THIS
WEEK ON THE HILL
Congress
returns from a week-long recess today and tomorrow; both chambers
will tackle a number of issues before they recess again on April 7.
Today, the
Senate will take up consideration of a lobbying reform bill, but
only briefly. Earlier this month, action on the measure seemed
likely until the chamber began work on the FY 2007 budget resolution.
This week, debate on the bill will be cut short again because of
Majority Leader Bill Frist's (R-Tenn.) desire to address an overhaul
of the nation's immigration's laws. The lobbying measure is intended
to tighten lobbying disclosure rules and restore public confidence in
Congress in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal. The
legislation would also seek to crackdown on the practice of earmarking.
The Senate
Judiciary Committee is expected to meet into the night to finish work on a
300-plus page bill calling for more border security, a guest-worker
program for foreign workers and a plan to put some illegal immigrants
on an eventual path to U.S. citizenship. Several amendments were
adopted at committee markups including an amendment by Senator Jeff
Sessions (R-Ala.) that would authorize state and local law enforcement to
investigate, arrest, detain, or transfer an undocumented immigrant to
federal custody and a second-degree amendment by Senator Arlen
Specter (R-Pa.) that specifies state and local law enforcement assistance
would be voluntary. The Specter amendment would also provide
a cost computation to reimburse state and local law enforcement agencies
for detaining and transporting undocumented immigrants to federal custody.
If the Committee cannot agree on a bill by tomorrow morning, Senate
Majority Leader Frist has said that floor debate on his bill (S.
2454) will move forward. His legislation does not include
a guest worker program and mirrors the immigration bill that passed
the House last year.
The House
will convene tomorrow morning, where they will take up 12 measures under
suspension. The chamber will then start debate on the College Access
and Opportunity Act of 2005 (H.R. 609) which would amend the Higher
Education Act of 1965, and the Online Freedom of Speech Act (H.R. 1606),
which would amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to exclude
communications from over the Internet from the definition of public
communication.
The House Budget Committee plans to mark-up
their version of the FY 2007 budget resolution this week. It is
expected to be a more aggressive blueprint than the $2.8 trillion plan
which passed the Senate narrowly by a vote of 51-49 on
March 16. The Senate blueprint calls for $889 billion in
discretionary spending ($16 billion more than the President's request,
including $7 billion in advance appropriations counted as FY 2008
spending) and $3 billion in revenues from drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Negotiators
on the tax reconciliation package may meet this week to address major
differences between the House and Senate bills.