My inkling was that today’s vote on the unemployment insurance extension was something of a dry run, for two reasons. One, the House leadership wanted to see how much support they could get for a UI extension. Two, they wanted to test-run an important bill under the suspension calendar, which allows for no amendments or [...]

I want to go back to Eric Cantor’s blueprint for the House, because outside of the obvious change in legislative focus, I think there are some areas for agreement. This is particularly the case in the area of the committee and floor schedule. The first thing Cantor wants to do is to develop “clear standards” [...]