Civic Register
| 2.6.22

Gov’t Funding Deadline Looms as Lawmakers Look to Avoid Shutdown
How do you feel about this week’s congressional schedule?
What’s happening in Congress?
- Lawmakers return to the Capitol on Monday with less than two weeks remaining before the February 18th deadline to extend funding for federal agencies and avoid a partial government shutdown.
- It’s unclear whether a bipartisan agreement on full-year appropriations for the rest of fiscal year 2022 will be reached this week, and if it continues to prove elusive then a short-term continuing resolution may be brought to the floor.
- If Congress doesn’t approve either a full-year spending bill or a continuing resolution this week, the House may have to cancel the recess it scheduled for next week to ensure the government remains funded.
SENATE SCHEDULE
- The Senate starts its week Monday with confirmation votes on nominations for a pair of judges to the District of Columbia Superior Court.
- Its schedule for the rest of the week is yet to be announced, but the chamber may take votes on legislation extending government funding beyond February 18th.
- Committees will hold hearings on youth mental health; COVID-19 lessons learned related to innovations, inclusive practices, and overcoming barriers to employment for people with disabilities; and the legal and human costs of “targeted killing” with drone strikes.
HOUSE SCHEDULE
- The House starts its week Monday with the consideration of a bill restricting the use of forced arbitration in settling sexual assault and harassment claims.
- Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be focused on bills to sanction foreign individuals found to be complicit in violating the human rights of LGBTQ people and to strengthen the financial position of the U.S. Postal Service.
- Lawmakers may also take votes on several bills that were debated last week under suspension of the rules but had their votes postponed.
- The House may consider legislation providing appropriations for FY2022 in either an omnibus spending package if a bipartisan deal is reached or a short-term continuing resolution.
- Committees will hold hearings on data challenges impacting human trafficking research and anti-trafficking technological tools; “Big Oil’s Climate Pledges”; and the impact of infrastructure investments on inclusive economic growth.
Check below throughout the week to see the vote results and updates to the schedule.
Schedule subject to change. All times Eastern.
HOUSE
Monday after 6:30pm
- H.R. 4445: Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021
Tuesday or Wednesday after 9am
- H.R. 3076: Postal Service Reform Act of 2021
- H.R. 3485: Global Respect Act
- Additional legislative items are possible.
Postponed Suspension Bills
- S. 583: PRICE Act of 2021
- S. 566: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 42 Main Street in Slatersville, Rhode Island, as the "Specialist Matthew R. Turcotte Post Office"
- H.R. 2324: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2800 South Adams Street in Tallahassee, Florida, as the "D. Edwina Stephens Post Office"
- H.R. 735: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 502 East Cotati Avenue in Cotati, California, as the "Arthur Luis Ibleto Post Office Building"
- H.R. 3539: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 223 West Chalan Santo Papa in Hagatna, Guam, as the "Atanasio Taitano Perez Post Office"
- H.R. 2842: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 120 4th Street in Petaluma, California, as the "Lynn C. Woolsey Post Office Building"
Thursday & Friday
- The House is not in session.
SENATE
Monday after 5:30pm
- Confirmation of Ebony Scott to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia for a 15-year term
- Confirmation of Donald Tunnage to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia for a 15-year term
Rest of the Week
- Additional votes on nominations or legislation are possible.
- Possible consideration of FY2022 appropriations.
Tell your reps how to vote on this week's bills and share your thoughts below!
— Eric Revell
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Nothing supreme about the Supreme Court anymore, just a political mess. Thanks GNOP.
Frank-001, you asked? Well I've been ... G E R R Y M A N D E R E D ! ! As you stated, brady is retiring and my county, Montgomery (just north of Harris) is being split up and is now Redder than ever. Oh and now I go from the everyday Republican Cultist in brady, to now the somewhat infamous crazy, Dan Crenshaw (probably the last time I capitalize that name). crenshaw has 4-5 other retards to run against and there is only 1 Dem up. So many here in Texas vote straight 'R' ticket (they know not what they do:)), that there is almost no chance to get her voted in. I believe changes in more purple voting areas here in Texas, the cities, may eventually impact voting for Governor, AG or other more nationally know reps, far before any purple/blue change here locally. I'll keep screaming from my little perch. Heck, I wanted to get a link to the old vs. new maps, but heck, they don't even have them really ready anywhere. Found one site that if you scroll down far enough, you can see the 2010 map vs. the 2020 map that shows the old district 2 and 8 boundries vs. the new bounderies that gets rid of brady and gets me crenshaw. ... https://communityimpact.com/houston/conroe-montgomery/government/2021/12/13/conroe-montgomery-area-sees-senate-districts-split-in-redistricting-process/ ... PS. Causes, you may have to do some work to get the representative changes here in Texas. I definitely will want to fill crenshaw's inbox after the election.
