the Republican Cloakroom

Amendments to H.R. 1

1. Amendment #178, Oberstar (D-MN)—Would amend the aviation, highway, rail, and transit priority consideration and "use-it-or-lose-it" provisions to require that 50 percent of the funds be obligated within 90 days. (10 minutes)

Adopted Voice

Y ✓

N

2. Amendment #199, Markey (D-MA)—Provides that the Secretary of Energy, when making grants for demonstration programs for smart grid electricity transmission, require grant recipients to utilize internet-based protocols and standards in order to receive funds. (10 minutes)

Adopted Voice

Y ✓

N

3. Amendment #95, Shuster (R-PA)—The underlying bill contains a maintenance of effort provision that requires States to certify that they will maintain their normal funding for programs that receive federal appropriations in the bill. This amendment would stipulate that if a State was unable to verify that federal funds would not supplant non-federal funds, then the federal funds would be recaptured and redistributed to other States and agencies. (10 minutes)

Adopted Voice

Y ✓

N

4. Amendment #70, Nadler (D-NY)/DeFazio (D-OR)/Lipinski (D-IL)/McMahon (D-NY)/Ellison (D-MN)—Increases spending for transit capital funding in the bill by $3 billion, from $6 billion to $9 billion. $1.35 billion of the additional funds shall be used for urbanized area formula transit grants and $1.5 billion shall be used for formula transit grants for non-urbanized areas. The funds would be used to purchase busses and equipment needed to provide additional transportation services and to make improvements to transit facilities. This increase is not paid for by reducing other spending portions of the bill. (10 minutes)

Adopted Voice

Y ✓

N

5. Amendment #109, Neugebauer (R-TX)—Strikes division A, which contains the bills appropriations provisions. The amendment would remove $355.9 billion in discretionary domestic spending for a wide variety of programs, including climate change research, federal building repair, the National Endowment for the Arts, AmeriCorps, and nurse and physician training. The amendment would bring the over-all cost of the bill to $463 million in tax and mandatory spending measures. (10 minutes)

Vote Requested

Y

N

6. Amendment #172, Waters (D-CA)—Authorizes funds for competitive worker training and placement grants to be used for broadband and wireless internet deployment grants in rural, suburban, and urban areas. The bill authorizes $750 million for the competitive worker training and placement grants through the Department of Labor. (10 minutes)

Adopted Voice

Y ✓

N

 7. Amendment #132, Flake (R-AZ)—Strikes $800 million in funding for Amtrak. The funds in the bill would otherwise be used to reduce the federally subsidized rail carrier’s $10 billion capital backlog. (10 minutes)

Vote Requested

Y

N

8. Amendment #198, Kissell (D-NC)—Expands provisions of the Berry Amendment Extension Act (which prohibits the Department of Homeland Security from procuring or using certain foreign-made items) to require that DHS purchase uniforms for no less than 100,000 uniformed government employees from textile and apparel manufacturers. (10 minutes)

Adopted Voice

Y ✓

N

9. Amendment #22, Platts (R-PA)/Van Hollen (D-MD)— Inserts the text of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (H.R. 985 in the 110th), which passed the House on March 14, 2007, by a vote of 331-94, into the underlying bill. Among other things, the legislation expands federal employee whistleblower protection laws granting protections to Transportation Security Agency and national security personnel employees. When it was originally considered, this legislation was strongly opposed by the Bush administration which stated that, “Rather than promote and protect genuine disclosures of matters of real public concern, it would likely increase the number of frivolous complaints and waste resources.” For more information on the legislation, please see the Conference’s Daily Digest summary. (10 minutes)

Adopted Voice

Y ✓

N

10. Amendment #89, Teague (D-NM)—The underlying bill establishes a new government website, Recovery.org, to “foster greater accountability and transparency in the use of funds made available in this Act.” The amendment would require that Recovery.gov contain links and information on how to assess job opportunities created by entities receiving funding under the bill. Including information about local employment agencies, public firms receiving funds, and private firms contracted to perform work funded by the bill. (10 minutes)

Adopted Voice

Y ✓

N

11. Amendment #195, Camp (R-MI)/Cantor(R-VA) Camp Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute:
• Provides for rate reductions in the bottom 2 tax brackets and AMT relief for 2009 and 2010.
• Provides for health insurance deductions for those who do not receive tax preferred, employer-sponsored coverage.
• Creates a 20% deduction for small business income.
• Extends favorable depreciation rules contained in the 2008 stimulus package for bonus depreciation and small business expensing.
• Provides for expanded carry-back of Net Operating Losses (NOLs) for five years rather than two.
• Repeals the rule requiring 3% withholding on certain payments made to taxpayers under contracts with Federal, State, and local governments.
• Enhances and extends the $7,500 homebuyer tax credit through December 31, 2009
• Exempts unemployment benefits from Federal income tax during 2008 and 2009.
• Extends the current temporary Federal extended unemployment benefits program through December 2009, with a phase-out through mid-2010, just like the base bill.
• Expresses the Sense of Congress against tax increases to offset outlays.
(60 minutes)
60 minutes of debate began at 3:32 p.m.

Y

N

Vote Series II

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Adoption of H.Res. 92, the rule providing for further consideration of H.R. 1 - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 

Y  243

N  185

S. 328 To delay the Digital Television Transition until June 13, 2009 – Suspension 

Y  258

N 168

Next:         H.R. 1 - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 
                    • 1 hour debate
                    • Ten 10-minute amendments 
                    • 1 hour debate on a Substitute amendment 
                    • Recommit/Passage 

                Out around 7:00 pm

Thurs/Fri: No session

Tuesday: Votes at 6:30 pm

Weekly Schedule

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2009
House meets at 12:30 p.m. for Morning Hour 
Legislative Business begins at 2:00 p.m.
Recorded votes will be postponed until 6:30 p.m.

Unlimited one minutes

Suspensions (2 Bills)
 
1. H.Res. 31  Expressing support for designation of January 28, 2009, as "National Data Privacy Day" (Rep. Price (NC) – Energy and Commerce) 

Y    402

N    0

2. H.Res. 84_- Honoring the heroic actions of the pilot, crew, and rescuers of US Airways Flight 1549 (Rep. Crowley – Transportation and Infrastructure) 

Y    402

N    0

Special Orders: Democrats have the first hour.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 27 AND THE BALANCE OF THE WEEK
Tuesday, House meets at 10:30 a.m. for Morning Hour
Legislative Business begins at 12:00 p.m.

Wednesday, House meets at 10:00 a.m. 
On Thursday and Friday, no votes are expected. 


S. 181 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (Sen. Mikulski – Education and Labor)  

Subject to a Rule Being Granted
Rule	Y	N
Passage	Y	N

H.R. __ American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009  

Subject to a Rule Being Granted
Rule	Y	N
Passage	Y	N