TODAY IN CONGRESS (C-SPAN TV SCHEDULE) & More:
I am posting the daily C-Span TV schedule, when I can, for those here who may be interested in tuning in to see what Congress is up to. Also, I have provided the results of the previous day’s votes on some significant Bills/Resolutions, when Congress was in session the previous day and an update on the status of numerous Congressional Subpoenas and other Committee action.
Here’s today’s schedule with the events I think may be the most interesting in bold. You can watch C-Span HERE. NOTE: Sometimes C-Span posts additional Congressional events not on my list, later in the day.
House:
9:00 am — House Session (The House will continue work on a spending package totaling $982.8 billion in discretionary spending for FY 2020 for four of the 12 appropriations bills: Labor-HHS-Education, Defense, State-Foreign Operations, and Energy-Water.)
9:00 am — House Intelligence Committee Hearing on National Security Risks of Artificial Intelligence (The House Intelligence Committee holds a hearing to examine the national security risks posed by artificial intelligence and “deepfake” videos.)
10:30 am — House Energy Subcommittee Hearing on Protecting Kids and Consumers From Dangerous Products (The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce holds a hearing on the dangers found in everyday products and how best to protect the consumer.)
10:45 am — House Speaker Weekly Briefing (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) briefs reporters and responds to questions on her party’s legislative agenda.)
Senate:
9:30 am — Senate Session (The Senate will continue to debate and vote on executive nominations. Senators are also expected to work on resolutions opposing the proposed U.S. arms sales to Bahrain and Qatar.)
9:30 am — Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing on Global Markets & Agriculture Sector (The Senate Agriculture Committee met to convene a hearing on global markets and the U.S. agriculture sector.)
10:00 am — Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Hearing on Wildland Fire & Management Programs (The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing to examine the 2019 wildland fire and management programs.)
Yesterday’s Votes:
House:
1. House Resolution 436 (H.R. 436) Providing for further consideration of the bill (H.R. 2740) — A Bill making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Heath and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, and for other purposes (Vote on bringing H.R. 2740 to the House floor for debate and amendments).
Democrats- 232 Yes 0 No 0 Present 2 Not Voting
Republicans- 0 Yes 189 No 0 Present 9 Not Voting
Totals- 232 Yes 189 No 0 Present 11 Not Voting
PASSED
Voting Details HERE. Text of Resolution H.R. 2740 (as introduced) HERE.
2. Amendments to House Resolution 2740 (H.R. 2740) which were voted on yesterday’:
There were a total of 42 amendments voted on during yesterday’s session. Below is a summary breakdown of the results:
Democrat Introduced Amendments that were Agreed To (Passed): 31
Democrat Introduced Amendments that Failed: 0
Republican Introduced Amendments that were Agreed To (Passed): 6
Republican Introduced Amendments that Failed: 5
You can get voting results for each amendment HERE by clicking on the voting docket #s on the left.
You can get a summary of each amendment by reading through the Floor Proceedings HERE.
Senate: No significant votes in the Senate, just more nomination confirmations.
Comments:
Today’s Events –
House — On the House Floor they are continuing with the debate and amendment process on the $982.8 billion Appropriations Bill that they have been working on all week. Since its Thursday, we may be looking at a final vote today. There is also an Intelligence Committee Hearing on national security risks posed by artificial intelligence and “deepfake” videos (whatever “deepfake” videos are. First time I have seen the term).
But the highlight of today’s C-Span TV schedule is certainly Speaker Pelosi’s Press Briefing. Although it is supposed to be about the House’s legislative agenda it will likely be all about the “I” word (IMPEACHMENT). Will she get closer to supporting an Impeachment Inquiry, farther away, or just be ambiguous on the topic? We will know shortly.
Senate — I bolded the Senate Session simply because they may actually be debating something other than crap Trump nominees today. I’m both Shocked and Amazed!
Yesterday’s Votes:
House — The House passed a Resolution (H.R. 436) providing for further consideration of H.R. 2740, an Appropriations Bill for various governmental Departments and Agencies. Even though this vote was simply to allow further floor debate and amendment of the Bill, all of the Republicans present voted “no”. Are they against even discussing appropriating $$$ for our government to stay running? Who knows?
