Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Catching up with the 113th Congress

Some links regarding recent events on Capitol Hill:

- Checking and Balancing: The Secretary of State testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the September attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Tomorrow she testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

- The Power of the Purse: The House votes to "suspend" the debt ceiling for three months. The next vote will likely coincide with sequestration - the automatic cuts that were postponed in the fiscal cliff vote a couple weeks back.

- Filibuster Reform: Democrats in the Senate may not have enough votes to change the rules about filibusters and speed up the legislative process in that chamber.

- Senate Agenda: Majority Leader Harry Reed unveils 10 bills Democrats will prioritize the term.

- The Budget: Senate Democrats promise to actually pass one this year. This will be the first since 2009 if so. The federal government has been run on appropriations bills since then - which is what's its really run on anyway.