Press

Congressional State of Play

While much of the national media attention continues to linger on the fallout from President Biden’s debate performance, Members of Congress returned to Capitol Hill this week for a flurried July work period ahead of the August recess. Presidential politics will undoubtedly haunt lawmakers throughout July, with the Republican nominating convention fast approaching and Democrats considering the political risks of continuing to back President Biden behind closed doors. Despite the focus on the fall elections, both House and Senate appropriators have committed to making substantial progress on annual spending legislation ahead of the August recess. This week, the Democratically controlled Senate is expected to announce funding totals for their Fiscal Year 2025 spending bills and kick off their own appropriations process - an attempt to keep pace with House Republicans, who are closing in on advancing all twelve of their appropriations measures through committee before anticipated floor votes by the end of the month. While the appropriations work could be mistaken as a sign of regular order prevailing on Capitol Hill amid turbulent times, both the House and Senate are advancing vastly different spending proposals that have little chance of passing in the other’s chamber - Instead, their primary purpose is as messaging documents for either party to rally around. With the House yet to reschedule consideration of a major privacy bill that Republican leadership was forced to abruptly cancel before the 4th of July holiday, and the Senate unexpectedly delaying consideration of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) until after November, it appears that party leadership have resigned themselves to doing little else legislatively before their presidential tickets can be solidified at their respective national conventions.

House GOP leadership has been largely successful in pushing their first slate of heavily partisan appropriations bills through committee and onto the House floor over the past month. This initial grouping of bills focused on less controversial policy areas such as Defense, Homeland Security, Military Construction, and State-Foreign Operations ahead of the 4th of July recess - However, they will face a tougher path going forward. The House’s remaining spending measures have historically proven more difficult to negotiate as they deal with a larger portion of federal spending and touch on more contentious policy topics - evident last year when the Republican majority failed to advance these measures through committee, leading to a prolonged government shutdown standoff that concluded earlier this year. Complicating matters further for committee Republicans, these bills have been laden with substantial cuts to domestic spending and controversial policy riders. This will force swing district Republicans, who will be fighting to keep their seats and maintain the slim Republican majority this fall, to cast unpopular votes shortly before heading home to Campaign in August. Alongside these efforts, Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to set up floor action on two major Congressional Review Act rebukes of Biden administration policy. The first is an attempt to overturn a presidential veto of a measure that would strike Treasury Department guidance affecting how certain crypto assets are taxed. The second is a heavily partisan attempt to unwind discrimination protections for transgender, non-binary, and pregnant students. Both the appropriations work and the combative stance on administration regulations can serve as previews of House activity if the GOP retains control of the lower chamber this fall.

Similarly to his house counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) first task as his members returned to DC was to hold a caucus meeting aimed at quelling Senators’ fears about President Biden’s ability to remain the Democratic nominee. In parallel, Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) previously announced that the upper chamber will release its topline spending numbers and begin considering its first three spending measures before the full committee, bypassing the subcommittees for expediency. Despite failing to reach an agreement with Senate Republicans on spending totals before moving ahead, Murray hopes to replicate last year’s success when the Senate passed all twelve appropriations bills with strong bipartisan support. The Murray process, in collaboration with Senate Appropriations Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME), is slower and more bipartisan than its House counterpart, focusing on increasing spending for both defense and non-defense sectors in parity, compared to the House's use of non-defense cuts to pay for defense increases. Despite the air of bipartisanship, the Senate may still encounter challenges - like last month, when tensions flared after Republicans secured a $25 billion increase in spending authorizations during the Senate’s markup of their version of the NDAA, causing Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed (D-RI) to vote against his own panel’s bill. The Senate’s ability to make swift progress on fiscal 2025 appropriations will depend on lawmakers’ ability to find compromise on spending and policy, even if such agreements have little chance of passing in the House.

Appropriations Update

House of Representatives