Month: June 2024

The House is wrapping up legislative business for the week with final up-or-down votes on three appropriations bills. Once lawmakers are finished debating amendments to the fiscal year (FY) 2025 Defense bill, the House will hold a final vote on that legislation plus the funding measures for Homeland Security and State-Foreign Operations. Assuming these all pass along party lines, the House will have passed four out of the 12 spending bills for FY 2025. Meanwhile, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) announced that the committee will begin marking up the FY 2025 spending bills when the chamber gavels back in after the Fourth of July state work period.

House lawmakers will return on Tuesday to close out the June work period. On the floor, the chamber is set to take up the fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending bills for Defense, Homeland Security, and State-Foreign Operations. Assuming these measures pass along party lines, the House will have passed four out of the 12 appropriations measures heading into the July work period. Meanwhile, appropriators will hold subcommittee markups for the spending bills on Labor-HHS-Education, Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), Transportation-HUD, Interior-Environment, and Energy-Water this week.

• Programming note… The Senate has adjourned for the Fourth of July state work period and will return for votes on Monday, July 8. Click here to view the chamber’s pro forma schedule.

Before the chamber gaveled out on Tuesday, senators unanimously passed legislation to reauthorize a series of fire safety grant programs and the U.S. Wildfire Administration. The bill also contains a bipartisan package of nuclear-focused provisions that seek to streamline the nuclear licensing process and bolster the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) workforce, among other things. Senate Democrats also attempted to move legislation that seeks to ban firearm “bump stocks,” but the bill did not advance due to GOP opposition. For today, senators will close out the week with votes on the nominations of Stephanie Sanders Sullivan to be a Representative to the African Union, as well as Nancy Maldonado to be a U.S. Circuit Judge. Today’s votes will be the last ones in the upper chamber until after the July Fourth state work period. Meanwhile, the House will return for legislative business next Tuesday to begin consideration of the fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending bills for Defense, Homeland Security, and State-Foreign Operations.

Senators will gavel in for legislative business, and votes are possible with respect to a bill to reauthorize a series of fire safety grant programs and agencies. Specifically, the Senate is expected to take up a procedural motion that would place the Fire Grants and Safety Act on President Biden’s desk for signature. This legislation, which passed the House with amendments last month, would reauthorize the U.S. Fire Administration, the Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program, and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant Program through fiscal year (FY) 2030. The bill also restricts Chinese entities from being eligible recipients or subrecipients for assistance through these programs. Additionally, House lawmakers tacked on a bipartisan package of nuclear-focused policies that would, among other things, streamline nuclear licensing and boost the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) workforce. Assuming all 100 senators cooperate with this procedural maneuver, the bill will immediately pass and land on President Biden’s desk for signature.

The Senate will gavel in for a brief week of legislative business due to the Juneteenth federal holiday on Wednesday. While they are in session this week, senators are expected to prioritize votes on pending judicial nominations, starting with Katherine Oler to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Senate Democrats are also expected to attempt to move legislation that would ban firearm “bump stocks” in response to a recent Supreme Court decision that threw out the Trump-era regulation, but this effort is not likely to succeed. Meanwhile, the House will be out this week and will return the week of June 24 to resume consideration of pending appropriations measures. This includes the fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending measures for Defense, Homeland Security, and State-Foreign Operations.

Both chambers will resume legislative business tomorrow. In the House, lawmakers will pause consideration of pending government funding bills as they look to kick off consideration of the fiscal year (FY) 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). More than 1300 amendments have been filed to the annual defense policy bill, and the Rules Committee will meet tomorrow at noon EST to determine which ones will be considered on the floor. On the appropriations front, the committee will meet for full committee markups of the spending bills for State-Foreign Operations and Homeland Security on Wednesday, followed by Defense, Financial Services and General Government (FSGG), and Legislative Branch on Thursday. Additionally, House appropriators will unveil their draft FY 2025 spending bill for Agriculture-FDA later today ahead of tomorrow evening’s subcommittee markup.

— SENATE DEMS TEE UP VOTES ON REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH. Late last week, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) filed a procedural vote on legislation that seeks to protect and expand access to fertility treatments and other reproductive technologies nationwide. While this bill is not expected to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to advance, additional votes pertaining to reproductive health are expected this month as Senate Democrats look for a boost to their messaging efforts on this issue ahead of the 2024 general election. The chamber will also resume consideration of pending Biden administration nominees with a trio of nominations to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) this week.

House lawmakers will meet today to take up the chamber’s first fiscal year (FY) 2025 appropriations measure. Debate on the funding bill for Military Construction-VA will get underway during today’s session and includes consideration of 47 amendments to the underlying legislation. Meanwhile, Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) released bill text for the FY 2025 spending bills for Defense and Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) ahead of tomorrow’s subcommittee markups. On the Senate side, the chamber will hold a final up-or-down vote on Christopher Hanson’s nomination to be a Member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before moving to other pending judicial nominees.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is planning action on a series of bills regarding access to contraception and other reproductive technologies. In a “Dear Colleague” letter to senators yesterday, Leader Schumer noted that the Senate will vote on a bill that seeks to create a right to access contraception. Noting that “there will be more to come” following this vote, it is expected that Senate Democrats will look to move a package of bills pertaining to contraception and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) during the week of June 10. According to intel from Capitol Hill, this four-bill package will include: a measure from Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) to provide a statutory right to access reproductive technology; legislation from Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) to cover IVF for service members and veterans; a bill from Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) regarding IVF insurance coverage; and Sen. Duckworth’s Family Building Fairness Act to ensure federal coverage of assisted reproductive technology. For today, the Senate will hold a procedural vote on Christopher Hanson’s nomination to be a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.