Schedule for Wednesday, December 30, 2020
The Senate stands adjourned until 3:00pm on Wednesday, December 30, 2020.
Following Leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.
At 5:00pm, there will be a live quorum call. As a reminder, a Senator is recorded as “present” for a quorum call. A quorum is a majority of Senators duly chosen and sworn. The Republicans have asked their members to be on the floor at 5:00pm, so the quorum call could go rather quickly.
Once a quorum is established, we expect Senator McConnell to ask to lay before the Senate the message on the NDAA veto. If the yeas and nays are requested and there’s a sufficient second, there would be a roll call vote on laying the Message before the Senate. This is a majority vote threshold.
Once the veto message is pending, the message is debatable. We expect Senator McConnell to file cloture on the veto message during Wednesday’s session. If no agreement can be reached, the cloture vote would occur 1 hour after the Senate convenes on Friday. If cloture is invoked (60-vote threshold), post cloture consideration would be limited to 30 hours.
Upon conclusion of debate, the question before the body would be: “Shall the bill (H.R.6395, NDAA) pass, the objections of the President of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding?" A quorum being present, a veto override requires a 2/3 affirmative vote of those present and voting.
During Tuesday’s session, the Senate began the Rule 14 process to place the following bills on the Calendar of Business:
1. S.5085, to increase the additional 2020 recovery rebates, to repeal section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, and for other purposes. (McConnell)
2. H.R.9051, to increase recovery rebate amounts to $2,000 for individuals (CASH Act)
There could be an effort to consider these bills prior to the end of the 116th Congress. It would take unanimous consent to set votes on either bill.
Wednesday, December 30th at approx. 5:00pm – roll call vote expected:
Live quorum
1. Motion to lay the veto message with respect to H.R.6395, NDAA