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The House returns to session on Tuesday, and the Senate is in recess until July 8. The Legislative Update will take a one-week break and return on Monday, July 8, following the Independence Day holiday when both chambers return to session.
The House will continue its rapid pace to pass all 12 appropriations bills on the full floor before the August recess. On Tuesday, the Rules Committee will meet to set the rules on the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act (H.R. 8752), the Department of State and Foreign Operations Act (H.R. 8771), and the Department of Defense Appropriations Act (H.R. 8774) bills. The full House will vote on the three bills before leaving town this week. Even with the slim margins in the House, GOP leaders expect all three bills to pass. The Homeland Security and the Defense bills will include an increase of $3 billion and $9 billion, respectively, and the State–Foreign Operations bill will face an $8 billion cut from the previous fiscal year. The Senate will begin marking up their version of the Fiscal Year 25 appropriations bills starting on July 8. The chambers will be at odds as the House will not operate using the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) deal brokered by President Joe Biden, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) explained that he would not honor “side deals,” leading to cuts to non-defense spending. The Senate will certainly pass versions of the bills much different than the lawmakers in the House in the coming months, setting up intense negotiations. On movement in the Senate, Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), ranking member of the Agriculture–Food and Drug Administration bill, expects the bill to see the first Senate markup along with the Legislative Branch bill.
Later this week, the House Appropriations Committee will hold 5 subcommittee markups for the Labor-HHS, Transportation-HUD, Interior, Energy and Water, and Commerce-Justice-Science bills. Once complete, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) will look to finish full committee markups on the week of July 8 and hold a floor vote on the remaining bills the week of July 22, with the exception of the controversial Transportation–Housing and Urban Development bill, which will occur on July 29.
The House will consider 6 bills under suspension of the rules, with all six bills focused on international relations. For the remainder of the week, the House will hold several committee hearings, including a Homeland Security Committee hearing on “Finding 500,000: Addressing America’s Cyber Workforce Gap,” a Transportation and Infrastructure Committee markup on “The Water Resources Development Act of 2024,” the Natural Resources Committee will hold a markup on “Fix Our Forests Act (H.R. 8790),” and a Judiciary Committee hearing on “Follow the Science?: Oversight of the Biden COVID-19 Administrative State Response.”
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