Senate Begins Consideration of House Amendment to HR 7776 – FY 2023 NDAA

Yesterday, the Senate began consideration of the House amendment to HR 7776. This is the revised version of the National Defense Authorization Act that was passed in the House last week. No votes have been scheduled yet. According to the Congressional Record, there is one actual (a number of ‘tree-packing’ amendments are listed but mean nothing) amendment to the House language that may be considered, SA 6513. This is Sen Manchin’s (D,WV) controversial Building American Energy Security Act of 2022 that has been offered every time that the Senate has taken up a ‘must pass’ bill.

I suspect that Manchin will get a vote on the bill this time, but it would have to be at a 60-vote margin to get opponents to go along with holding a vote without cloture. That 60-vote requirement for passage would almost certainly kill the amendment.

With the pending continuing resolution moving the last day of the 117^th Congress to at least December 23^rd, the Senate leadership has more room to get through an extended process on the underlying bill without agreeing to considering other odd amendments.