Senate Eyes Final Passage of Foreign Aid Supplemental

Both chambers will be back in session for the early part of this week, but senators are not expected to stick around too long. As of the current schedule, the Senate is slated to be in session until at least Tuesday to complete consideration of the foreign aid supplemental before leaving for the chamber’s Presidents’ Day state work period. The funding bill — which includes buckets of aid for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific, as well as the Senate Banking Committee’s Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act — is on track to pass with bipartisan support despite opposition from Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY), both of whom blocked unanimous consent (UC) to speed up passage. The opposition from Senate conservatives is also echoed by House Republicans, who have characterized the bill as “dead-on-arrival” multiple times in recent weeks.

• Meanwhile… The House will gavel back in for legislative business on Tuesday. With the return of Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Republicans are set to try again on their efforts to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Last week’s vote on the impeachment resolution fell short by one vote in the narrowly-divided chamber, but there is an expectation among leadership that it will succeed upon Leader Scalise’s return. While senators on both sides of the aisle have expressed skepticism about the House GOP’s impeachment efforts, the chamber will nevertheless need to devote floor time to the resolution — assuming it can pass this week — thus further complicating Congress’s already-busy schedule this year.