Thursday: REINS Act, EPA, and Round 2 of stopping government abuse

The House started consideration of amendments to this bill on Wednesday. On Thursday, members will consider three more amendments, vote on them all, and approve the bill.

{mosads}The second is H.R. 2879, the Stop Government Abuse Act. This bill combines three pieces of legislation that the House tried to pass Wednesday, but had to pull from the suspension calendar when it became clear there was little Democratic support.

By bringing it up under a rule, the House can pass it by a simple majority vote.

Members will have to start by approving the rule for this bill. That same rule also allows consideration of the third bill, H.R. 367, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act.

The REINS Act would require Congress to approve any rule from a federal agency that has a $100 million effect on the economy. The House will debate the bill today, and then start on the 12 amendments that the rule makes in order.

The House is expected to complete work on this bill Friday.

At some point in the day, the House is expected to vote on H.R. 1897, the Vietnam Human Rights Act, which would prohibit aid to Vietnam due to human rights violations in that country.

The Senate starts at 9:30 a.m., and at noon, senators will vote on the nomination of Raymond Chen to be a U.S. circuit judge for the Federal Circuit.

Immediately after, the Senate will vote on a motion to end debate on the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development spending bill.

After breaking for a caucus meeting, the Senate will return at 2 p.m. to consider the nomination of Samantha Power to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. A final vote on her confirmation could come by the end of the day.

— This story was updated at 12:32 p.m. to correct the description of H.R. 1582.