Author: Thorn Run Partners

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.

Congress has adjourned for the Memorial Day district and state work periods, and lawmakers will resume legislative business on Monday, June 3. When the House returns, lawmakers are expected to take up the first fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending bill for Military Construction-VA, which passed out of the Appropriations Committee in a party-line vote during a markup last week. Meanwhile, an announcement from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on the Senate’s schedule will likely occur at some point this week. The next vote scheduled in the upper chamber is a procedural vote to advance Christopher Hanson’s nomination to be a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

• CA-20: California state legislator Vince Fong (R-CA) will be sworn in to replace former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) next month after winning the special election to serve the remainder of the former speaker’s term.
• GA-03: The race between Brian Jack, former President Donald Trump’s political director, and Mike Dugan, the former Georgia Senate Majority Leader, will head to a runoff after neither candidate met the 50 percent threshold. The winner will advance to the general election to replace retiring Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA) next Congress.
• OR-03: State Representative Maxine Dexter (D-OR) won a competitive primary over Gresham City Councilor Eddy Morales (D-OR) and former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal (D-OR) in the primary to replace outgoing Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) next Congress.
• OR-05: State Representative Janelle Bynum (D-OR) won the Democratic nomination in the closely watched primary against attorney Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who lost to incumbent Rep. Lori Chavez DeRemer (R-OR) in the 2022 general election. This race is considered one of the most competitive in the country and could be one of a few that ultimately decide who wins control of the House in November.

House GOP leadership is planning to call up a pair of crypto-focused bills for consideration this week, including legislation that would establish a regulatory framework for digital assets. Specifically, the Financial Innovation and Technology (FIT) for the 21st Century Act would, among other things: (1) provide the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) with regulatory authority over digital assets as a commodity if the blockchain on which it runs is functional and decentralized; and (2) charge the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with regulating digital assets as a security if its blockchain is functional but not decentralized. The measure is expected to pass the chamber today and could do so with bipartisan support. Notably, Democratic leadership is not whipping against the FIT for the 21st Century Act, and the White House issued a statement of administration policy (SAP) that expresses opposition but doesn’t threaten a veto.

The House will meet for legislative business today as lawmakers look to quickly pass legislation to provide tax relief for recent disasters. Specifically, the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act (H.R. 5863) would: (1) extend rules for the treatment of certain disaster-related personal casualty losses; (2) provide tax relief for gross income losses due to wildfires; and (3) provide relief for those impacted by the East Palestine train derailment. The measure was originally included in the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act that passed the House earlier this year. However, with the Smith-Wyden tax bill on ice in the Senate, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) — the lead sponsor of H.R. 5863 — circulated a “discharge petition” that earned the requisite 218 votes needed to circumvent House leadership and place the bill on the floor for consideration. In addition to the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, lawmakers will take up suspension bills out of the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I), Financial Services (HFSC), and Oversight & Accountability.