Rule for HR 7148 Senate Amendment – Consolidated Appropriations

 This evening the House Rules Committee held a rule hearing for three bills that ill be considered under a rule, that includes the Senate Amendment to HR 7148 that removes the DHS spending portion of the bill and substitutes continuing resolution language for that Division. The Committee approved a closed rule to concur with the Senate Amendment by a party-line vote of 8 to 4. This means that there will be just one hour of debate on the Amendment, no amendments to be offered, and a single vote on passage.

A large portion of the federal government remains under shutdown since Friday midnight because the Senate amended the last minibus spending bill on Friday, the last day of the latest continuing resolution. If the House concurs with the Senate Amendment tomorrow, as is mostly expected, the completed bill goes to the President for signature. There remains a chance that the bill will fail in House tomorrow; House Democrats are not expected to vote for the Senate Amendment as an expression of their concerns about recent lethal immigration enforcement activities by ICE and CBP. If more than two Republicans also vote Nay on the bill because of underlying spending issues, then the bill would fail. Of course, each Democrat that did vote in favor of the Senate Amendment would provide legislative cover for an additional Republican to vote their fiscal concerns.

The House is expected to vote on the rule at about 11:30 am EST. If the rule passes a vote on the Senate Amendment is expected at about 1:00 pm EST.