The House is not in session.
The Senate reconvened at 9:30 AM today. Following an hour of morning business, the Senate resumed consideration of H.R. 1191, the vehicle for the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015.
Later this morning, the Senate took up the motion to proceed to H.R. 1314, the vehicle for the Trade Promotion Authority Act.
Yesterday, the Senate voted 53-44 to agree to the motion to proceed to the budget conference report, S. Con. Res. 11. The Senate later voted 51-48 to adopt the conference report for S. Con. Res. 11, marking the first congressional approval of a budget since 2009.
Last night, the Senate voted 96-3 to table the president's veto message of S.J. Res. 8, a congressional resolution disapproving of the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) new rule allowing ambush union elections.
The Washington Post writes today, "For just the first time in six years, Congress gave final approval to its annual budget resolution Tuesday — the latest in a slow but steady churn of progress that suggests maybe the new boss isn't the same as the old boss. . . . 'This Senate is dramatically different than the last one in severable measurable ways,' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview last week."
The Hill discussed the process of getting to a budget: "Congressional Republicans scored a major legislative victory on Tuesday as the Senate adopted the first bicameral GOP budget agreement in a decade. The 51-48 vote capped weeks of work by Republican leaders in the House and Senate . . . . The blueprint passed the House last week, and will not require a signature from President Obama. . . . Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had ripped Democrats for years over their failure to pass a budget, and said Tuesday's vote shows his GOP majority is getting the Senate working again.
"'No budget will ever be perfect, but this is a budget that sensibly addresses the concerns of many different members. It reflects honest compromise from many different members with many different priorities,' the Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor. . . . The non-binding resolution approved Tuesday sets the top-line numbers that appropriators will use to craft 12 bills funding the government in fiscal 2016. The plan calls for balancing the budget in 10 years by cutting more than $5 trillion from spending."
Politicoadds, "The Senate on Tuesday cleared the House-passed budget agreement, bringing Republicans over the finish line on their long-held goal of passing a fiscal blueprint that balances in a decade. In a drama-free roll call, the chamber voted, 51-48, to pass the deal that gives the Pentagon a budget increase next year but keeps domestic funding below spending caps set out in a 2011 deficit reduction law. It includes language to repeal Obamacare . . . . [P]assing a budget lays out Republican priorities: cutting Medicare and Medicaid, repealing Obamacare and funding the country at levels backed by top military leaders."
It's noteworthy that this year's budget is the first agreed to by both the House and Senate since 2009 and that this is the first balanced budget passed since 2001. In sharp contrast, four of the last five years, when Democrats ran the Senate, they "defiantly refused" to pass a budget, as Politico reported in 2012.
Indeed, Politico today points out that the budget's passage "[G]ives [Republicans] bragging rights for putting Congress back on track overseeing the government's pocketbook. 'That's the way Congress is supposed to function,' McConnell said, proudly noting that the budget went through 'the normal committee process' including vigorous debate, votes on dozens of amendments and a conference committee deliberation. That was a pointed shot at Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who ran the chamber when Democrats had the majority and did not prioritize budgeting."
Leader McConnell highlighted some key provisions of the budget in a speech yesterday. "It includes additional resources and flexibility for national defense. It reduces spending. And it balances, without raising taxes.
"That's especially impressive when you consider the type of budget the White House proposed: one that never balanced — ever— but still tried to raise taxes by nearly $2 trillion. That White House budget was so unserious that only a single member of the President's party could be persuaded to publicly support it in the Senate. Perhaps that's because it proposed to double down on the failed policies of the past: more overspending, more debt, more taxes, and hardly any reform. So the White House's fantasy budget may have made the Left happy. But the new Congress believed the American people deserved better.
"We offered a budget that is more than just balanced — it's also oriented toward growth. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the budget we'll approve today contains ideas that could boost jobs and grow our economy. . . . It would repeal unfair taxes, like those in Obamacare, and set the table for more comprehensive reform of our outdated tax code.
"And because this budget is about embracing the future, it also gives us the tools to leave Obamacare's broken promises and higher costs where they belong — in the past — in favor of a fresh start, with the opportunity for real health reform."
He concluded, "The balanced budget . . . won't solve every challenge, but it is a measure that will move us further down the path of positive reform. It's a budget that aims to make government more efficient, more effective, and more accountable to the Middle Class. And it's a reminder that the new Republican majority is getting Congress back to work for the American people."
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