Wednesday: Unemployment debate and suspension bills

The House finally returns to work on Wednesday, but only has a few non-controversial suspension bills lined up today.

Off the floor, the House Rules Committee will meet to write a rule for three more substantive bills up Thursday and Friday. Two of them deal with ObamaCare: one would require the Obama administration to provide enrollment and website updates every Monday, and the other would require officials to tell people if their personal data has been compromised on the website.

{mosads}Today, however, just three easy bills are up in the House:

— H.R. 724, amending the Clean Air Act to eliminate a requirement that dealers of new light-duty vehicles certify to buyers that the vehicles conform to emissions standards,

— H.R. 3527, the Poison Center Network Act, reauthorizing national poison control centers, the national toll-free number and related state grants, and

 — H.R. 3628, the Transportation Reports Elimination Act, which would eliminate and consolidate reporting requirements of the Department of Transportation and other agencies.

The Senate starts at 10 a.m., and will resume work on S. 1845, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted 60-37 to end debate on a motion to proceed to the bill. While six Republicans voted with Democrats, some of them said they want the bill to be paid for, which means Senate Democrats will have to decide whether and how to honor this request.

In light of Tuesday’s vote, the Senate is on the way to formally considering the bill. But another vote to end debate on the legislation will be needed, which Democrats may have to listen to GOP demands for a “pay-for” if it wants to pass the bill. Democrats may also decide to allow spending offsets or other “pay-fors” in order to ensure the bill has some chance of being considered in the Republican House.