Congress is in recess this week. They will return next week and will be in session for the next three weeks. They will recess again for the weeks of June 27 and July 4.

When they return the week of June 6 their focus will be on FY23 appropriations bills, gun control legislation, January 6^th insurrection hearings, U.S. Innovation and Competition Act conference negotiations, and legislation on mental health, drug pricing and user fee reauthorizations.

Amidst all of this, another thing to keep an eye out for is that the Supreme Court generally releases the majority of its decisions in mid-June.

Here’s an update on some of the biggest issues being discussed and negotiated in Congress right now.

FY2023 Appropriations

The House will begin marking up their 12 FY2023 appropriations bills in June, with the goal of bringing them to the House floor in July. Senate Appropriators aim to mark up all of their bills in committee in July. The fiscal year ends on September 30. While Congress is unlikely to enact all 12 bills before that deadline, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ranking Republican Richard Shelby (R-AL) are both retiring at the end of this Congress and want to complete these bills before they leave DC in December. The chairs and ranking members from the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have met to discuss topline spending figures (defense vs. non-defense spending) with the hopes that this will expedite the appropriations process this year, but they have not yet reached an agreement.

Ukraine

Tomorrow marks the 100^th day of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, the U.S. has committed approximately $4.6 billion in security assistance. Yesterday, the Department of Defense announced an additional $700 million focused on meeting critical Ukrainian needs. Capabilities in this new package include:

• High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and ammunition;
• Five counter-artillery radars;
• Two air surveillance radars;
• 1,000 Javelins and 50 Command Launch Units;
• 6,000 anti-armor weapons;
• 15,000 155mm artillery rounds;
• Four Mi-17 helicopters;
• 15 tactical vehicles;
• Spare parts and equipment.

The United States continues to work with its Allies and partners to identify and provide Ukraine with capabilities to meet its evolving battlefield requirements.

January 6^th Committee Hearings

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol is expected to begin public hearings on June 9.

The committee aims to tell a more complete story of what happened that day and what led to it. Over two weeks of hearings, they intend to showcase what they uncovered in months of work on the events surrounding the attack, such as the more than 1,000 interviews they have conducted and thousands of documents they received from witnesses.

The committee may not be able to enforce all their subpoenas before the public hearings begin next week.  They are limited by the number of weeks left in the congressional calendar and the outlook that the House will be under Republican control after the midterm elections.

While the committee has not announced the roster of witnesses for the hearing, J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge and lawyer who advised former Vice President Mike Pence, is expected to testify. Luttig served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and was a key behind-the-scenes figure in the lead up to January 6. He provided the Vice President with the legal argument Pence used to reject former President Trump’s order to overturn President Biden’s victory.

Gun Control

Today, the House Judiciary Committee is holding a rare recess markup of H.R. 7910, the Protecting Our Kids Act, a large package of gun-control bills. The bill prohibits the sale of certain semiautomatic centerfire rifles or semiautomatic centerfire shotguns to a person under 21, prohibits the sale of “ghost gun” kits without a background check or serial numbers stamped on the parts used in assembling the weapon, boosts penalties for illegal “straw purchases” of guns, makes it a federal offence to import, manufacture or possess large-capacity magazines, creates a grant program to buy back large-capacity magazines, and requires gun owners to store their weapons safely, especially when minors are present. The bill will go to the House floor next week. While the bill has the votes to pass in the House, there is no chance of it overcoming Senate Republican opposition.

Yesterday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promised to have a hearing and markup of the assault weapons ban at a future date. In the wake of the Uvalde mass shooting, a handful of House Republicans have expressed an openness to banning assault-style rifles.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has set a vote for next week on a “red flag” bill offered by Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA), H.R. 2377. That bill calls for the removal of guns from those deemed dangerous to themselves or others. It will be paired with a bill, H.R. 3480, from Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) that encourages states to enact their own red flag laws. Nineteen states currently have such laws.

