House to Consider Another Approps Minibus, Veto Overrides, and Expanded ACA Subdies While the Senate Takes Up More Nominations
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.
We have a birthday in the Pye home: My significantly better half, Emily, is celebrating her birthday today. Happy birthday, Love. I hope you’re ready to finish Stranger Things with The Kid™️tonight.
Schedule in the House: The House returns at 2:00 pm on Tuesday for legislative business. There aren’t any suspension bills scheduled for the week. However, the House will meet to establish a quorum for the Second Session of the 119th Congress. A recorded vote on the quorum will be held around 6:30 pm on Tuesday. The House will also be in session on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The last votes for the week are expected no later than 3:00 pm on Friday.
Rule bills: The House Rules Committee will meet at 6:45 pm on Tuesday to mark up the rule providing for the consideration of the SHOWER Act, H.R. 4593; the Affordable HOMES Act, H.R. 5184; and the Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act for FY 2026, H.R. ____.
Discharge petition for enhanced ACA subsidies: Before the House adjourned in December, four Republicans—Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Rob Bresnahan (R-PA), and Ryan Mackensie (R-PA)—signed the discharge petition for H.Res. 780, providing for the consideration of H.R. 1834. This is the vehicle for a three-year extension of the enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Those subsidies expired at the end of the year. This almost guarantees passage. However, the bill would still need action in the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and most of his conference appear opposed to extending the subsidies.
Veto overrides: During the break, Trump vetoed two noncontroversial measures—the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, H.R. 131, and the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act, H.R. 504. The White House’s reasoning for the veto of H.R. 131 is that the ”local water project” is too costly ($1.3 billion). However, Trump also has publicly criticized Colorado Gov. Jared Polis for not releasing imprisoned former election official Tina Peters to federal custody. Peters is serving a nine-year state prison term for her role in a breach of Mesa County’s voting machines. The veto for H.R. 504 appears to have been vetoed because the “Miccosukee Tribe has actively sought to obstruct reasonable immigration policies that the American people decisively voted for[.]” As a reminder, Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override a veto.
A quick note on appropriations: The appropriations bill that the House will consider this week is another minibus. It contains three appropriations bills—Commerce, Justice, and Science; Energy and Water; and Interior and Environment. Agriculture, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs were completed on November 12. If this minibus is cleared by both chambers and signed into law, that’ll leave six remaining appropriations bills on the table for Congress to get done before January 30. The six remaining include Defense; Homeland Security; and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Tho of those bills, Defense and Homeland Security, will take some massaging because of the controversies the administration has created. Labor-HHS-Education could be a tough bill to get out of a very conservative House.
Party divisions in the House: We expect changes to the party divisions in the House this week. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) will resign today. That’ll bring the House Republican Conference down to 219 members. The House Democratic Caucus has 213 members. The vacancies are TX-18 (Turner) and NJ-11 (Sherrill). Turner’s seat has been vacant since March 5. Because the special election was slow-walked for partisan reasons, the runoff to decide who will fill the remainder of the term is set for January 31. The primary for NJ-11 is February 5. The general election is on April 16. The special election for GA-14 (Greene) hasn’t been called yet.
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.
Nominations in the Senate: The Senate returns today at 3:00 pm. Before the holiday break, cloture was invoked on the nominations of Joshua Simmons to serve as General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency, Keith Bass to serve as an Assistant Secretary of Defense, Alexander Van Hook to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, and Sara Bailey to serve as the Director of National Drug Control Policy. A roll call vote on confirmation of the Bass nomination is expected to begin around 5:30 pm.
Appropriations and war powers: Assuming the House gets the minibus done, the Senate will likely begin to process it. Granted, how long that’ll take and the process for the bill in the Senate isn’t clear. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) is also likely to force a vote on S.J.Res. 90. This is a joint resolution under the War Powers Resolution to end hostilities against Venezuela. Kaine filed S.J.Res. 90 in December. As I’m sure you’re aware, the Trump administration attacked Venezuela on January 3 and captured Nicolas Maduro. There’s a possibility of additional attacks, as well as the administration’s apparent decision to run the South American country during a period of transition.
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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