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The House and Senate are in recess for the next two weeks. Congress’ last act before leaving Washington, D.C., was passing the remaining Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 government funding legislation.
Congress passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (P.L. 118-47) late last week, and President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law early Saturday afternoon, finalizing government funding for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2024. The $1.2 trillion second “minibus” package includes the Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch, and State-Foreign Operations spending bills. The House passed the bill by a vote of 286-134 on Friday morning, and the Senate followed, passing the bill 74-24 in the early hours of Saturday. Passage of the second FY24 minibus comes after President Biden signed the first FY24 minibus package of six spending bills into law on Saturday, March 9. With these actions, all federal departments and agencies have full-year funding through September 30, 2024. Congress will now pivot to the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations process following the release of President Biden’s $7.3 trillion budget request on March 11. House Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger (R-Texas) announced Friday that she would step down as Chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee “as soon as possible.” Senior appropriators Tom Cole (R-Okla.), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), and Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) have all stated their intentions to run as Appropriations Committee Chair for the remainder of the current 118th Congress. Complicating matters for House Republicans for the rest of the 118th Congress is their majority that continues to slim. The GOP will hold a 217-213 majority over Democrats following Rep. Mike Gallagher’s (R-Wis.) recent resignation announcement, effective April 19. House Republicans will only be able to lose one vote and still pass legislation with GOP votes from late April to early June, until former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) Republican successor is sworn into office following a special May 21 election.
Upon returning, the House will work quickly to address the motion to vacate from Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), removing Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from office. Rep. Greene held off from immediately forcing the action to allow the chamber to work through the FY24 government funding minibus. If ousted, Speaker Johnson would have only lasted five months in the role. He would follow former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who was removed on October 3 for similar reasons, leading the most conservative flank of the GOP to move to remove him. Rep. Greene would need to present the privileged resolution that gives priority over other measures, requiring a vote within two legislative days and needing only a simple majority of those present and voting to pass. Speaker Johnson could receive assistance from House Democrats tabling the motion to vacate if the Speaker puts the Ukraine aid package on the House floor for a vote.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will decide on when and if the upper chamber will take up the House-passed Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521), which would require TikTok to separate from its Chinese-based owner ByteDance or face a ban in the United States. The House overwhelmingly passed the bill on March 13 by a vote of 352-65-1. The Senate will also decide on how to act on the House-passed Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 (H.R. 7024), which would make improvements to the Child Tax Credit, provides tax incentives to promote economic growth, provides tax relief with respect to certain federal disasters, and makes improvements to items.
Other must-pass items for Congress to tackle later this Spring include reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by April 19, which is intended to make it easier for the federal government to monitor foreign terrorists, and the five-year reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by May 10.
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