Capitol Hill Update: June 10, 2019

Schedule:

The House and Senate are in session this week.

House:

The House will return today. Legislative business begins at 2:00 pm. Votes are postponed until 6:30 pm. There are a total of 11 bills coming to the floor on suspension between today and tomorrow.

• H.R. 3151, Taxpayer First Act
• H.R. 542, Supporting Research and Development for First Responders Act
• H.R. 2476, Securing American Nonprofit Organizations Against Terrorism Act
• H.R. 1158, DHS Cyber Incident Response Teams Act
• H.R. 2539, Strengthening Local Transportation Security Capabilities Act
• H.R. 2083, Homeland Procurement Reform Act
• H.R. 2609, DHS Acquisition Review Board Act
• H.R. 2590, DHS Overseas Personnel Enhancement Act
• H.Res. 372, Expressing Concern for the United States-Turkey Alliance
• H.R. 951, United States-Mexico Tourism Improvement Act
• H.R. 2140, Prevent Child Marriage Act

The House Rules Committee will meet at 5:00 pm today to consider the rule(s) governing consideration of H. Res. 430 and H.R. 2740. As of Friday at 4:00 pm, more than 460 amendments had been filed for H.R. 2740, a mega-bus spending measure. H.Res. 430 authorizes House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) to seek a civil judgment to enforce the subpoenas issued to Attorney General William Barr and former White House Counsel Don McGahn. The resolution also reiterates the authority of all committee chairs to seek civil enforcement of subpoenas. The resolution will be considered on Tuesday.

H.R. 2740 will be considered this week, although the House may not complete its work on the bill until next week. H.R. 2740 is consists of five appropriations bills: Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Energy and Water, State and Foreign Ops, and the Legislative Branch. The Congressional Budget Office scored the 667-page bill at $954.6 billion. The House Appropriations Committee has two appropriations bills left to process. The remaining seven bills will, almost certainly, come to the House floor by being bundled together in some manner. Absent a deal on the discretionary spending caps, these appropriations bills are dead on arrival in the Senate.

At least a few different universal health insurance proposals will be considered at the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Wednesday at 10:00 am. Medicare for All is likely to be the focus of the hearing. Politico’s Adam Cancryn believes other proposals — Medicare for America, Medicare buy-ins, and Medicare X — will also be considered. The hearing is significant because Ways and Means has partial jurisdiction over healthcare. Prior to this hearing, only Rules has held a hearing on Medicare for All.

The committee schedule for the week is here.

Senate:

The Senate will return Monday at 3:00 pm and resume consideration of the nomination of Ryan Holte to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Cloture was invoked on Holte’s nomination on Wednesday. The Senate also invoked cloture on Rossie Alston to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and Richard Hertling to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. These nominees were held over from last week. Around 5:30 pm, the Senate will vote on the nominations of Holte, Alston, and Hertling, as well as a vote on the cloture motion for Sarah Morrison to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The other seven nominees the Senate will consider this week are below.

• Pamela Barker to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
• Corey Maze to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama
• Rodney Smith to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
• Thomas Barber to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida
• Jean-Paul Boulee to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
• David Stilwell to serve as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
• Edward Crawford to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland

Several joint resolutions have been introduced in the Senate to block the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia. The arms include F-15, guided bombs, Patriot missiles, and drones. The joint resolutions have been assigned to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Whether the committee will consider and approve the joint resolutions is unclear, but there could be a strong enough of sentiment against Saudi Arabia to force votes. The effort is being led by Sens. Robert Menedez (D-N.J.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), and Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

The committee schedule for the week is here.