House Focuses on Regulations Through CRA, Senate to Process Nominees and Procedural Vote on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act

Jason Pye - Vice President, Due Process Institute

Point of Order is a (mostly) weekly preview of key congressional activity for those with more than a passing interest in federal policy.

Joint Session Tomorrow Evening: Trump is scheduled to give a speech on Tuesday at 9:00 pm to a joint session of Congress. This isn’t a State of the Union address, so don’t call it that. He’s expected to outline his agenda. Given the events of the past several days, as well as the fact that the administration’s tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico will take effect the same day, the speech will almost certainly involve a lot of spin, in addition to being highly partisan. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) will give the Democratic response. How Democrats react both during and after the speech will be of interest to those of us who are wondering what their game plan is.

Schedule and suspensions in the House: The House returns at 2:00 pm today for legislative business. Votes are postponed until 6:30 pm. The House will also be in session on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The last votes for the week are expected no later than 3:00 pm on Thursday. No votes are expected on Friday. Seven bills are expected to be considered under the suspension of the rules (listed below). The cost estimates for those bills are available here.

• H.R. 579, Recruiting Families Using Data Act (Sponsored by Rep. Feenstra / Ways and Means Committee)

• H.R. 919, Chronic Disease Flexible Coverage Act (Sponsored by Rep. Buchanan / Ways and Means Committee)

• H.R. 1515, GOOD Act (Oversight and Government Reform Committee)

• H.R. 872, Federal Contractor Cybersecurity Vulnerability Reduction Act (Oversight and Government Reform Committee)

• H.R. 856, Safe and Smart Federal Purchasing Act (Oversight and Government Reform Committee)

• H.R. 758, Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act (Oversight and Government Reform Committee)

• H. Res. 153, Expressing condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of the victims of the crash of American Eagle Flight 5342 and PAT 25, and for other purposes. (Transportation and Infrastructure Committee)

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 at 4:00 pm today to markup the rule providing for the consideration of three disapproval resolutions under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), or, since there are multiple ones here, “CRAs.” H.J.Res. 61 disapproves of an Environmental Protection Agency rule related to rubber tire manufacturing. H.J.Res. 42 disapproves of a Department of Energy rule related to appliances. S.J.Res. 11 disapproves of a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management rule requiring oil and gas companies that drill on the outer continental shelf to conduct archaeological reports. S.J.Res. 11 passed the Senate on February 25. If it passes the House, S.J.Res. 11 heads to the White House. Additional legislative items are possible.

Just a reminder on the Congressional Review Act: I’m not going to get into the details. The simplest explanation is that the CRA allows Congress to cancel rules published by federal agencies. If a rule is canceled, the agency issuing the rule is prohibited from issuing another rule that is substantially the same. CRAs are privileged in the Senate, meaning the normal three-fifths threshold for cloture (60 votes if all senators present and voting) doesn’t apply. All that is needed is a simple majority. Until 2017, the CRA was considered arcane, having been successfully only once since it became law in March 1996. The CRA became more routine in 2017. More than a dozen CRAs were signed into law that year alone.

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.

Nominees in the Senate: The Senate will convene at 3:00 pm today to resume consideration of the nomination of Linda McMahon to serve as Secretary of Education. The Senate invoked cloture on McMahon’s nomination on Thursday. The Senate will begin a vote on the confirmation of McMahon around 5:30 pm. Cloture was filed on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, S. 9. A vote on the cloture motion to the motion to proceed will take place after the vote on McMahon’s confirmation.

The Senate has the ball on the budget: The House passed its version of the budget, H.Con.Res. 14, in a somewhat dramatic fashion last week. The vote had been canceled because a few conservatives threatened to vote against the budget, then, suddenly, House Republican leadership reversed course and held a vote. The Senate is up again. There’s already some discussion about changes to the House budget, particularly because of the concern about Medicaid cuts. There’s probably not time for a conference committee. Republicans in both chambers want to get the ball moving on budget reconciliation, but it’s unclear when the Senate plans to take a vote on the budget again.

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.

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