One reason for high prices and shortages are do to Trump’s tariffs on goods form China and EU, which is passed on to you. You can thank Trump and the Republican for that! Tariff work both ways. Trump art of the deal failed badly!
So your elected Republican representative are not representing you, but the RNC and corporate America. Congress is the only one that can sensor members of congress not the RNC or corporations. Who running the government the party, International corporations or congress you elected? The party is not running the government, your elected officials is. You may agree with some of the view or not, but they are not in control no matter what group is the majority. I am relying on the people to think for their self and have a moral obligation with ethics, to do what is right with rules, regulations, laws and the constitution, no matter to whom I vote for! I don’t like lyres or people that flip flop and stand for nothing but their ego and power. The Republican Party is not the party of law and order, but the major party of corruption, inside trading and kickbacks
I’m with burrkitty on this. I Love Lucy reruns are way more exciting than this topic.
@Andy wrote: "As usual, if it’s got ‘bipartisan’ in the title, kevin brady will vote ‘Nay’! Just like he did today. Thanks 💩. 🖕." Any chance people in your District will come out to replace a Republican pile o' 💩 like Kevin Brady with an OK 👌🏼Democrat? "11 GOP candidates crowd the race to replace Woodlands Congressman Kevin Brady" – Houston Public Media https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/in-depth/2022/01/20/417343/christian-collins-and-morgan-luttrell-lead-an-11-way-gop-contest-to-succeed-retiring-congressman-kevin-brady/
What is the GOP hiding with reference to the committee investigating the events that occurred on January 6th 2021?
Again, Stop the whining & complaining about nothing getting done or kicking cans! Learn How Government Can Actually Work Circa 2022! The House Must Be Kept Blue! The Senate Must Be Turned Blue!!! We need at least • 15 More Blue Representatives & •17 More Blue Senators We need a Healthy Margin To Get Stuff Done. Period. Full Stop. ******************************* SICK of INACTION? #VoteOutTheInsurrectionists! #VoteOutTheLiars #VoteOutObstructionists #JoinTheAdoptAStateCampaign #VoteStrongProgressives!
With the Supreme Court jester are becoming a clowns act by themselves. We are getting nothing but bad ruling from Citizens United to redistricting, women abortion rights, voting rights to many others. There seem to be no ethics in the supreme courts, just fascist political hacks with egos and power, not for American, democracy or constitution. The conservatives will cause the democracy to end and become an fascist authoritarian dictatorship, they try January 6 and the courts will finish the job, the Supreme Court courts may need term limit, a long with the senate and house!, specifically the senate. There should be a idiot test, a constitution test, a human rights test, a integrity test and a lie detector test to hold any position in government, sadly most Republicans would fail! Mainly because they can’t handle the truth and face facts. Trump brought out the worst in people and the supreme courts, not the best in people! He made corruption a legitimate business practices, It was already bad, just made it worst. Big question is, can we recover, with the supreme courts being for sale, that is what the world wants to know? The county rule on putting money into politics and now they and American rips with what have sewed.
If they pass the needed legislative action to avoid another shutdown, then I'd be ok. However, with that said, I'm really sick and tired of these overpaid. assholes continuing to do this year after year after year. It's not like this is some new and never heard of item for them to address, yet they fuck around and fuck around until the very end to either fund the gov. or shut it down. This is no way to run a country. I can't imagine that any business throughout the world would operate like this. This insane practice risk and often does create market instability and undue distress for fed. employees. It these jokers insist on this practice, their pay should be docked each and every day that they delay passing this authorization and if they fuck around and shut down the gov. they should not get pd. at all until they re-open the gov. and not be allowed to recoup that lost pay. If these measures were put in place I bet we'd see less procrastination and more action.
I want to know when they will be working on the budget since Biden is implementing executive orders to allow more spending without approval from anyone. He’s robbing the American people blind!
…and here we go again! This is an outrage that congress is wasting time every few months. If the Republicans weren’t such sore losers we could one budget a year.
Why can’t our country establish a full year’s budget like a normal country. Oh right we have people who vote Republican and they are the party of obstruction. Absolutely pathetic
Glad to see more confirmations in the Senate and more bills being proposed in the House, but what about the budget? Are they waiting until the last minute? Will there be (yet another) crisis? Or kicking the can down the road one more time? Why does this always happen at the last minute?
