Flurry of Legislative Activity as Congress Heads Home

As Congress brings an end to its current term to return to home districts for the election cycle, an update on some of the key pieces of legislation that ACLJ has been following closely on Capitol Hill.

There was much unfinished business of the 109th Congress.  Much of that will be addressed during lame duck sessions that will run from November 13 through the 20th and during the first two weeks of December.

What will likely be addressed in those weeks will be tax and spending issues, but we might see some action on the Senate side regarding judges, specifically the nominations of Peter Keisler for the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and Mike Wallace for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Wrapping up things here in DC, as we reported to you a few weeks ago, the Public Expression of Religion Act passed the House of Representatives overwhelmingly with by a vote of 244-173. Some 26 Democrats ended up voting for the bill with 6 Republicans voting against it. The bill itself faces a uphill climb in the Senate. In early August, Senator Sam Brownback, who introduced the Senate version of the bill, held hearings in which one of our senior attorneys, Shannon Woodruff, testified. Currently, the bill has yet to receive a mark-up in the Judiciary Committee, but there is hope that it might be attached to a bill in one of the lame duck sessions.
 
On Friday of last week, the Child Custody Protection Act, after passing in the House by a vote of 264-153, failed to receive cloture on the floor of the Senate as 8 Democrats reversed their votes from six weeks earlier and defeated the bill. The difference in the language passed by the Senate at the end of July and the current bill is that the House version requires abortionists to call the parents of minors before they give abortions. Drew Ryun in our Government Affairs office reports that there is hope that after the elections in November, the House will simply pick up the version of the Senate bill passed in July and pass it, thereby avoiding another Senate vote or the need for a conference. If that does happen, the bill will pass the House and be sent to the President's desk for him to sign it into law.
 
Capping off the Senate's session before recess, two major items were passed. One was the authorization for a 700 mile stretch of fence along our southern borders. Another was a bill addressing the handling of terrorist detainees in light of the Supreme Court's Hamdam v. Rumsfeld decision earlier this year.