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The House and Senate are in session this week. After avoiding a partial federal government shutdown last week, Congress must pass additional Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 government funding legislation by Friday, March 22 to avoid a partial shutdown for federal departments and agencies amounting to nearly 70 percent of overall discretionary federal funding.
On Saturday, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (P.L. 118-42) into law, finalizing FY 2024 funding for six of the 12 appropriations bills and all federal agencies funded by the Agriculture-Rural Development-Food and Drug Administration, Energy-Water Development, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, Interior-Environment, and Commerce-Justice-Science bills. The House passed the $460 billion “minibus” funding package by a vote of 339-85 followed by the Senate by a vote of 75-22. The legislation includes 6,628 Community Project Funding / Congressionally Directed Spending requests (i.e., earmarks) for FY 2024, totaling $12.7 billion for projects nationwide. Following the signage of the first six bills, lawmakers will shift to consideration and passage of the six remaining FY24 appropriations bills, which run out of funding on March 22. The remaining bills leave considerable issues for congressional leaders to work through. Specifically, the Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, and Homeland Security spending bills each have items where Democrats and Republicans are at odds. Negotiations also include numerous policy riders and significant differences regarding congressional earmarks under the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill since the House prohibited funding under those bill’s accounts in FY24 while the Senate allowed them.
On Monday, the Biden-Harris Administration released its FY 2025 budget proposal to Congress. By federal law, the annual president’s budget request serves as the start of the upcoming fiscal year’s funding process. The $7.3 trillion budget heads to Congress, and then Congress will, like all years, mostly disregard the numbers and priorities shared by the president and, instead, follow their own process for funding federal departments and agencies. The budget includes $1.67 trillion in discretionary spending, with $895 billion for base defense-related programs and $621 billion for domestic spending.
The House will consider twelve bills under suspension of the rules, including the Think Differently About Emergencies Act (H.R. 6249), which requires FEMA and the GAO to review disaster assistance and resources for people with disabilities and their families; the Senate-passed Disaster Assistance Deadlines Alignment Act (S. 1858), which matches the deadline for an individual seeking unemployment assistance for a major disaster under the Stafford Act to the application deadline for individuals and households seeking other assistance under that act; and the Eliminating Barriers to Rural Internet Development Grant Eligibility (E-BRIDGE) Act (H.R. 1752), allowing the EDA to make grants to public-private partnerships for broadband projects.
On Tuesday, the House will vote on the Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies (USE IT) Act of 2023 (H.R. 6276), which requires the OMB and GSA to establish standard methodologies and identify technologies to measure federal building utilization and to use both to evaluate and consolidate public buildings and federally-leased space. The House will end its week on Wednesday afternoon by voting on the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7251), which would force the sale of TikTok by ByteDance, the company that owns it, or face a ban in the United States.
The Senate will vote this week on the nominations of Jasmine Yoon to be a U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Virginia, Sunil Harjani to be a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, and Melissa DuBose to be a U.S. District Judge for the District of Rhode Island.
For the remainder of the week, the House will hold several hearings, including a Small Business Subcommittee hearing on “Navigating Regulations: Alternative Pathways to Investing in Small Businesses;” a Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee hearing on “Disaster Readiness: Examining the Propriety of the Expanded Use of FEMA Resources;” and a Natural Resources Committee markup of 12 bills. The Senate will hold several committee hearings, including an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing to “Examine the Findings and Recommendations of the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission;” a Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on “Examining Proposals to Address Housing Affordability, Availability, and Other Community Needs;” a Budget Committee hearing “The President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Proposal, with Testimony from OMB Director Shalanda Young;” a Finance Committee hearing on “The President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Proposal, with testimony from Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra;” a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing titled “A Nation on Fire: Responding to the Increasing Wildfire Threat”; and an Environment and Public Works Committee markup of three bills, including the Economic Development Reauthorization Act of 2024 (S. 3891) and the America’s Conservation Enhancement Reauthorization Act of 2024 (S. 3791).
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