Scheduling

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that the Senate will likely vote on the House’s three-month extension of the debt limit Wednesday. 

The No Budget, No Pay Act, H.R. 325, suspends the debt ceiling through May 18 and requires each chamber to pass a budget by April 15 or have its members face a pay suspension. The House passed the measure last week in a 285-144 vote.

“On Wednesday, we’ll take it up here in the Senate," McConnell said on the Senate floor Monday. "If the House bill passes here and is signed into law, the Finance Committee should immediately begin laying the foundations for a solution. Negotiations should begin, hearings should be scheduled, and legislation should be marked up.

The Senate meets at 2 p.m. for speeches, and at 4:30 p.m. will start debate on H.R. 152, the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act.

The House bill would spend $50.7 billion to help with Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. While it is not exactly what the Senate approved earlier this year, the upper chamber will likely pass it today.

The Senate returns Monday to take up a House-passed bill offering more than $50 billion in federal aid for those affected by Hurricane Sandy.

The Senate failed to take up the bill over the last week, as it was wrestling with changes to procedural rules in the 113th Congress. But with that out of the way, the Senate is now free to start work on high-priority issues like the Sandy bill.

The Senate will vote Monday on providing $50.7 billion to states hit by Hurricane Sandy. 

Assuming the half-inch of snow crippling the Washington, D.C., region doesn't lead to a government shutdown, the Senate reconvenes at 9:30 a.m. this morning.

As of late Wednesday, the Senate had no votes planned for Thursday. But Senate Democrats did hold out the possibility that some votes might occur. The main legislative issues before the Senate are two House-passed bills — one providing $50.7 billion worth of Hurricane Sandy relief (H.R. 152), and the other suspending the debt limit until mid-May (H.R. 325).

The House meets at 9 a.m., and will immediately start debate on the rule for H.R. 325, the No Budget, No Pay Act.

The bill suspends the debt ceiling through May 18, a delay of more than three months that Republicans hope will give Congress enough time to agree on a longer-term debt-limit deal. That deal, the GOP hopes, will include significant spending cuts.

The House late Tuesday took steps to provide for Wednesday debate and a vote on a GOP bill that would allow the government's debt to increase for three more months.

The House Rules Committee approved a rule for the bill, H.R. 325, and filed it with the House clerk at the end of the day.

The House meets at 10 a.m. for speeches, then at noon to debate and pass H.R. 307, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act.

The bill reauthorizes several government programs meant to prepare for bio-hazards. A similar bill easily passed the House last year, but the Senate never took it up.

The House meets next week to consider legislation that would extend the debt limit for three months, and condition a longer-term increase on the Senate passing its first budget in nearly four years.

Republicans announced plans to move this bill next week after holding a retreat in Williamsburg, Va. The bill is also expected to contain language that would deny members of the House or Senate their salaries if the House or Senate, respectively, fail to pass a budget.

The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing next week to examine the history of the U.S. debt limit, just weeks before some agreement will be needed to raise the debt limit and avoid a government default.

The committee will meet Tuesday to discuss the history of the debt limit and how past congresses and presidents have arranged for increases in the limit.