Nominations, Lesser Prairie Chicken CRA, and Likely Tense Hearings in the Senate While the House Is in Recess
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.
Apologies for the late start: I was in New York City for part of last week, so I got a very late start on Point of Order. The good news is that you’re not missing much. The House is out, but the Senate is in. Expect the normal shenanigans. Also, how the hell is it already May?!
It’ll be an interesting week in the Senate: The Senate will reconvene today at 3:00 pm to resume consideration of the nomination of Anthony Devos Johnstone to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Senate invoked cloture on Johnstone’s nomination before senators skipped town on Thursday. A roll call vote on confirmation is expected to begin around 5:30 pm. We expect more nominations this week and potentially a joint resolution under the Congressional Review Act, S.J.Res. 9, related to the conservation status of the lesser prairie chicken. (Those are words I never thought I’d write, but here we are.) But these aren’t the reasons it’s going to be an interesting week. There are two committee hearings that are especially deserving of notice. The first is the Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday at 10:00 am on ethics reform at the Supreme Court. This hearing comes in light of more controversy surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch. These controversies will be the focus of this hearing, although Thomas will likely get more attention. Separately, the Budget Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday at 10:00 am on the Limit, Save, Grow Act, H.R. 2811, which Democrats are calling the “Default on America Act.” This will be the first hearing on the Limit, Save, Grow Act in either chamber since the legislation didn’t go through regular order in the House.
Senate fails to move ERA deadline: Last week, the Senate tried to pass a joint resolution, S.J.Res. 4, to remove the deadline to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Explaining the deadline is weird, so bear with me. As of January 2020, 38 states have ratified the ERA, which is technically the minimum for ratification. Well, it’s not that easy. When Congress sent the ERA to the states in March 1972, the joint resolution included a clause that stated, “[T]he following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission by the Congress.” March 1979 came and went, and 35 states ratified. However, five states—Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky, and South Dakota—rescinded ratification during the seven-year time frame. Congress extended the deadline to June 1982, but no other states ratified the amendment. In January 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA. Again, technically, that’s enough, but the deadline is a problem for ERA supporters. North Dakota rescinded ratification in March 2021. The notions of a timeline for the ratification of a constitutional amendment, the changing of that timeline, and the rescission of a timeline are all constitutionally dubious. Needless to say, the case law on all of this is fuzzy.
Senate committee schedule: Below are some Senate committee hearings that may be of interest. The full Senate committee schedule for the week is here.
Commodity Programs, Credit, and Crop Insurance—Part 1: Producer Perspectives on the Farm Safety Net (Agriculture Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade; Tuesday at 9:00 am)
Examining the President's Budget Request for the U.S. Department of the Interior for Fiscal Year 2024 (Energy and Natural Resources, Tuesday at 9:30 am)
A Review of the President's Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request for the Army (Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Tuesday at 10:00 am)
Markup of Various Legislative Measures (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Tuesday at 10:00 am)
Reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program: Improving Community Resilience (Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Tuesday at 10:00 am)
Improving Access to Federal Grants for Underserved Communities (Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Tuesday at 10:00 am)
Advancing Security and Prosperity Through International Conservation (Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; Tuesday at 10:30 am)
The Current Readiness of the Joint Force (Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, Tuesday at 2:30 pm)
Rural Housing Legislation (Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development; Tuesday at 2:45 pm)
FY 2024 Budget Request for East Asia and the Pacific (Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy; Tuesday at 3:00 pm)
Department of Defense Space Activities in Review of the Defense Authorization Request for FY 2024 and the Future Years Defense Program (Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, Tuesday at 4:45 pm)
A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request for the Environmental Protection Agency (Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies; Wednesday at 10:00 am)
A Review of the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request for the U.S. Department of Energy, including the National Nuclear Security Administration (Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water, Wednesday at 10:00 am)
Business Meeting (Foreign Relations, Wednesday at 10:00 am)
Barriers to Mental Health Care: Improving Provider Directory Accuracy to Reduce the Prevalence of Ghost Networks (Finance, Wednesday at 10:00 am)
US Army Corps Budget 2024 and Implementation of Water Resources Development Act of 2022 (Environment and Public Works, Wednesday at 10:00 am)
Who Pays the Price: The Real Cost of Fossil Fuels (Budget, Wednesday at 10:00 am)
Combatting Transnational Criminal Organizations and Related Trafficking (Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Wednesday at 2:00 pm)
Competition in the Digital Advertising Ecosystem (Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights; Wednesday at 2:30 pm)
The Global Information Wars: Is the U.S. Winning or Losing? (Foreign Relations Subcommittee on State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development; Wednesday at 2:30 pm)
Commodity Programs, Credit, and Crop Insurance—Part 2: Industry Perspective on Risk Management and Access to Credit (Agriculture Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade; Thursday at 10:00 am)
Oversight of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Energy and Natural Resources, Thursday at 10:00 am
A Review of the President’s FY 2024 Funding Request and Budget Justification for the National Institutes of Health (Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; Thursday at 10:00 am)
Supreme Court Ethics Reform (Judiciary, Thursday at 10:00 am)
The Default on America Act: Blackmail, Brinkmanship, and Billionaire Backroom Deals (Budget, Thursday at 10:00 am)
Nominations Hearing (Foreign Relations, Thursday at 10:15 am)
Preparing for the Next Public Health Emergency: Reauthorizing the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Thursday at 1:00 pm)
If you’re interested in watching any of these hearings online, you can find committee websites here.
Come watch awesome bands in Richmond: For my friends who are music fans, Avail, The Gaslight Anthem, Snapcase, Strike Anywhere, and others are playing a show on Saturday, July 29, on Brown’s Island in Richmond, Virginia. You may remember Snapcase from a while back when I promoted drummer Timothy Redmond’s book, Political Tribalism in America: How Hyper-Partisanship Dumbs Down Democracy and How to Fix It. I’ve been listening to these bands for years, but I’ve never seen Avail, Snapcase, or Strike Anywhere live, so I’m stoked about that. (I’ve seen The Gaslight Anthem once or twice.) You can get tickets to the show here.
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