Anyway, it appears that the Democrats on the Rules Committee were again generous to the Republicans by bringing the Bill to the floor under an “Open Rule” allowing for numerous amendments to be introduced. I have simply posted a voting summary of these 42 amendments because I frankly don’t have the time to post each one. But if you click on the links I posted you will see that some passed along Party lines while others received overwhelming Bipartisan support with large numbers of Republicans supporting some Democratic amendments and visa-versa. Even a partisan like me likes to see our Representatives vote on the merits of a Bill/Amendment and not simply on whether it was introduced by a “D” or and “R”.
Senate — Sorry to once again sound like a broken record, but it was only another day of confirming crappy Trump nominees.
SUBPOENA WARS —
House Judiciary Committee Barr Subpoena — No official word yet from Judiciary Committee Chairman Nadler of if or when he will use the authorization granted him by the Full House on Tuesday and drag Barr to Court to enforce the subpoena for the unredacted Mueller Report and all underlying documents. Most likely its a question of “when” and not “if”. Nadler is likely just waiting for members and staff to review all the FBI 302 reports which were produced during the course of the Mueller investigation (these FBI 302 reports are detailed notes taken by an FBI agent who was in the room during the voluntary interviews of all the witnesses conducted by Mueller’s team) which Barr is allowing. However, I don’t see Barr budging on all the information required by his subpoena, especially the “Grand Jury 6e” material (Rule 6(e)(2), Fed.R.Crim.P., prohibits "an attorney for the government" from disclosing matters occurring before a grand jury, except as otherwise provided in the rules.). So its probably just a matter of time (a short time at that) until Nadler plays his Judicial Branch card.
House Judiciary Committee McGahn Subpoena — Unlike Barr, it appears that Nadler is ready to immediately use his new authority to drag McGahn into Court for defying his subpoena. It appears Nadler is simply waiting for Committee lawyers to draft their arguments. So it won’t be long until we see if McGahn decides to fight this in Court himself and/or whether the Trump Administration will seek to intervene in the proceedings and formally claim Executive Privilege.
House Judiciary Committee Mueller Testimony — The Committee is still in negotiations with Mueller’s team about his testimony. However, on Tuesday Judiciary Committee Chairman Nadler said that he sees “Mueller testifying by 'end of summer'”. Time will tell.
House Judiciary Committee Hicks and Donaldson Subpoenas — Well, the good news is that Hope Hicks has agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee (under threat of civil contempt for failure to comply with her subpoena). The bad news is that she has only agreed to testify behind closed doors, which the Committee has apparently found acceptable. However, the good news is that Chairman Nadler has said, “he planned to release the transcript publicly ”promptly" after her testimony.” The committee had originally subpoenaed her for public testimony on June 19, but no official word if that will be the date. Its a shame that this will not be publicly televised testimony which has a lot more impact on public perception than an after-the-fact transcript, but I suppose its better to get something now rather than getting nothing while you take her to Court. More details can be found in this Hill Story.
No word yet on whether Trump will officially invoke “Executive Privilege” to try to block her testimony. Also, no word on what Anne Donaldson (Don McGahn’s former Chief of Staff) plans to do with respect to her subpoena which she is so far defying.
House Intelligence Committee Subpoena — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) postponed a meeting to take “enforcement action” against the Justice Department after it agreed to turn over documents related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Schiff said that the department has agreed to turn over 12 categories of counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials. However, while we wait to see what the Committee will do after it reviews the documents from Barr, the Committee held a hearing yesterday to discuss the lessons learned from Volume I of the Mueller Report which focused on Russian election interference. Two former FBI officials and a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York testified regarding their analysis of the report’s content. The most interesting moment (IMO) was when the Republican selected witness who was put on to debunk the Mueller Report as a “witch hunt”, clearly stated that Trump or any candidate for that matter should immediately contact the FBI when approached by a foreign entity offering campaign assistance. If you missed it, you can still catch the encore at this C-Span Link.