Will we ever have grown up legislators running a grown up government?
I have no ducks left to give about the perpetual “budget showdown/government shutdown” reruns. I’ve seen the show enough times that I don’t give a rats tail. I’m tired of it. It’s not even news anymore. I love Lucy reruns are better.
What congress needs to be working on is the voting right legislation! We gave Republicans working in states to take away voting rights from the poor, and minorities!
Rather than all the bull crap bills, please concentrate on passing a damn budget for the YEAR!
Congress can work on BBB, when it knows it will fail, or a voting rights bill, when it doesn’t have the votes, or filibuster removal, when it doesn’t have the votes, or funding the government, which is needed but not being done. Another continuing resolution to kick the can down the road. Schumer needs to be replaced. And the house is taking another week off next week. Pelosi needs to be replaced. Better yet, let the republicans govern.
Congress has 11 days before we are at another crisis moment. Both chambers should be doing nothing for these 11 days but every committee that oversees a portion of the budget should be working 18 hours per day for all eleven days calling the agencies in within 72 hours with a request for funds for the end of the year. Then for two days have expert witnesses to testify under oath to discuss those budget requests. The for the remainder of the eleven days do a bipartisan markup up for a portion of the budget for their agencies. Each bipartisan piece of the budget will be passed in committee and sent to the floor for a comment period and passed or failed. A copy would be sent to the other chamber so the committee that deals with that agency can see if they are on the same sheet of music. Failure of an agency to get their budget in and the committee to pass a bipartisan budget for that agency will result in zero funds for that agency for the remainder of the fiscal year which ends in 30 September 2022. This will cut down on the bickering in the chamber to hold out for unreasonable purposes. Why the rush you say? Congress had since 01 October 2022 to do this budget as explained above. Budgets come out of committees not written by Comrade Nancy at her kitchen table eating expensive ice cream for another CR. So no real budget for 2022 then the government can shut down until they do their constitutional duties, which is to produce a REAL BUDGET. After the budget is completed even if it is passed the 11 days with the government shutdown totally. Then they can take 3 days off and the the agencies need to be working on the 2023 budget request for their agency and the committees before doing any other business will only work a minimum of five days per week eight hours per day on that budget. If the chambers want to stay open after the eight hours and conduct things like naming post offices and federal buildings then they can do it after the eight hours working on that 2023 budget which is due on the President desk by 30 September 2022. Case solved Congress would now be doing their actual constitutional duties and no CR needed. It is called a since of urgency. If Comrade Crying Chuck and Comrade Nancy can’t get this done or are not up to the task they should step down immediately as total failures to lead and dereliction of duty. If any member of Congress in either Chamber feels they can’t handle this mess they have got us into the need to resign immediately and let an adult who can preform the job to take their place. Each Chamber leader when running for that position will put in writing that their chamber will only have the same federal holidays off as any of the other federal agencies. So if the other agencies get Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving then Congress will get only those same two days off. Each member of congress and their staff will be given 30 days off per year for their vacations. A formal leave paper will be filed in advance. Once a month a member of Congress may take a 3 day weekend to go back to their district that will not count against their leave time. Their chamber leader can assign a 3 day weekend that will be taken by the entire chamber or they can let it be an ad-hoc schedule. Campaigning can be accomplished on weekends or on their three day weekend and holidays and two weeks before the Election Day they will be given a break in congress that will not count from their vacation time. They can use part of their 30 days vacation for campaigning if they wish. At least one hour per day will be made available for a member of congress to go to their office and do telecom video conference back to their home offices which will schedule it and have the person talk to the member of congress from his home office. These new rules will not disadvantage the members of congress running for re-election as anyone running against them has to take time off their job to campaign against them. If someone is running for that leadership position and can not sign a promise letter stating these rules they should be pulled from consideration. THE PARTY IS OVER. If as member of Congress can’t sign a letter that they know the new rules then they should not run again or resign immediately. An additional rule should be that each committee will spend a minimum of four hours per week working on the budget from day one. Congress will be open 5 days per week except for federal holidays and that 3 day weekend per month a minimum of eight hours per day not including meals. They will get one 30 minute break in the morning and one in the afternoon during that eight hours per day. For sick leave they will receive the exact same amount of sick leave as any other federal employees. Each member of Congress and their staffs will be given an LES Leave and Earnings Statement that will show their monthly salary plus annual and sick leave earned and available. In office visits will be available one hour per day during normal business hours or as much as necessary after business hours. This will make congress run like a business and let them know that they are JUST FEDERAL EMPLOYEES and they WORK for us the people.