Hakeem Jeffries: "It's my hope that today, the House Republicans will stop the bickering stop the backbiting and stop the backstabbing of each other so we can have the back of the American people." Jeffries says Dems are NOT going to help the GOP elect a speaker: "Nancy Pelosi got along with John Boehner. Ruth Bader Ginsburg got along with Antonin Scalia. All we are asking is House Republicans to get along. With each other."

Here we go for Round 3 of voting for a new Speaker. with 19 Republicans standing hard against McCarthy, Scalise is nomihim again Aguilar again nominates Jeffries, prompting chants of “Hakeem.” Will Jeffries top McCarthy for a third time?

On to Round 2, and we've already got 5 against McCarthy. He can't win if no one changes their vote. and 6 and 7 against

Just before Jim Jordan headed to the floor to nominate McCarthy, Bob Good was telling reporters Jim Jordan is the one who will emerge

https://twitter.com/mmcauliff/status/1610344011285561344

Apparently Aguilar wasn't sure Jordan was going to nominate McCarthy!

Ady Biggs votes for Andy Biggs for Speaker that's Andry, of course. Bishop votes for Biggs

Gillibrand: “I would like to speak to America's men for one minute. And imagine you do not have authority over your own body for 10 months. Imagine if that decision making would be taken away even if you would die in childbirth” Gillibrand: "I don't think a man in America could actually imagine not having control of his body, his bodily functions, what happens to him and what life would be like, for 10 months."

Maloney releases Oversight drug study: "We found that drug companies target American patients for price increases in large part because Medicare is prohibited from negotiating for lower prices. At the same time the drug companies maintained or cut prices for the rest of the world Maloney says Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi control 90% of the global insulin market and "repeatedly raised prices on their life saving products and used strategies to maintain monopoly pricing and delay competition that would have lowered prices."

on the Senate floor now

The bills about to be before House rules committee include expedited debt limit provisions that specify the motion to proceed in the Senate is not debatable. Seems Rs are willing to forego the filibuster to make Dems own it. John Thune to reporters: "The clear issue is, and this is something that we said all along, is that the majority party has to deliver the vote to raise the debt. And the Democrats know that, and they're willing to do it." via @doug_sword

Pay attention to what progressives are saying about Biden's "framework."
AOC: "I think we need something a little bit more than just something on the back of an envelope. I think legislative text is one mechanism of us getting there."

via @ESCochrane to the pool @ESCochrane AOC: "I think we need to have a certainty, either through legislative text, through.. agreements that we can trust. Because there's been so many changes in this process, so many people, yes, no, doing the Hokey Pokey, one foot in, one foot out."

Rep. Jim McGovern is tired of Republicans talking about the IRS in this debate over holding Steve Bannon in contempt. "I appreciate the gentlelady updating us on the bills that she's co-sponsored and her opinions about the IRS, which have nothing to do with the underlying bill." So now McGovern is asking Rs to condemn Trump's new statement that the insurrection was on Nov. 3. "Please, can you say that you disassociate yourselves with this statement? Can you make it clear to the American people that you want no part of this?"

Here we still are.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.): "Who won the election in Arizona?"

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ): "We don't know." Cyber Ninjas liaison, ex AZ sec of state Ken Bennett: "The most significant finding of the audit is that the hand count of the physical ballots very closely matches the county's official results.. that finding is frustrating to many.."

Yellen warns if Congress doen't boost debt limit, Treasury will "likely exhaust its extraordinary measures by Oct. 18. At that point we expect Treasury would be left with very limited resources that would be depleted quickly. America would default for the first time in history." Yellen: "The full faith and credit of the United States would be impaired and our country would likely face financial crisis and economic recession as a result."

Chuck Grassley on the Senate floor just now: "This country has had to deal with Democrats' obsession with destroying Trump for much too long. In the process, I fear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have done and will do lasting damage to our political system." He's talking about Senate interviews of Trump DOJ officials after their notes revealed Trump leaned on them to call the 2020 election corrupt.

Bernie: "I understand that Sen. McConnell, the Republican leader, and others are really shocked by this bill. They cannot believe it. Imagine, just imagine, the United States Senate is addressing the needs of working families and it's going to stand up for ordinary Americans." Bernie: "What is this world coming to? Don't we understand that here in the Senate we're supposed to take campaign contributions from the drug cos. and the insurance cos. and the fossil fuel industry and from the 1% and do their bidding.. Well Sen. McConnell, things are changing"

Schumer releases $3.5 trillion reconciliation plan. From his dear colleague letter: "It is critical that we go on offense during the recess to explain to the American people how our budget will lower costs and cut taxes for American families." Schumer: "At its core, this legislation is about restoring the middle class in the 21st Century and giving more Americans the opportunity to get there. By making education, health care, child care, and housing more affordable, we can give tens of millions of families a leg up."

Sunday.

It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your senator is? Schumer shows up: "It's been a long day, but we have plowed through, as I have intended."

Schumer, getting back the the bipartisan infrastructure bill with no agreement from Rs on amdts: "We can get this done the easy way or the hard way. In either case, the Senate will stay in session until we finish our work. It's up to my Republican colleagues how long it takes." McConnell acknowledges importance of infra bill, says "There are many outstanding amendments that are important, that would improve this legislation and that deserve votes..I hope senators can work together in a bipartisan way to get more amendments."

Carolyn Maloney, on new drug price report: "What we have found is shocking. Drug companies are actively and intentionally targeting the United States for price increases, often while cutting prices and the rest of the world." Maloney says companies spent $577B on buybacks and dividends 2016 to 2020, and just $522 on R&D. Going forward, that'd $1.15T on buybacks etc.

Jim McGovern: "The glare of history should be cast most harshly on the minority leader who worked overtime to prevent a bipartisan, bicameral commission from being formed to examine what happened on Jan. 6.. I guess Donald Trump called him." McGovern: "I'm sick and tired of the fact that there are too many people in this chamber who continue to put party over country and propagate the lies, distortions and falsehoods that led to Jan. 6. It is disgusting."

Schumer: "I saw leader McCarthy's 11th Our opposition. On the Jan. 6 Commission. This shows how difficult it is to negotiate with Republicans. If the Republican leaders are just going to throw their lead negotiators under the bus, why do they even participate in negotiations?" Schumer: "I want to be clear. I will put the Jan. 6 Commission legislation on the floor of the Senate for a vote. Period. Republicans can let their constituents know, are they on the side of truth [or] want to cover up for the insurrectionists and for Donald Trump."