This Week on the Hill: Senate Impeachment Trial Looms After Pelosi Breaks Impasse

Lawmakers will resume legislative business later this afternoon as the Senate gears up for the next phase of the impeachment process. In a “Dear Colleague” letter to lawmakers late last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that the House will take up a resolution to appoint managers and transmit the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate. Senators are expected to swiftly begin the impeachment trial process upon disposition of the resolution.

For today, the House has queued up seven suspension bills out of the Financial Services Committee. This includes a bipartisan measure would mandate a Fed report on cybersecurity with respect to the functions of the Federal Reserve System. Other notable items up for consideration include: (1) a bill that would require the prudential banking regulators to provide annual testimony to Congress on their supervision and regulation activities; (2) legislation that would allow public housing agencies (PHA) to disclose information about people that are homeless to the local Continuum of Care (CoC) in order to help those people access services; and (3) an act that would mandate the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue rules to prevent corporate executives from trading during the so-called “8-K gap” before significant information is disclosed to the public.

Also on the floor this week, the House will take up a bill that would amend the Age Discrimination in Employment Act to bolster federal age-discrimination protections in the workplace. Additionally, House lawmakers will consider a Congressional Review Act resolution that would overturn a Department of Education Rule relating to “Borrower Defense Institutional Accountability.” Meanwhile, Senators will consider the nomination of Peter Gaynor to be Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).