Votes

The House on Thursday evening set up Friday debate and votes on a Republican bill that would streamline and consolidate 35 federal job training programs.

Members approved a rule for the Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills (SKILLS) Act, H.R.803, in a partisan 226-191 vote.

The Senate rejected two amendments to the continuing spending resolution on Thursday morning, one of which would have implemented a federal hiring freeze.

Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) amendment would have placed a freeze on the hiring of “nonessential personnel” in the federal government in order to reduce furloughs.

Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) amendment would have added an appropriations bill for Labor, Education and Health and Human Services programs to the $984 billion bill that would fund the government through the fiscal year. 

Both amendments were subject to a 60-vote threshold. Coburn’s amendment failed on a 45-54 vote, and Harkin’s amendment was rejected on a 54-45 vote after critics said the amendments would have jeopardized final passage in the House.

The Senate approved an amendment to the continued spending resolution from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that removes some of the “outrageous and stupid things” in the bill.

McCain said there were several items that he disagreed with in the $984 billion bill that would fund the government through the fiscal year. But he said his amendment strikes only $140 million in “earmarks” to Guam. His amendment was approved by voice vote after Democrats failed to table the amendment.

The vote was a reaction to the administration's guidance last year to states that the so-called welfare-work requirement could be waived.

The House on Wednesday took a step toward passing legislation aimed at blocking the Obama administration's waiver of a key component of the 1996 welfare reform law.

Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed that states should be allowed to waive the requirement that recipients of welfare under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program must look for work or be taking steps to prepare for work. The Obama administration has said the waiver is designed to give states more flexibility to design their own plans to help move people from welfare to work.

The Senate rejected an amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would have ended funding for President Obama’s healthcare law.

The 45-52 vote on Wednesday was the first amendment vote on the $984 billion continued spending resolution that would fund the government through the fiscal year.

The House voted Tuesday to require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to conduct a study on the advantages, and disadvantages, of providing community-based flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

A community-based program would allow for all flood risks in a certain community to be paid for by that community. This sort of voluntary program is seen by some as a better way to help keep the costs of flood insurance lower.

The House approved legislation on Tuesday that would allow banks to notify customers of their data privacy rules only when those rules change.

Under current law, banks have to notify customers of their policies each year, regardless of whether they change. Supporters of the Eliminate Privacy Notice Confusion Act, H.R. 749, hope that ending the requirement to notify customers that nothing has changed would remove a regulatory nuisance that banks face today.

The Senate confirmed two of President Obama's judicial nominations on Monday.

The Senate voted 91-0 for Richard Gary Taranto to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Federal Circuit.

The House on Wednesday morning approved a rule governing debate on a bill setting out federal appropriations for the rest of 2013, which will be followed later in the day by a vote on the bill itself.

Members approved the rule for the bill, H.R. 933, in a 212-197 vote, which is relatively close for a rule vote. Only two Democrats supported the rule, and 16 Republicans voted against it. Seventeen Democrats did not vote — more than the 15-vote margin that allowed the rule to pass.