House Passes H Res 1061 – First Minibus for FY 2024 Spending

This afternoon, the House took up H Res 1061, describes as a resolution “Providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendment to HR 4366, with an amendment.", making this the vehicle for the first FY 2024 minibus that I described on Monday. While we will not know for sure until the language for H Res 1061 is published but this should be the language released by the House Appropriations Committee on Sunday.

After just a bit more than the scheduled 40-minutes of debate a recorded vote was demanded. The vote was subsequently held and the bill passed by a bipartisan vote of 339 to 85; the Republican vote was 132 to 83.

While the vote was on H Res 1061, the bill that will go to the President (if the new language is accepted in the Senate) will be HR 4366. That bill started out in the House as the Military Construction spending bill. On November 1^st the Senate passed the bill after adding Senate language  for the ARD spending (S 2131) and THUD spending ( 2437) bills. The revised bill provides compromise language for those three spending bills and adds language for CJS, EWR, and IER spending bills. The remaining six spending bills are due to be similarly considered before March 22^nd.

Committee Hearings – Week of 6-26-22

With the House conducting remote hearings and the Senate in their two-week 4^th of July weekend, there is a very light hearing scheduled. There will be three spending bill markups by the House Appropriations Committee.

FY 2023 Spending Bills

Tuesday- EWR – House – Appropriations Committee,

Wednesday – State – House – Appropriations Committee,

Thursday – THUD – House – Appropriations

None of these bills are likely to make it to the President’s desk; there will almost certainly be a consolidated spending bill of some sort passed in December. The committee reports will have significant direction from the Appropriations Committee to the various government agencies. How well those agencies will follow those directions remains to be seen.

Senate Begins Consideration of HR 3055 – First Senate Minibus Spending Bill

Yesterday the Senate began consideration of HR 3055. This was the second FY 2020 spending minibus passed by the House back in June. As is typical for spending bills, the first amendment to be proposed for this bill in the Senate is the substitute language from the Senate Appropriations Committee; SA 948.

This amendment would only have the Senate version consider four of the five divisions included in the House version. The Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act will be included in a later spending bill. The Senate leadership hopes that the remaining four divisions have a low enough controversy level that they will be able to be passed and sent to the House for conference with some hope of the bill actually making its way to the President’s desk before November 21^st; the end date of the current continuing resolution.

My quick review of the 43 pages this bill took up in yesterday’s Congressional Record did not turn up anything worth talking about here. Below is a quick table of contents for the bill if you are interested in looking for something in particular; please forgive the all-CAPS format, it is a simple copy and past job and I have no desire to go back and put it into a more reasonable case structure. NOTE: the 'Sxxxx numbers' are CR page numbers.

Senate Amendment 948

DIVISION A—COMMERCE AND JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2020 [S5978]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE [S5978]

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE [S5981]

SCIENCE [S5986]

RELATED AGENCIES [S5988]

DIVISION B—AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES [S5991]

AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMS [S5991]

FARM PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION PROGRAMS [S5994]

RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS [S5995]

DOMESTIC FOOD PROGRAMS [S5997]

FOREIGN ASSISTANCE AND RELATED PROGRAMS [S5998]

RELATED AGENCY AND FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION [S5998]

GENERAL PROVISIONS [S5999]

DIVISION C—DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED

AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2020 [S6003]

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR [S6003]

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [S6011]

RELATED AGENCIES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE [S6013]

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES [S6015]

GENERAL PROVISIONS [S6018]

DIVISION D—TRANSPORTATION, AND HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2020 [S6020]

TITLE I DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION [S6020]

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION [S6022]

FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION [S6023]

FEDERAL MOTOR CARRIER SAFETY ADMINISTRATION [S6025]

NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION [S6026]

FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION [S6026]

FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION [S6027]

MARITIME ADMINISTRATION [S6028]

PIPELINE AND HAZARDOUS MATERIALS SAFETY ADMINISTRATION [S6029]

PIPELINE SAFETY [S6029]

TITLE II DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT [S6030]

TITLE III RELATED AGENCIES [S6041]

Committee Hearings – Week of 05-11-15

Both the House and Senate will be in session this week. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDA) for 2016 is big on both sides of the Hill. The THUD (Transportation, Housing and Urban Development) spending bill is also moving forward. There are also two other hearings of potential interest to readers of this blog on drones and EMP.

Spending

The Senate Armed Services Committee and various sub-committees will be marking up their NDA (S 1118) all week. The text of that bill hasn’t been released yet, so we will have to wait and see what the final bill looks like, probably next week.

The House Rules Committee only has a general debate scheduled for the House version of the NDA (HR 1735). That hearing is scheduled for tomorrow evening. But the House is scheduled to take up the bill later this week so a rule meeting will almost certainly be held on Wednesday.

The House Appropriations Committee will markup the THUD bill on Wednesday. It would not be surprising to see amendments concerning rail hazmat issues.

Drones

The Oversight and Management Efficiency Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a markup hearing on Wednesday. Five bills will be addressed, including HR 1646, the Homeland Security Drone Assessment and Analysis Act. This bill has some serious bipartisan support and should move to the floor of the House rather quickly.

EMP

The Interior and National Security Subcommittees of the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee will be holding a hearing on Wednesday looking at the threat of EMP events. No witness list is yet available.

Senate THUD Fails Cloture Test

Yesterday the Senate failed to close debate on S 1243, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2014. The cloture vote failed by a partisan vote of 54 – 43. At the same time the House leadership pulled HR 2610, the House version of the bill, from consideration on the floor of the House. These two bills are shaping up to be a major focus of the budget conflict between the conservative wing of the Republican Party and the Democrats.

No more action will be taken on either bill until after the Congress returns on September 9^th.