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The House and Senate are in session this week with all attention focused on a stopgap funding bill just 15 days from a potential government shutdown.
After another assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Sunday, lawmakers leading the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump have asked for a briefing from the U.S. Secret Service. Many are calling for more resources for the Secret Service.
Following internal pushback from his own party over a proposed six-month stopgap Continuing Resolution (CR), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) made the decision to pull the Continuing Appropriations and Other Matters Act, 2025 (H.R. 9494) from consideration last Wednesday. Instead of going to the floor, where the bill would fail, Speaker Johnson decided to use the weekend to consolidate votes and “build consensus” among Republican holdouts. The original bill text excluded key items that Senate Democrats and the White House are supportive of including in a CR, including immigration and border enforcement policies like E-Verify, expiring health care provisions including a federal telehealth program started during the pandemic, and addressing the Farm Bill’s “dairy cliff,” which, if not extended, would end dairy industry subsidies. Inaction from the House could leave the Senate to act first, with passage of a CR plan that would very likely forego a longer term sixth-month bill and opt, instead, for a shorter “clean” stopgap expiring on either December 13 or 20, 2024. Speaker Johnson will likely need to rely on votes from House Democrats in order to pass such a CR, making the negotiation much more difficult. In the meantime, the House is expected to move on the Veterans Benefits Continuity and Accountability Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024 (H.R. 9468), a $3 billion bill focusing on funding the Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans’ benefits that would otherwise expire on October 1.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Thursday that the Senate will vote on the Right to IVF Act (S. 4445), which would protect and expand nationwide access to fertility treatment, including in vitro fertilization (IVF). With Election Day only 50 days away, the Tuesday vote comes as Democrats hope to force Republicans’ hands on certain electoral issues. The measure expanding access to IVF nationwide is expected to fail on its cloture vote, which needs 60 votes to advance.
The House will consider 38 bills under suspension of the rules, including the BRIDGE for Workers Act (H.R. 5861), which extends reemployment services and eligibility assessments to all claimants for unemployment benefits; the SIREN Reauthorization Act (S. 265), which reauthorizes the rural emergency medical service training and equipment assistance program; and the FUTURE Networks Act (H.R. 1513), which directs the FCC to establish a ‘‘6G Task Force’’.
The House will also vote on the Protecting Americans’ Investments from Woke Policies Act (H.R. 5339), which requires retirement plan fiduciaries to prioritize returns over environmental, social, and governance factors when making investment decisions; the Anti-BDS Labeling Act (H.R. 5179), which codifies a Customs and Border Protection rule requiring goods originating from Israeli- and Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank to be labeled as “Made in Israel” or “Made in Gaza”; the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act (H.R. 7909), which makes noncitizens who commit sex offenses, domestic violence, and related crimes inadmissible to and deportable from the U.S.; the End Woke Higher Education Act (H.R. 3724), which mandates that accreditation standards for higher education not require support or opposition for political views or ideologies, and also that schools adopt policies on student groups and free speech on campus; the Prioritizing Economic Growth Over Woke Policies Act (H.R. 4790), which allows publicly owned companies to more easily block votes on investor proposals related to ESG issues; a Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolution (H.J. Res. 136) nullifying an EPA rule to more strictly regulate passenger vehicle tailpipe emissions and accelerate the transition to electric vehicles; and the No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act (H.R. 5717), which makes states and cities that have in place policies that hinder the federal government from enforcing immigration laws ineligible from receiving federal aid for migrant care.
The Senate will vote this week on Kevin Ritz to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit.
For the remainder of the week, the House and Senate will hold several committee hearings and markups, most notably a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials hearing on “Holding the Biden-Harris EPA Accountable for Radical Rush-to-Green Spending.” The Senate will also hold several hearings, including a Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Policy hearing on “The Macroeconomic Impacts of Potential Tax Reform in 2025”; a Finance Committee hearing on “Lower Health Care Costs for Americans: Understanding the Benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act”; an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing to “Examine Fusion Energy Technology Development;” an Environment and Public Works hearing on “America’s Regional Commissions: Sharing Best Practices in Regional and Economic Development;” and a Judiciary Committee hearing on several bills including the COPS Reauthorization Act, (S. 1306), reauthorizing the Community Oriented Policing Services grant program for each of FYs 2024 through 2029 at $651 million annually.
On Wednesday, voters in New Jersey’s 10th congressional district will vote in a special election to replace the late Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), following his death in late April. The winner of the special election, between Democrat LaMonica McIver and Republican Carmen Bucco will serve out former Rep. Payne’s term through January 3, 2025 and then face off again on November 5 to serve the full two-year term for the new 119th Congress. Assuming Ms. McIver wins in a district that President Joe Biden won by 62 percentage points in 2020, House Democrats will hold 212 seats to the Republicans 220 seats until mid-November 2024 (when two other vacancies in Wisconsin and Texas will be filled following special House elections on Nov. 5).
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