Rules Committee Hearing on HR 1473

This evening the House Rules Committee held a hearing to formulate the rule for the consideration of HR 1473, the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011. The same rule (H. Res. 218) also allows for automatic consideration of two House concurrent resolutions (H. Con. Res. 35 and 36) after HR 1473 passes.

Controversial Policy Provisions

As part of the deal that avoided a Federal government shut down last Friday night the House Republicans agreed not to include two controversial provisions in the final FY 2011 Continuing Resolution if they were guaranteed that the Senate would have a straight up-or-down vote on the provisions. Those two provisions are embodied in these two resolutions. H. Con. Res 35 would remove all funding from the Obama health care provisions passed last session. H. Con. Res. 36 would prohibit providing any Federal money to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

If/when HR 1473 passes in the House, the House will immediately take up these two resolutions. They are expected to pass in the House pretty much along party lines (there may be some defections of some pro-life Democrats on H. Con. Res. 36). Under the agreement reached last Friday night, the same thing would occur in the Senate. In the unlikely event that either of these resolutions passed in the Senate, the ‘engrossed’ (passed) version of HR 1473 would be changed to reflect the appropriate provision(s).

Republicans don’t hold out any great hope that either resolution will actually pass in the Senate. What they are counting on is a recorded vote on the two issues to use in the campaigns next year against a number of Democrats who are due to face voters in swing states.

The Rule

The rule produced in this evenings hearing is a closed rule for the consideration of HR 1473 and the two resolutions. There will be one hour of debate on HR 1473 and, if it passes, twenty minutes of debate on each resolution. No amendments are included in the rule and no amendments may be offered on the floor.

Under the new House rules for the 112th Congress, a bill cannot be considered under regular order until 72 hours has passed since the bill was posted on an official House web site. These three pieces of legislation were posted at 1:50 am of April 12th. They would not be eligible for regular order consideration until 1:50 am on April 15th (remember the current short term CR extension expires on midnight on the 15th). The leadership can bring the bill to the floor under a ‘unanimous consent’ agreement. This would allow a single Representative to oppose consideration and prevent it from happening until the bill could be considered under regular order.

It is expected that HR 1473 will be considered in the House under a unanimous consent motion some time tomorrow. It (and the two resolutions) will certainly pass in the House. The bill will probably pass in the Senate, but the two resolutions are unlikely to pass in that body.