Thursday: Leadership elections, Keystone, childcare grants

After the midterm elections, both the House and Senate will take up bipartisan bills after leadership elections on Thursday.

The House will consider legislation to authorize construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. A vote on the bill is meant to boost Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who faces a runoff election against Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) on Dec. 6 after neither were able to win more than 50 percent of the vote in the general election.

{mosads}An announcement of the House vote came after Landrieu demanded one in the Senate. She was able to garner support and the Senate vote will occur next week.

In addition, the House is expected to consider bills under suspension of the rules on Thursday. But the House GOP leadership elections will likely consume most of the afternoon.

The Senate starts at 2:15 p.m. so senators can attend leadership elections in the morning. Few changes are expected in the leadership composition of either party in the Senate.

At 2:30 p.m., the Senate will vote to confirm Randolph Moss to be a U.S. district judge for the District of Columbia and Leigh May to be a U.S. district judge for the northern district of Georgia. Cloture was invoked on both of the nominations on Wednesday.

After the confirmation votes, the Senate will vote to end debate on small changes the House made to S. 1086, a bill to expand the Child Care and Development Block Grant program to help low income families pay for childcare.

The Senate already passed the bill earlier this year, but the House made minor tweaks in September. Once the Senate concurs with the House on the legislation, it will be sent to President Obama’s desk for his signature before becoming law.