Both the House and Senate hope to finish their work this week before leaving town for the upcoming elections. What will they accomplish? That all depends on some internal politics.

Both chambers aim to complete work on national security and defense issues — specifically on the issues of military commissions, NSA wiretapping and defense spending.

Last week’s compromise between the White House and a group of renegade Republicans may have cleared the way for Senate passage of a bill. But other issues surrounding defense are threatening to prolong the week or perhaps thwart legislative accomplishment. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has informed Senate Armed Services Chairman that he will not schedule floor time for a defense authorization bill unless Warner includes certain immigration provisions and a federal court security bill in the measure.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has his hands full trying to pass a Border Security Bill that would provide for 700 miles of fencing along the southern border. To pass the bill Frist needs 60 votes to break a Democratic filibuster. Currently he lacks support from some Republicans who refuse to abandon their all or nothing support of the previously passed McCain-Kennedy Senate immigration bill. Frist is reportedly considering adding the border security bill to the Homeland Security appropriations bill. If a cloture vote on the measure fails, expect Frist to attach the border security bill to a late moving train like homeland security.

As it is the last week before recess a raft of less press-worthy legislation will be moving in the background. The House has 91 benignly named bills listed on the suspension calendar — many of which deserve more scrutiny. There is also the possibility for some random votes to come up. Some conservatives fear a late-week tip of the hat to moderates by scheduling a vote to increase the minimum wage in the House — although has leadership has said this will not happen.

More to come…

UPDATE: The Senate is planning to return for a “lame duck” session on or around November 13 to pass additional appropriations bills.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 25th, 2006 at 9:45 am and is filed under Congress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.