Congress Set to Finish FY 2024 Appropriations, Energy Bills in the House, Buck Resigning At Week's End
Jason Pye - Director, Rule of Law Initiatives
Point of Order is a (mostly) weekly preview of key congressional activity for those with more than a passing interest in federal policy.
Government funding update, Part I: The next tranche of appropriations bills for FY 2024 has to get done by Friday to avoid a government shutdown for the departments, agencies, and programs set to run out of money. This tranche consists of Defense; Financial Services and General Government (FSGG); Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-H); Homeland Security; Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Operations (State and Foreign Ops). Last week, appropriators hit a snag on Homeland Security and are now looking at a continuing resolution (CR) for that bill. Assuming that Homeland Security is included, we’ll see a “CRomnibus,” rather than an omnibus.
Government funding update, Part II: The House is expected to go first. Although the House is currently scheduled to be in session until Friday, there are already rumors that Members will go home on Thursday after the House passes the six remaining appropriations bills. The package will come to the floor under the suspension of the rules. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) avoids the possibility of the three conservatives on the House Rules Committee blocking the bill from coming to the floor by going through suspension. The Senate will take the bill up next. Ultimately, the Senate is where things get tricky because of time considerations. It’s possible there could be a technical shutdown that runs into the weekend if time agreements can’t be reached or are blocked. However, the funding measure will eventually pass.
Schedule and suspensions: The House returns on Tuesday at 2:00 pm for legislative business. Votes are postponed until 6:30 pm. Eleven (11) bills are expected to be considered under suspension of the rules (listed below). The cost estimates for those bills can be found here. The House will also meet on Wednesday, Thursday, and maybe Friday. Votes are definitely expected on Wednesday and Thursday. If the rumors are true, the last votes for the week will occur on Thursday.
H.R. 766, Dr. Michael C. Burgess Preventive Health Savings Act (Budget)
H.R. 1836, Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act (Transportation and Infrastructure)
H.R. 4723, Upholding the Dayton Peace Agreement Through Sanctions Act (Foreign Affairs)
H.R. 6260, FOCUS Act (Transportation and Infrastructure)
H.R. 6261, Impact of Crime on Public Building Usage (Transportation and Infrastructure)
H.R. 6306, Embassy Construction Integrity Act (Foreign Affairs)
H.R. 6602, To amend the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 relating to the review of the interagency dispute resolution process (Foreign Affairs)
H.R. 6610, Passport System Reform and Backlog Prevention Act (Foreign Affairs)
H.R. 7520, Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act (Energy and Commerce)
H.R.___, Udall Foundation Reauthorization Act (Natural Resources)
H. Res. 149, Condemning the illegal abduction of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation (Foreign Affairs)
Bills that come to the floor under suspension of the rules require two-thirds of members present and voting for passage. This is the most common way that bills considered by the House come to the floor. Some of these bills may be passed by a voice vote, rather than a roll call vote. Most bills that come to the floor under suspension aren’t widely considered controversial, although leadership may occasionally test a bill under suspension to gauge opposition or sneak a bill through the chamber.
Rule bills: The House Rules Committee will meet on Tuesday at 4:00 pm to markup the rule providing for the consideration of the Cutting Green Corruption and Taxes Act, H.R. 1023; the Protecting American Energy Production Act, H.R. 1121; the Restoring American Energy Dominance Act, H.R. 6009; the Nationwide Permitting Improvement Act, H.R. 7023; a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the United States economy, H.Con.Res. 86; and a resolution denouncing the harmful, anti-American energy policies of the Biden administration, and for other purposes, H.Res. 987. Legislation related to FY 2024 appropriation is also expected; however, the text has not yet been released.
He's Buck-ing done: Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) is calling it quits. Although Buck had already decided not to run for re-election, he announced his resignation effective at the end of this week. Buck, who has one of the most conservative voting records in the House, isn’t being quite on the way out. In a recent interview, Buck said, “It is the worst year of the nine years and three months that I’ve been in Congress and having talked to former members, it’s the worst year in 40, 50 years to be in Congress. But I’m leaving because I think there’s a job to do out there.” He added, “Instead of having decorum—instead of acting in a professional manner—this place has really devolved into this bickering and nonsense.” Buck is hitting on something indirectly. Politics has become entertainment for some and religion for others. It has gotten far too personal and petty.
And party divisions when he gets the Buck out: Buck's resignation will bring the number of Republican seats to 218. Democrats have 213. There will be four vacant seats CA-20 (McCarthy), CO-04 (Buck), NY-26 (Higgins), and OH-6 (Johnson). Three of those seats were held by Republicans. One was held by a Democrat. Under the new party divisions, a simple majority will be 216 votes. (Republican leadership can't lose more than two members on any vote.) Two-thirds will be 288 votes. The two-thirds threshold matters for a few different types of measures, but suspension bills are where it typically matters the most since that's how most legislation passes the House. Wait! There’s more! As a matter of the vacancy in CO-04, Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) has set the special election for the same day as the general primary—June 25. This matters because Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Beetlejuice), who currently represents CO-03, is running in CO-04. If she were to run and win the special in CO-04, she would have to resign in CO-04, creating another vacancy. Granted, the numbers in the House wouldn't change with this race alone. If Boebert does run in the special, it creates another headache for House Republican leadership because she will undoubtedly miss votes with an expedited timeline that a special election creates.
House committee schedule: The full House committee schedule for the week is here. If you’re interested in watching any of these hearings online, you can find committee websites here. (In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t listed committee hearings lately. Honestly, doing that takes more time than writing everything else in the newsletter. I haven’t decided if this is a permanent thing or not. Let me know what you think.)
More nominations in the Senate: The Senate returns on Tuesday at 3:00 pm to resume consideration of the nomination of Nicole G. Berner to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Cloture was agreed to on her nomination last week. Around 5:30 pm, the Senate will begin a roll call vote on the confirmation of Berner’s nomination. Cloture motions were also filed on the nominations of Edward Sunyol Kiel to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and Eumi K. Lee to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. We expect the Senate to spend latter part of the week processing the remaining FY 2024 appropriations package.
Senate committee schedule: The full Senate committee schedule for the week is here. If you’re interested in watching any of these hearings online, you can find committee websites here.
Nerd alert: The Congressional Budget Office will release its long-term budget projections on Wednesday at 2:00 pm. Don’t bother me after this is released. Don’t even think about it. Yes, that includes you, Emily. I love you, but these data let me nerd out for a few hours.
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