Setting the Stage

Jul 9, 2024 · by Daniel Schuman

Good morning, GovTrackers!

The House of Representatives and the Senate are in session this week, off next week for the Republican convention, and then back for two final weeks. After that, it’s August recess and Congress won’t return until September 9th.

Joe Biden’s future is the major focus in both chambers, with Democrats holding a series of meetings on and off Capitol Hill as they ponder whether to publicly or privately encourage him to step aside as the party’s nominee for president. In addition, Congress is still reacting to a series of Supreme Court decisions that move discretionary regulatory power from federal agencies to federal courts and that grant immunity to presidents for illegal activities carried out while in office that qualify in some as yet undefined way as official acts.

The House of Representatives will consider six bills according to a rule (which requires a majority vote) and six bills under suspension of the rules (which requires a 2/3s vote for passage). Suspension of the rules is used both when bills are relatively noncontroversial but also when it may cause a split in the opposing party over a particular measure.

Among the bills subject to a rule is a bill to appropriate funding for the Legislative branch, a bill requiring citizens to show proof of citizenship in order to register to vote and that allows individuals to sue election officials, and a joint resolution that would nullify an agency rule relating to a prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programs or activities. There’s also a bill preventing the Department of Energy from enforcing energy conservation standards for refrigerators.

Among the bills under suspension is a bill to allow American Samoa to approve amendments to their territorial constitution, a bill to reauthorize the US Geological Survey’s authority to track water in streams and rivers, a bill to address royalties for oil and gas leaseholders, and a bill to relax requirements for the Department of the Interior in appraising and valuing real property for transactions over which Interior has jurisdiction.

House committees will hold twenty-six proceedings, including a meeting by the House Rules Committee on Monday to report rules that govern consideration and possible amendments to the six bills set for consideration pursuant to a rule. Of particular note is that House Appropriators on Tuesday will consider three major appropriations bills at one markup, and another three on Wednesday — passage of which will place all six bills on a path to floor consideration next week.

The Senate’s floor calendar this week is a mystery, and all we know for sure are that nominations are on the docket. News reports suggest that Sen. Schumer is deciding between two paths. 

One path is a series of show-votes intended to help Democratic incumbents, such as the Wyden-Smith tax bill (which includes an extension of the child tax credit) and a railway safety bill. These measures, which are popular in Ohio and thus relevant to an incumbent senator, are expected to draw Republican opposition and become stuck in the Senate, and this will draw a contrast between the parties. 

The other path is a series of bills that would pass the Senate with more than sixty votes, such as the Kids Online Safety Act, which has 70 co-sponsors and would require some internet platforms to identify everyone who uses their sites in an effort to mitigate harms from their use by children, and the RECOUP Act, which allows the government to clawback bonuses received by bank executives in the 24 months prior to a bank failure. While these bills are bipartisan, it is expected that Senate Republicans will slow down the legislation to waste more than a week of time on the Senate floor, preventing Senate Democrats from passing other bills.

Senate committees will hold 26 proceedings, The full Senate Appropriations Committee is holding a mark-up on three appropriations bills on Thursday as well as adopting top line spending levels for each of its appropriations subcommittees. These top lines, which will also be voted upon in the House this week, determine how appropriated funds are divided among the twelve appropriations bills. 

The largest appropriations bill, which is the Defense Appropriations bill, will receive somewhere in the vicinity of $800-900 billion; the smallest, the Legislative Branch, will receive somewhere in the vicinity of $7 billion. The big fight is over whether the Defense Appropriations bill will be increased, and if so, whether non-defense spending will change by an equal amount.

For those of you who want to get even more into the weeds, this week I’ve restarted my much longer newsletter on Congress, the First Branch Forecast, which is focused on how power is wielded in Congress, improving the operations of the Legislative branch, and government transparency and accountability. You can read Monday’s edition here,