senate will hold votes on the confirmation of Saldana and Holmes at 5:30 p.m.