Update from Washington, DC

The House and Senate are in recess this week for the Republican National Convention being held in Milwaukee, WI. Former President Trump may announce his Vice President selection tonight. The Vice Presidential pick is scheduled to speak Wednesday evening. One contender, Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), was spotted leaving his home today with a motorcade. Former President Trump is slated to speak on Thursday, the final night of the convention. The convention will be streamed on YouTube, X, Facebook Live, Rumble, Amazon Prime, Twitch, and Direct TV.

https://gopconvention2024.com/master-calendar/

The Democratic National Convention will be held in Chicago, IL the week of August 19-22.

https://demconvention.com

Both the House and Senate will be in session the weeks of July 22 and July 29. The House will focus on finishing their fiscal year 2025 (FY25) appropriations bills during those two weeks, while the Senate may take up their FY25 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as well as continue confirming Executive Brand and judicial nominations.

Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriations

House

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee completed work on all 12 of their annual spending bills. Four of these bills have narrowly passed on the House floor, however, the Legislative Branch bill was defeated last week by a vote of 205-213. This is typically one of the easier bills to pass, but some Republican members joined all Democrats who voted against the bill because it included a provision providing a pay raise for members of Congress. This could prevent the House from passing all 12 of its bills before the August recess.

The House plans on taking up the Agriculture, Energy & Water, Financial Services, and Interior Environment appropriations bills on the House floor when they return next week. If they manage to pass all four, they would have the four most contentious bills remaining for the final week of July.

Senate

Senate Appropriators started the FY25 appropriations process last week when they approved their subcommittee allocations and reported out three spending bills (Agriculture, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs). The Senate subcommittee allocations do not include $34.5B in emergency spending ($21B for defense programs and $13.5B for nondefense programs) or other upward “adjustments” for nondefense spending that were negotiated as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

Topline Funding Levels by Appropriations Subcommittee

*Note that the Senate allocations do not include any of the adjustments and emergency funding agreed to as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act agreement, or the additional emergency funding that Chair Murray and Vice Chair Collins have agreed to for fiscal year 2025. These resources will instead be reflected as  each subcommittees reports its bill.