Capitol Hill This Week - What to Watch For

The U.S. House is in session this week and next, while the Senate remains in recess until December 9, when it will reconvene for a two week work session.. The week of December 9 is the only week before the holiday recess through the end of the year when both the House and Senate are scheduled to be in session together.

Three sets of House-Senate conference committee negotiators are scrambling to finish three respective conference reports of relevance to the River Basin before the end of the year (on the budget, the farm bill and a water resources projects bill). However, there is a little chance that all three will be completed in time for the House to vote in 2013 (the House is set to recess on December 13). It is possible that one or two of the bills will come up for a vote (the most likely candidate being the widely-popular Water Resources Development Act (or WRDA)), and that the remainder (most likely the farm and budget bills) will be punted into 2014 (with some sort of farm bill extension possibly being passed in the meantime).

Below is the single U.S. House committee meeting currently scheduled this week relating to Mississippi River Basin water resources. Links are provided to the relevant Committee and legislation pages on the Internet. The markup proceedings may be webcast live (follow the Committee markup link).

Wednesday

• Full Natural Resources Committee markup of several bills, including H.R. 2208, to extend the authorization of appropriations for allocation to carry out approved wetlands conservation projects under the North American Wetlands Conservation Act through fiscal year 2017. "North American Wetlands Conservation Extension Act of 2013."  10:00 AM EST; 1324 Longworth House Office Building.