Capitol Hill Update: June 25, 2018

Schedule:

The House and Senate are in session this week. Both chambers will be in recess next week.

House:

The House is back in session on Monday. Legislative business begins at 2:00 pm. Votes are postponed until 6:30 pm. There are 20 bills on the suspension calendar. Another suspension will be considered during the week, which is also listed below.

  • H.R. 5783, Cooperate with Law Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act
  • H.R. 435, Credit Access and Inclusion Act
  • H.R. 4294, Prevention of Private Information Dissemination Act
  • H.R. 6069, FIND Trafficking Act
  • H.R. 5094, Enhancing Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative Act
  • H.R. 5081, Surface Transportation Security and Technology Accountability Act
  • H.R. 5730, Transportation Security Technology Innovation Reform Act
  • H.R. 5766, Securing Public Areas of Transportation Facilities Act
  • H.R. 5733, DHS Industrial Control Systems Capabilities Enhancement Act
  • H.R. 5206, OBIM Authorization Act
  • H.R. 5207, IAP Authorization Act
  • H.R. 5751, To redesignate Golden Spike National Historic Site and to establish the Transcontinental Railroad Network
  • H.R. 221, Hydrographic Services Improvement Amendments Act
  • H.R. 805, Tulare Youth Recreation and Women’s History Enhancement Act
  • H.R. 857, California Off-Road Recreation and Conservation Act
  • H.R. 3392, Lake Bistineau Land Title Stability Act
  • H.R. 4257, Advancing Conservation and Education Act
  • H.R. 1791, Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Act
  • H.R. 299, Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act
  • H.R. 4528, To make technical amendments to certain marine fish conservation statutes, and for other purposes
  • H.R. 5841, Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act

The House will take up the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, H.R. 6157. More than 130 amendments have been filed. The House Rules Committee will begin consideration of the amendments that will be allowed on the floor on Monday at 5:00 pm. Rules has noticed a second meeting to consider amendments for Tuesday at 3:00 pm. We’re guessing that consideration of amendments will begin on Tuesday, with remaining amendments and final passage on Wednesday.

Last week, an amended version of the Securing America’s Future Act, H.R. 4760, was defeated on the floor by a vote of 193 to 231. The compromise amendment, the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act, wasn’t considered last week because Republican leaders didn’t have enough votes for passage. Leadership hopes — again, hopes — for passage of the compromise language this week.

The House will also move to go to conference on the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2019, H.R. 5515. The Senate passed its version of the bill last week. A final agreement between House and Senate conferees will be hashed out and brought to the floor after an agreement has been reached.

We should note that leadership has the ability to call up bills that aren’t specifically listed on the calendar for the week, and there is a note in this week’s calendar that “additional legislative items are possible.” On that point, we’ll circle back to the Farm Bill when we get to the Senate.

The House Appropriations Committee will markup the bill for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies on Tuesday. The committee approved State and Foreign Operations last week, so that’ll be going to the floor likely when the House returns the week of July 9. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the White House’s government organization plan.

On Tuesday at 10:00 am, the House Judiciary Committee will meet to markup H.Res. 938 and H.Res. 928. The resolutions are formal requests from the committee to the Department of Justice for documents related to the Russia investigation. The Department of Justice did send some documents last week but hasn’t fully complied with the committee’s request. We should note that the markup hasn’t been posted to the committee’s website but is listed in the House committee repository.

The House Budget Committee marked up a budget on Thursday for FY 2019. The budget, which the committee is calling a “Budget for a Brighter American Future,” includes reconciliation instructions for at least $302 billion in spending over the next ten years. The budget would balance in nine years, sort of, but not really. The part of the budget that would balance is only on-budget spending. Outlays for Social Security and the U.S. Postal Service are off-budget and don’t count toward the part of the budget that would be balanced. The budget cleared committee by a 21 to 13 vote. As we understand it, the Senate doesn’t plan to move a budget this year.

The full committee schedule can be found here.

Senate:

The Senate will convene at 3:00 pm on Monday to continue the consideration of Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, H.R. 5895. The bill should be finished early this week.

Although it wasn’t on the calendar, the House passed the Agriculture and Nutrition Act, H.R. 2, by a razor-thin margin. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filed cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 2. After the motion to proceed, the Senate’s version of the Farm Bill will be offered as a substitute. As we’ve noted, the Senate’s version of the bill doesn’t have work requirements for SNAP and it doesn’t eliminate broad-based categorical eligibility for welfare programs. We’ll be scoring against the bill in the Senate.

The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday at 11:00 am on the affordability of prescription drugs. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar will testify. The Senate Appropriations Committee will meet on Thursday at 10:30 am to markup the Defense and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) appropriations bills. See the latest that has come out of the Senate Appropriations Committee here.

The full committee schedule can be found here.