A bipartisan group of senators, led by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and John Cornyn (R-TX), is negotiating a narrower gun-control package that focuses on state-based red flag programs, school safety, and mental health programs. They met yesterday and hope to have an agreement in place by next week. Sources involved in the negotiations say interest in reaching a compromise remains genuine on both sides. In addition to Murphy and Cornyn, taking part in the discussions were Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and Pat Toomey (R-PA).

The House passed the final 2,741-page fiscal year 2022 omnibus appropriations bill late last night sending the measure to the Senate before House Democrats left town for a Democratic retreat. The House first voted 361-69 to back funding for the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security and other national security items, and then 260-171, with Rep. Tlaib (D-MI) voting “present,” to advance the provisions largely related to domestic programs.

The FY22 omnibus appropriates $1.5 trillion in discretionary funding ($782.5 billion for defense and $730 billion for non-defense) and $13.6 billion in emergency spending to address the crisis in Ukraine. The omnibus also included several reauthorizations – Violence Against Women Act, National Flood Insurance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the annual intelligence authorization, a provision to promote the U.S.-Israel relationship and back regional peace initiatives such as the Abraham accords, a livestock reporting program, and more.

Last week, the White House requested an additional $22.5 billion for Covid-19 vaccines, testing, and therapeutics. Senate Republicans responded that the funding level was too high, and that it should be offset by cuts elsewhere. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) agreed to reduce the funding level to $15.6 billion and offset part of it by rescinding some state aid provided in an earlier relief bill. However, a number of Democrats objected to the offset saying that it unfairly penalized some states. To get the omnibus across the finish line in the House, the Speaker stripped the covid funding out of the omnibus. A stand-alone covid relief bill will be considered next week when the House reconvenes, but it faces a dim outlook in the Senate. The White House has warned testing capacity will start declining this month without this additional funding.

The omnibus now goes to the Senate for consideration. In case they don’t complete action on it by March 11 when the current continuing resolution (CR) expires, the House also passed a short-term CR funding the federal government through March 15.

Below are links to the 12 appropriations bills included in the FY22 omnibus as well as the Ukraine supplemental:

Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies: Report Language| Summary | One-Pager

Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies: Report Language| Summary | One-Pager

Defense: Report Language Part 1| Report Language Part 2| Summary | One-Pager

Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies: Report Language| Summary | One-Pager

Financial Services and General Government: Report Language| Summary | One-Pager

Homeland Security: Report Language| Summary | One-Pager

Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: Report Language| Summary | One-Pager

Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies: Report Language Part 1| Report Language Part 2| Summary | One-Pager

Legislative Branch: Report Language| Summary | One-Pager

Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies: Report Language| Summary | One-Pager

State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: Report Language| Summary | One-Pager

Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies: Report Language| Summary | One Pager

Ukraine Supplemental: Summary  | One-Pager

This week the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an interim final rule to require employers with 100 or more employees to ensure each of their workers is full vaccinated or tests negative for COVID at least once a week and wears a face covering at work. 

Debt Ceiling

The House approved a bill on Tuesday that will briefly lift the debt ceiling until about December 3, 2021 (the same day the current continuing resolution funding the federal government expires). The bill increases the Treasury Department’s borrowing authority by $480B to nearly $28.9T. President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law.

Bipartisan $1.2T Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) (Infrastructure)

and

$3.5T Build Back Better Budget Act (Budget Reconciliation)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) want to send a budget reconciliation package and an infrastructure bill to the President’s desk before November. However, they are no way near reaching a deal on budget reconciliation within their own caucus even on the topline spending number. Progressives are pushing for $3.5T or more, while moderates in the party have suggested $1.5T is a more appropriate topline figure. President Biden has suggested a compromise of $2T. Without a compromise on the overall amount, the rest of the details for the reconciliation package can’t be ironed out. Once an overall spending level is agreed on, Progressives will have to determine what social spending or climate programs they are amenable to cutting to get to that spending level. Another option is to trim the duration of the programs instead of cutting them. However, the New Democratic Coalition (the House’s biggest moderate caucus) is arguing that a smaller package should focus on long-term certainty for a handful of priority programs. It may take until the end of the calendar year for Democrats to reach an agreement within their caucus. If that’s the case, then a longer-term lift of the debt ceiling could be included in a final budget reconciliation bill.

