Representatives Return From Break

By CARL HULSE
NYT

The House makes an unscheduled return this week to approve a $26 billion package of aid to schools and states that cleared the Senate last week, though the fate of two other Senate measures on immigration and child nutrition remains uncertain.

After the Senate was able to pass the legislation, intended to prevent the layoffs of tens of thousands of teachers and government workers, Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly decided to bring the House back from its summer break for a vote Tuesday on the measure.

With the House coming back, the Senate then gave surprise 11th hour approval to a $600 million immigration enforcement measure and a child nutrition bill intended to reduce child obesity, a priority of Michelle Obama, in the hope that the House could send both measures to the president as well.

But House leaders are raising jurisdictional issues over the immigration bill, saying that fee increases included in the measure to pay for added border enforcement violate the Constitutional requirement that revenue measures originate in the House. House leaders could decide Monday to send it back to the Senate with no action, a process known in Congressional parlance as blue slipping.

TM Note: The aid bill also reportedly includes provisions to close a $10 billion dollar a year corporate tax avoidance scheme, using overseas tax havens.

(More here.)