House Tackles More Appropriations Bills, NDAA on the Horizon, Senate Considers Bipartisan Housing Bill
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.
Schedule and suspensions in the House: The House returns on Tuesday at 2:00 pm for legislative business. Votes will be postponed until 6:30 pm. The House will also be in session on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The last votes for the week are currently expected on Thursday. Eleven (11) bills are expected to be considered under the suspension of the rules (listed below). The cost estimates for those bills are available here.
S. 629, Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act (Agriculture Committee)
H.R. 7396, Native American Entrepreneurial Opportunity Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 7401, Small Business Lending Fraud Prevention Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 826, COVID Fraud Transparency Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 915, Small Business Technological Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 4238, Disaster Loan Accountability and Reform Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 8879, Oversight and Transparency for Small Business Certifications Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 8880, Small Business Cybersecurity Assistance Evaluation Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 8881, SBA Artificial Intelligence Utilization Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 8882, Main Street Competes Act (Small Business Committee)
H.R. 2478, Financial Exploitation Prevention Act (Financial Services 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 on Tuesday at 2:00 pm to markup the rule providing for the consideration of the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, H.R. 1181; the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for FY 2027, H.R. 8595; the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for FY 2027, H.R. 9022; and the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, H.R. 9237. Additional legislation is possible.
Appropriations in the House: As mentioned above, the House is expected to consider two of the 12 regular appropriations bills this week—NatSec and State and Energy and Water. The chamber has already passed two others—Agriculture in May and MilCon-VA in June. Defense will be marked up by the full House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday at 11:00 am. The rest of the appropriations bills are out of committee and awaiting action on the floor. There are, however, 16 legislative days scheduled until the August recess, so it’s unlikely that all the bills before the House comes back in September.
NDAA is looming: The House will soon consider the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2027, H.R. 8800. The bill has been posted on Rules, and more than 1,100 amendments have been filed. We’ll most likely see non-controversial amendments packaged in en bancs for adoption. NDAA was approved by committee on June 5 by a vote of 44 to 12.
Oh, and Section 702 expired: This congressional debate over the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has been wild. The Senate ended up taking the lead on the most recent attempt to reauthorize the law. On June 5, the motion to proceed to S. 1318 failed by a vote of 47 to 52. This wasn’t a cloture motion with a 60-vote threshold. This vote required only a simple majority. Some may say that a new nominee for Director of National Intelligence (DNI), like Jay Clayton, would bring Democrats on board. I’m not so sure. Democrats were hesitant to reauthorize 702 before Bill Pulte was appointed to serve as DNI. There are substantive issues that haven’t been addressed by either chamber’s version of 702 reauthorization, such as a warrant requirement. Those issues aren’t going away, no matter who Trump appoints.
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.
Housing bill in the Senate: The Senate returns today at 3:00 pm. Although there has been a heavy focus on nominees, as is the norm, the Senate will do some legislating early this week. A deal was reached on the housing bill. Late last week, cloture was invoked on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, H.R. 6644. Today, at 5:30 pm, the Senate will vote on the adoption of the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 6644, with a substitute amendment. The text of the substitute is S.Amdt. 5823.
Appropriations markup: The Senate Appropriations Committee, after weeks of disagreement over spending levels, has a markup scheduled on Thursday at 10:00 am for four of the 12 regular appropriations bills for FY 2027. The bills the committee will consider are Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA; Military Construction, Veterans Affairs; Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Act; and the Legislative Branch. The disagreement over spending levels set the Senate back in getting its work done on appropriations bills. Regardless of what happens in committee, the bills still need 60 votes for cloture on the Senate floor.
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.
Deficit watch: The budget deficit for FY 2026 is $1.2 trillion.
Due Process Institute is a bipartisan nonprofit that works to honor, preserve, and restore principles of fairness in the criminal legal system. Follow us on Bluesky, Twitter, and Facebook.