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The House and Senate are in session. The next few weeks are a critical time for Congress leading up to the month-long August recess.
The Senate returns to Washington today with a procedural vote on former Rep. Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.) to be Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sent a Dear Colleague letter on Sunday outlining the Senate’s plans for the July work session. According to the letter, the upper chamber will emphasize appropriations, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), briefings on artificial intelligence, and confirming judicial nominees. The chamber will also attempt to address the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Farm Bill reauthorizations, permitting reform, and prescription drug pricing reform, to name a few additional legislative items.
Senate appropriators will release, and markup three additional Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 spending bills this week without subcommittee markups. Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee decided to compensate for a late start this year. On Thursday, the committee will mark up its Commerce-Justice-Science, Financial Services-General Government, and Legislative Branch funding bills, following the same process used for the Agriculture-FDA and Military Construction-VA spending bills. As for the House Appropriations Committee, there has yet to be an announcement for their markup schedule this week. Half of the 12 spending bills passed through the full committee, while the Financial Services-General Government and State-Foreign Operations bills advanced out of their respective subcommittees and may be marked up by the full Committee later this week.
The House will consider the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (H.R. 2670) this week, which authorizes a total of $874.2 billion in discretionary spending. The chamber will also likely consider several hundred of the 1,524 amendments filed to the bill by House members. These amendments cover various contentious topics, including abortion, transgender medical treatment, diversity programs, reducing penalties for troops who declined the COVID-19 vaccine, and decreasing aid for Ukraine. The House will also consider three bills under suspension of the rules this week, including the Improving Access to Small Business Information Act (H.R. 1548), which exempts the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation within the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from the Paperwork Reduction Act. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s marked-up version of the FAA reauthorization bill, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (H.R. 3935), should be voted on by the House during the week of July 17.
For the remainder of the week, the House will hold several hearings, including an Homeland Security Committee hearing on the “Future of FEMA: Agency Perspectives with Administrator Criswell” and an Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on “Review of Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request: Agency Perspectives (Part II).” In the Senate, the Appropriations Committee will hold a markup on “Commerce-Justice-Science, Financial Services, and Legislative Branch Appropriations bills.”
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