Also, on Rachel Maddow's Show last night, Chairman Adam Schiff announced that they are seriously considering subpoenaing FBI Director Chris Wray to testify as to what happened to the FBI’s Counterintelligence Investigation of Trump and his connections to Russia. Schiff stated that this investigation was started by former FBI Director Comey and then handed off to Mueller by Acting Director Andrew McCabe who had FBI Agents embedded into Mueller’s Team to continue the Counterintelligence Investigation. However, Schiff stated that there is nothing in the redacted Mueller Report regarding this investigation and the Committee is growing increasingly frustrated with DoJ in that they are not getting any answers as to what has happened to this investigation. So the idea appears to be to get Wray to provide answers as to what his FBI agents in their Counterintelligence Branch have done or are still doing with regard to the Counterintelligence Investigation of Trump.
House Financial Services Committee and House Intelligence Committee Deutsche Bank and Capital One Subpoenas (Trump’s Banking Records) — No change. A federal judge ruled from the bench and rejected President Trump's effort to block congressional subpoenas seeking his financial records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One. But the Trump Organization has filed an Appeal. The appeals court said Friday it will speedily consider President Donald Trump’s challenge to congressional subpoenas seeking financial records from two banks with which he did business. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued a brief order setting a schedule for written arguments to be submitted by July 18, with oral arguments to soon follow.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Subpoena (Financial Records) — No change. A three-judge panel on the appeals court will hear oral arguments on July 12 to determine whether the accounting firm Mazars can hand over Trump's financial records to House Democrats. The court also set a series of deadlines spanning June and July for parties to submit filings arguing their positions in the case.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Subpoena — From CNN:
“The House Oversight Committee voted on Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress over a dispute related to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The vote was 24-15.
The vote came just hours after President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege over materials related to the citizenship question, a move that further escalated tensions between House Democrats investigating the 2020 census and the administration.
The Democratic-led committee voted on a contempt resolution that recommends that the House of Representatives find Barr and Ross in contempt of Congress "for refusal to comply with subpoenas." The contempt resolution includes citations for both civil and criminal contempt.
Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan joined with Democrats on the committee to vote in favor of the resolution.
Ross called the move an "empty stunt" in a statement and said, "Today, the Democrats maintained their shameless, weekly attacks on this Administration without consideration for the truth."
The Commerce Secretary said that the committee "isn't interested in cooperation" and "demonstrated its scorn for the Constitution" by holding the vote.
"This is a disappointing day for Congress and our country. America deserves better," Ross said.
The Justice Department fired back at the contempt finding, accusing the committee of playing "political games" and saying the panel's "attempt to define the Department of Justice's good-faith cooperation as 'contempt' defies logic."
Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec went on to say that DOJ had worked "tirelessly" to respond to the committee's requests.
"Today's action by Chairman Cummings and his Committee undermines Congress's credibility with the American people," Kupec said.
Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the committee, called the vote "unwarranted" in a statement as well as "a misuse of the committee's contempt authority."
"This vote was another act of political theater designed to interfere with the Supreme Court's consideration of the reinstitution of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census," Jordan said.
House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings said in a statement that the "contempt vote was the last thing I wanted to do," adding, "I bent over backwards to try to work with the Administration, but they delayed, dissembled, and degraded our Committee's efforts to conduct this investigation and fulfill our responsibilities under the Constitution."
It's unclear what will happen now that the committee has voted on the resolution. Depending on how the Departments of Justice or Commerce respond, House Democrats could go to the floor with both criminal and civil contempt. They could also drop criminal before going to the floor if some accommodation happens.
According to a committee aide, a criminal contempt vote would have to go through the floor. However, civil contempt could go through the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, which is made up of the three highest-ranked House Democrats and two highest-ranked House Republicans.
With this vote, Justin Amash has definitely been permanently DISAVOWED by the Republican Trump Party.
House Ways & Means Committee Subpoena (Trump’s Tax Returns) — We are waiting for the Committee to enforce its subpoena against Mnuchin and the IRS, and get this dispute into Court. Although I have no idea what the hold up is, especially since this is a slam-dunk case. We are also waiting for Governor Cuomo to sign the Bill allowing NYS to provide NYS tax returns of Federal or State government officials to House Committee Chairman (McNeal) upon his request (including Trump’s NYS returns). But, Chairman McNeal announced last week that he will not request Trump’s State Tax Returns.
However, yesterday the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee is moving ahead with a threat to hold up any Treasury Department nominees over resistance from two agencies overseeing the release of President Donald Trump's personal tax returns. More about Wyden’s blockade in this CNN Story.
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