Committee Hearings – Week of 6-7-20

This week with just the Senate in session there will be a relatively limited number of hearings being conducted. The only thing of interest here is the Senate Armed Services Committee (and its subcommittees) will be marking up the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

NDAA Hearings

Subcommittee hearings of interest here will be closed hearings. They include:

• Tuesday - Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities,

• Tuesday - Subcommittee on Cybersecurity

The full Committee will meet on Wednesday (and Thursday if necessary) in closed session to finish the markup process.

House Hearings

While the House will not be in session this week there will be eleven hearings held by committees and subcommittees this week. None of them are of particular interest here. The hearings are all being conducted remotely under the new (and ‘temporary’) COVID-19 provisions.

While the House has a long history of conducting ‘field hearings’ during recesses, this is the largest number in a single week that I recall seeing. The ability to conduct hearings remotely will make it easier for House committees to conduct informational hearings while in recess. This could make them much more common. It will be interesting to see if the House considers expanding this capability post-COVID-19.