House to Consider NDAA, Maybe

The House is currently scheduled today to take up an as of yet unintroduced resolution on the National Defense Authorization Act after it concludes work on approving the Senate Amendment to HR 8404, the Respect for Marriage Act. The unusual resolution (Rules Committee print) would:

“Resolved, That upon the adoption of this resolution the House shall be considered to have taken from the Speaker’s table the bill, H.R.7776, with the Senate amendment thereto, and to have concurred in the Senate amendment with the following amendment:”

The 4409-page resolution then goes on to provide the amendment (substitute language) that would be applied to HR 7776, making it the “James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023”. As best I can tell, this is the same language that the House Rules Committee was supposed to take up yesterday but did not because of further backroom negotiations to add more stuff to the NDAA.

This is an unusual legislative gimmick that the House leadership is using to move the NDAA forward. It is a perfectly legitimate use of House Rules, but it is certain to raise the ire of conservative House Republicans. It will probably reduce the number of Republicans that will vote for the NDAA in the House. It will have no effect on how the Senate deals with HR 7776.

NOTE: I will resume my review of the ‘new’ substitute language for items of interest here. It will probably not be completed by the time this resolution comes to a vote in the House.