Congress spent under four minutes in session on Tuesday, October 13. The House gaveled in at 1:30 p.m. and adjourned at 1:33. The Senate opened its pro forma session at 3:30:02 p.m. and closed it at 3:30:26. No votes, no quorum calls, no hearings.
The Record still filled its pages, and the bill hopper is where the day’s real action sits.
The lede
Rep. Delia Ramirez introduced H.R. 10803, which would abolish the Department of Homeland Security and establish a Department of Community Safety. Reps. Tlaib, Grijalva and McGovern signed on. Homeland Security gets primary referral, with twelve more committees added, from Oversight and Judiciary to Appropriations and Intelligence. A referral list that long maps how much of the federal government DHS touches.
Also introduced
Rep. Rashida Tlaib filed H.R. 10807 to prohibit automated mass surveillance systems, referred to Oversight and Judiciary. Rep. Claudia Tenney’s H.R. 10806 targets fraud by home health agencies in Medicare. Rep. Eugene Vindman’s H.R. 10809 would protect ratepayers from costs tied to data centers and high density computing facilities. Rep. Don Bacon filed H.R. 10796 on US and Israel defense cooperation and H.R. 10797 on aerial transport of people with high consequence infectious diseases.
What the constitutional statements say
House rules require every sponsor to name the constitutional power that lets Congress act. Fifteen bills were filed Tuesday, and the statements vary.
Ten cite Article I, Section 8 and stop there, including Ramirez’s bill to dismantle a cabinet department. Section 8 is the list of congressional powers, so a bare citation names the whole list without choosing one. Only three get specific. Rep. James Baird’s Sudan partnership bill and Rep. Latimer’s safe third country bill invoke the Commerce Clause, and Latimer adds the war and military powers in clauses 11 through 16. Rep. Van Epps relies on the Necessary and Proper Clause.
Two do not cite Section 8 at all. Tlaib cites Article I, Section 1, the Vesting Clause, which grants legislative power in general and names no specific one. Tenney cites only “Article I.” Courts do not treat these statements as binding, and the filings cannot tell us whether the choices were deliberate or sloppy.
Reported and enrolled
The Small Business Committee reported H.R. 10238 with an amendment (Rept. 119-851), which would require the SBA to push cybersecurity resources to small businesses. The House also announced five enrolled bills signed October 9, including H.R. 1721, a Commerce Department study on manufacturing critical infrastructure products domestically.
In the margins
Most Extensions of Remarks were tributes. Rep. Angie Craig’s thanks to departing staff described casework during Operation Metro Surge and one staffer who joined after losing a VA job to layoffs. Those are a member’s accounts, not findings.
Four minutes of floor time, dozens of pages of print. The gavel says little, and the referral lines and authority statements say more.
