Today’s Agenda
Today, Senator Lee will be in Washington for a vote on an omnibus spending bill or a Continuing Resolution.
From the Senator’s Desk
From the Whip
The Senate will convene at 10:00am and will be in morning business until 12:00pm.
Roll Call Votes are expected today.
The current CR expires tonight at midnight. Democratic members of the appropriations conference committee finally signed the conference report last night. It is expected that the House will act on the conference report to accompany HR 2055, the Omnibus package, at some point today. The Senate will have to complete action on the bill following disposition in the House. If an agreement is not reached, another CR may be required.
The two Leaders continue to work on an agreement to consider a payroll tax compromise. On Thursday, the Majority Leader filed cloture on the motion to proceed to HR 3630, the House Payroll package. Unless an agreement is reached to hold the vote on Friday or a compromise agreement is reached, this vote will occur on Saturday morning. The House passed the bill 234-193 on Tuesday night (Payroll tax, UI, TANF, Doc fix, Job initiatives, etc.)
On Twitter
MT @govsm: .@SenMikeLee not scared to delegate twitter responsibility among many staffers. He has 4 official accounts. ow.ly/80S1D
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) December 15, 2011
Lee Sponsors Bill to Protect American Civil Liberties bit.ly/tqN87w (@Judgenap)
— Brian Phillips (@SenLeeComs) December 15, 2011
@donandroma thanks for the great interview this week! Hope to get you and @SenMikeLee talking again soon.
— Emily Bennion (@SenLeePressSec) December 16, 2011
Insane: Look who’s #2 on list of time needed to start a #business by country: bit.ly/rM90gn #redtape #regulations #biggov #tcot #tlot
— Joe Tauke (@SenLeeResearch) December 16, 2011
Bonus tweet from @moreron:
@SenMikeLee Stand your ground on #NDAA detainee problems. We’re behind you on this.
— Ron Davis (@moreron) December 15, 2011
Around the Water Cooler
Speaker: Will keep pipeline language in tax bill
House Republicans will stick to their insistence that a bill extending a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits include language speeding work on a controversial oil pipeline, Speaker John Boehner said Friday.
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution declares that no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” This means that if the government infringes on your rights, you are entitled to mount a timely and meaningful defense of those rights in court. It’s one of the cornerstones of our entire legal system, with roots dating back at least as far as the Magna Carta, which declared, “No free man…shall be stripped of his rights or possessions…except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.”
Looking Ahead
Tomorrow, Senator Lee will be back in Utah to meet with constituents.