Upcoming Deadlines

Highway Authorization – October 31, 2021

FY2022 Appropriations Bills – December 3, 2021

Debt Ceiling – Approx. December 3, 2021 (Some forecasters say this latest increase in borrowing authority could allow Treasury to keep paying its bills through the end of the calendar year or even slightly into 2022.)

The Senate passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) by a vote of 69 to 30 today. While this marks a major milestone for getting the bill enacted into law, there are a few more hurdles to overcome.

The bill now goes to the House for consideration. If the House passes the bill without any changes it would go directly to the President for his signature. The White House has privately cautioned House Democrats about making any changes to the bill saying it would risk delaying or blowing up the deal.

A group of Senate Republicans lead by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) unveiled a $568B infrastructure proposal today. This is their counteroffer to President Biden’s proposed $2.3T American Jobs Plan. 

Today House Democrats released a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the federal government at FY 2020 levels when the FY2020 appropriations bills expire on September 30. The CR funds the federal government through December 11, 2020.

Under a CR, agencies are not allowed to initiate or resume any project or activity for which appropriations, funds, or other authority were not available in FY2020 (translation: no new starts under a CR).

The CR also includes, among other things, the following:

• Additional funding for Presidential Inauguration activities, transition activities, transition archival activities, and transition office space
• One-Year extension of the highway authorization at FY2020 levels
• Authorization of the National Flood Insurance Program through September 30, 2021
• One-Year reauthorization of the Appalachian Regional Commission
• Extensions of funding and authorizations for public health programs
• Medicare and Medicaid funding and authorization extenders
• Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act
• United State Parole Commission Extension Act
• Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Permanent Extension Act
• Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act

The CR does not include the $30B in farm aid that the administration was seeking to replenish funding for the U.S. Dept of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corp. President Trump had announced $13B in new aid to farmers at a rally in Wisconsin on Thursday. Democrats had considered including the additional farm funding in the CR in exchange for $2B in child nutrition funding, but then canceled the tradeoff. Both programs are not funded in the CR.

The House will vote on the CR this week and then it will go to the Senate to act before September 30. Senate Republicans could potentially reject the measure, so a federal government shutdown is not out of the picture. However, support staff for Congress are affected during a shutdown. Those deemed non-essential would be furloughed. If the Senate wants to confirm a Supreme Court Justice, they are likely to want to avoid a shutdown.

Continuing Resolution Bill Text

https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-116HR8319IH.pdf

Continuing Resolution Summary

https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/democrats.appropriations.house.gov/files/Continuing%20Appropriations%202021%20Extensions%202020%20Summary.pdf 

The House Appropriations Committee began work on their FY2021 spending bills last week. The committee will complete action on all 12 spending bills this week. Next week, they will package four of these bills – Agriculture, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and State-Foreign Operations – and consider them on the House floor. The week of July 27, they will take up another package of FY21 spending bills, but didn’t announce which bills would be included in that package. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) wrote in a Dear Colleague, “the House will have passed legislation to fund 96% of the government before the end of July for the second time in two years.” Most think that this means they will hold back the FY21 Homeland Security Appropriations bill from House floor consideration as it is 3.9% of the total FY21 discretionary budget.

Senate Appropriators have not released nor marked up any of their FY21 bills. Senate Republicans are concerned that Democrats will offer amendments on coronavirus aid (they think that should be considered separately) or on reforming police (they think that should be a separate policy bill, not a spending bill).

As they were marking up their FY21 bills, House Appropriators set the overall funding levels – called 302(b)s – for each subcommittee. Here’s how the House funding levels compare with the enacted levels for FY20.

The end of the fiscal year is September 30. Congress likely will have to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government past September 30. A CR basically funds the government at the prior year’s funding levels and doesn’t allow for any new starts.

I went through some of the House FY21 spending bills and pulled funding levels and language for programs I thought would be of interest to FOSA members.