The CIR legislation, while not dead, is certainly on life support as we reach the middle of February. As we have written previously, the issue is time. With unlimited time, this legislation definitely would be brought up for debate and a vote. Unfortunately, there is only a limited amount of time left in this Congress.

As of mid-February, there are about 75 legislative days left before Congress starts to consider adjournment. With this being an election year in which one third of the Senate as well as the entire House facing election, it is likely that the Congress will adjourn shortly after Labor Day.

As a practical matter, if CIR is not considered on the floor of the Senate within the next 30 legislative days, it is likely dead for this Congress. A legislative day is a day in which the Senate is in session. While the  House is in session five days per week, three weeks out of every month, the Senate is in session three days per week, every week. Of course, weekend, holidays, and "district work periods" (vacations) do not count.

The big issue on the table right now is still health care reform. The February 25th White House summit on health care will go a long way toward determining when  this legislation will go back to the Senate and how much time it will take out of the Senate calendar.

If the Republicans feel that they have to at least go through the motions of pretending to participate in a bi-partisan re-drafting of the legislation, then the bill could be taken out of consideration for as long as two months while the two sides posture. If the Republicans simply blow off the meeting, then the Democrats are likely to bring health care back immediately for consideration.

If health care is put off, the only remaining piece of legislation with a higher priority than CIR will be the jobs bill. There was a temporary breakthrough on bi-partisan legislation, but that was crushed by the Senate Majority Leader. He may be overridden by his own party on this issue, however.

In the best of all worlds, a bi-partisan jobs bill will pass very quickly and health care will be tabled pending an attempt to craft a bi-partisan bill. If that happens, then CIR will definitely get brought up for consideration. Unfortunately, that is about the only way that we will see CIR in this Congress.

As the days and weeks pass, we get closer and closer to both houses having to concentrate on the budget bills. When that happens, we can forget about any further consideration of CIR in this Congress.