Capitol Hill Update: June 17, 2019

Schedule:

The House and Senate are in session this week.

House:

The House will return tomorrow. Legislative business begins at 2:00 pm. Votes are postponed until 6:30 pm. There’s only one bill coming to the floor on suspension, and that bill is the Empowering Beneficiaries, Ensuring Access, and Strengthening Accountability Act, H.R. 3253. The House Rules Committee made 221 amendments in order (the full list is here and here) to the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, H.R. 2740. Seventy amendments have already been considered, with all but six being adopted. The House will consider remaining amendments on the floor this week. FreedomWorks released two key vote notices on amendments to H.R. 2740. Those key vote notices are here and here.

After processing the amendments to H.R. 2740 and considering final passage of the bill, the House will turn to the Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, H.R. 3055. The House Rules Committee will consider the rule on Tuesday at 5:00 pm and begin to determine which of the more than 53 amendments will be made in order for consideration on the floor.

The committee schedule for the week is here.

Senate:

The Senate will return Monday at 3:00 pm for a pro forma session. On Tuesday, the chamber will convene at 10:00 am. The Senate will likely begin to process the nominations that Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filed cloture on Thursday before adjourning. Those nominations are as follows.

• Sean Cairncross to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation
• Matthew Kacsmaryk to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
• Allen Winsor to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida
• James Cain to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
• Greg Guidry to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana

At some point this week, the Senate will begin to process the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2020, S. 1790. Cloture for consideration was filed on Thursday. Although few will be subject to floor votes, more than 380 amendments have been filed to the $750 billion bill. This is $674 billion in base defense and $76 billion overseas contingency operations, the latter of which isn’t subject to the discretionary spending caps. This iteration of NDAA provides a 3.1 percent pay increase for active-duty military, funds the White House’s request to modernize of nuclear weapons, increases funding for the Department of Defense to acquire rare earth minerals, creates the President’s Space Force program, and a lot more.

The committee schedule for the week is here.