Senate:

Confirms billionaire Scott Bessent to Secretary of the Treasury, passes National Trafficking and Modern Slavery Prevention Month, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and as a break from the sucking dry the wealth of the non-billionaire class will have quarterly blood drives

House:

Not in session today.

Senate:

On a Saturday. Confirmed Kristi Noem of South Dakota as homeland secretary of the refusal to issue a statewide wear mask during COVID. Confirmed 59 to 34. I’m not sure this will go well for the conditions of any detentions or for disaster response. But time will tell.

House:

Not in session

Senate:

Confirmed Hegseth with the VP as the tiebreaker in a 50/50 vote. Bottom of the barrel

House:

Nothing voted on

Senate:

Confirmed John Ratcliffe (74 to 25) to lead the CIA. The ramping up of rhetoric against China will play out here. Good job Washington in St Louis women’s soccer team…why do they do these?

House:

Something about Rapid Ohi’a death. It is the most common endemic tree to Hawaii (comprising) 80% of Hawaii’s native forests. Fix our Forests bill was passed some funny things on grazing being used as a fire prevention measure (Sec 117), something about biochar (Title III), Hazard trees within 150′ rather than 10′, and White Oak resilience (Subtitle B). What would actually fix the forests actually funding for and responding to climate change in a serious manner. Even in the middle of this Forests Bill, carbon sequestration gets struck during an amendment. The House also passed the Born Alive Act which mandates that health care providers take all steps to ensure that if during a late term abortion a child is born that the life and health of that child is afforded the same as a child of that same gestational age. I didn’t think that hospitals (or anyone) could just kill a feasible baby intentionally under current laws, but what do I know. The law seems to intentionally add to the risk of a lawsuit for a health care practitioner performing abortions.

Senate:

There’s an abortion measure (Born Alive) that didn’t make it to a vote

House:

The House passed the law which requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain certain non-U.S. nationals (aliens under federal law) who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting. The bill also authorizes states to sue the federal government for decisions or alleged failures related to immigration enforcement. It’s now heading to the President for signature into law. I’m concerned that authorizing states to sue the federal government for alleged failures just creates a mess and is crap policy. And it’s not convicted but merely charged/arrested. But what else should be expected from Katie Britt – AL (R) of misleading sex trafficking story/Biden SOTU response fame?

Senate:

No bills passed in the Senate, nobody confirmed. They’re voting on Hegseth eventually for Secretary of Defense. I think it’s telling that in the motion to proceed that Fetterman keeps voting with the Republicans.

House:

Bills passed by the House include a commemorative work on the Medal of Honor on the National Mall, publication on public use on federal waterways among Federal land and water management agencies (I was unsuccessfully looking for a map of where exactly these are, like is a river in a national park this? Or a lake above a certain size?), a bill on making a task force on shark attacks (depredation is the term used), tasking the Agriculture and Interior to report annually on hazardous fuels reduction specifically in the wildland-urban, and some other bills that didn’t really stand out to me.

The Senate passed a bill that requires DHS to take into custody any non-US nationals accused of burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, death, or serious bodily injury. It also allows states to sue the federal government for any harm (financial if more than $100) for any alleged failures by the federal government.

Accused is the fucked up part of this bill, not convicted…charged

Today is my birthday. I’m going to spend the next years of my 43 year-old life looking at the congressional record for any sense of solace and document whatever I see. I don’t really want to pay attention to the news during the second go around of this gish gallop and will read what I can understand from the record of congress (what makes laws). I’m not optimistic, I’m trained and working as an engineer, I’m married and have I have two young children. Godspeed.