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The House and Senate are in session this week.
Congressional leaders are working on an international aid package following the recent Iranian attack on Israel. Congress has remained stalled on funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan over unsettled differences within parties and chambers. The top leaders of Congress (House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries [D-N.Y.], Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.], and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.]) spoke with President Joe Biden on Sunday regarding the Iranian attack on Israel. House Republicans will meet tonight as Speaker Johnson weighs legislative options for international aid after vowing to take up aid for Israel this week. Ukraine funding remains a key discussion point and source of further negotiation. The Senate already passed an aid package in February including $60 billion to Ukraine, $14.1 billion to Israel, $9.2 billion in humanitarian assistance, and $4.8 billion to the Indo-Pacific region.
After last week's plans to send impeachment articles for Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas were adjusted, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) will deliver the articles to impeach Sec. Mayorkas to the Senate on Tuesday afternoon. In doing so, the Senate must act immediately on the two articles (H. Res. 863), the first accusing Sec. Mayorkas of “Willful and Systemic Refusal to Comply With the Law” and the second accusing him of “Breach of Public Trust”. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who serves as president pro tempore of the Senate, will swear-in all 100 senators for a trial. There are several senators on record who have said that Leader Schumer will likely offer a procedural motion to dismiss or table the charges, which requires only 51 votes to succeed. Majority Leader Schumer has yet to share specifics on how he plans to deal with the two impeachment articles.
Congress has until Friday, April 19 to extend the authority of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This past Friday, the House passed the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (H.R. 7888) by a vote of 273-147, which, if passed through the Senate this week, reauthorizes Section 702 of FISA through mid-April 2026 and places certain restrictions on the program. Specifically, authority within Section 702 permits the U.S. to gather digital communications of foreigners outside of the U.S. The Senate may consider various amendments to H.R. 7888, including provisions related to additional privacy protections.
The House will consider ten bills under suspension of the rules, all focused on sanctions related to Iran following the recent drone and missile attack on Israel, in addition to four more bills related to waivers for sanctions on Iran and the imposition of sanctions on Houthis in Yemen. The House will also vote on the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (H.R. 4639), which “stops the federal government from circumventing the Fourth Amendment right to privacy by closing loopholes that allow the government to purchase Americans’ data from big tech companies without a search warrant.” The Senate will vote this week on Ramona Manglona's nomination to be a U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern Mariana Islands for a term of ten years.
For the remainder of the week, the House will hold several hearings, including multiple Appropriations Subcommittee hearings reviewing Fiscal Year 2025 budget requests for the Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Food and Drug Administration, the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Forest Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Justice Department, Labor Department, Department of Defense, and Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Senate will hold several committee hearings, including several Senate Appropriations subcommittee FY25 budget oversight hearings for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, the Department of Health and Human Services, Justice Department, and the Department of Agriculture. The Senate Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development will hold a hearing on “Challenges in Preserving the U.S. Housing Stock;” and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold a hearing on “The Fiscal Year 2025 budget request for the Department of Energy”.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) will officially resign from the House on Friday, shrinking House Republicans' already razor-thin majority by one additional seat. Beginning on Saturday, Republicans will control 217 seats in the House, compared to 213 for the Democratic minority. If all 430 House members are present and voting, 216 votes would be required to pass a bill on the House floor over the next six weeks under regular order, which means that the 217-member House GOP majority could only afford to lose one GOP vote and still pass a bill with only GOP support. Four upcoming special House elections will adjust these narrow margins over the next two months, however. New York’s 26th Congressional District will very likely be filled by a Democrat in an April 30 special election (resulting in a House composed of 217 Rs and 214 Ds); California’s 20th Congressional District will be filled by a Republican in a May 21 special election (resulting in a House composed of 218 Rs and 214 Ds); Ohio’s 6th Congressional District will very likely be filled by a Republican in a June 11 special election (resulting in a House composed of 219 Rs and 214 Ds); and Colorado’s 4th Congressional District will very likely be filled by a Republican in a June 25 special election (resulting in a House composed of 220 Rs and 214 Ds).
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