Great news for those of us tracking the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which authorizes specific projects, creates and modifies programs, and updates authorities for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:  The Senate has scheduled a a cloture vote on Tuesday.  For those with less background on the inner-workings of the Senate, a cloture vote is a procedural vote to allow only 30 hours of debate on a topic, followed by a vote on a bill.  In this case, if the cloture vote passes then the WRDA bill will be officially voted on at 9:00 pm on Wednesday assuming the Senate is still in session.

You will likely recall that the House recently passed S.3021, which was a pre-conference bill developed jointly by the House and Senate staffers to coordinate the House’s and Senate’s views on what should be in WRDA.  Assuming that the cloture vote passes on Tuesday this all but assures that WRDA will be approved by the Senate and signed by the President before the week’s end.

Here is the notice provided to the Senate’s Democratic Caucus:

Tuesday, October 9, 2018
*   The Senate will convene at 3:00pm and resume consideration of the House message to accompany S.3021, the legislative vehicle for the Water Resources Development Act of 2018 (WRDA).
*   The cloture vote on the motion to concur with the House message to accompany S.3021 (WRDA) will occur at 5:30pm. If cloture is invoked, the Senate will begin to burn up to 30 hours post-cloture.

During the Friday and Saturday Sessions
House message to accompany S.3021, the legislative vehicle for the Water Resources Development Act of 2018 (WRDA).
*         Senator McConnell moved to concur with the House message to accompany S.3021 and filed cloture on that motion to concur.
o    Senator McConnell filled the amendment tree relative to the House message to accompany S.3021.