NATaT Weekly Legislative Report

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NATaT Weekly Legislative Report

July 22, 2024

Congressional Outlook

Both chambers are in session this week. The House mulls additional votes on FY 2025 appropriations bills while also seeking answers from U.S. Secret Service leadership following the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13.

On Sunday afternoon, President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, announcing that he would not accept the Democratic Party’s nomination, and subsequently endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to become the nominee instead. The move comes weeks after internal back and forth including numerous prominent Democratic Members of Congress calling on President Biden to step out of the race since his debate performance on June 27^th. As of Monday morning, Harris secured endorsements from the majority of House and Senate Democrats, with 153 and 32 pledges of support, respectively. Notably, top Democratic leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have all endorsed (or reportedly plan to endorse) Vice President Harris on Monday. Republicans are calling on President Biden to resign from office, stating that if he cannot be a candidate, then he should not serve as president. President Biden, however, has said he will finish his term, which ends at noon on January 20, 2025. The 2024 Democratic National Convention is scheduled to take place in Chicago from August 19-22.

The House faces a difficult road to make good on Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) plan to pass all 12 Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 spending bills by the start of the August recess. House Republican leaders are deciding on potentially cancelling votes next week on the remaining FY 2025 appropriations bills. The move would likely result in the lower chamber leaving early for the scheduled month-long recess. This week, the House will vote on the FY25 Energy—Water Development (H.R. 8997) and Interior-Environment (H.R. 8998) spending bills, which provide totals of $59.2 billion and $38.5 billion in discretionary funding to federal agencies under their jurisdiction, respectively. If passed, the House will have voted on half of the FY25 spending legislation covering nearly three-quarters of the $1.6 trillion funding allotment. Leadership notably removed the FY25 Agriculture-FDA and Financial Services-General Government spending bills from floor consideration, with the need to shore up votes on both bills. The remaining six bills (Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, Financial Services, Legislative Branch, Labor-HHS-Education, and Transportation-HUD) all feature a difficult road to passage, with all having controversial provisions that many members of the House Republican Conference disagree on.

On Thursday, the full Senate Appropriations Committee will mark up their versions of the FY25 Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior-Environment, State-Foreign Operations, and Transportation-HUD spending bills. Approved lists of FY25 Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) requests submitted by senators in May under these FY25 spending bills will be announced publicly on Thursday following the markup.

The House will also focus its attention on the assassination attempt of former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Today, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testified in front of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee regarding the security lapses that allowed an attempt on former President Trump’s life at a campaign rally a week ago. Many Republicans and at least one Democrat, Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Penn.), are calling on the Director to resign or be fired. House Republican Leadership is teeing up a vote this week to create a commission to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Trump. Once adopted by the House, the Speaker and Minority Leader will each appoint six and five members on the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump, respectively, which would then be required to produce a final report to the House on its findings by December 13, 2024.

The Senate will vote on the nominations of Colleen Duffy Kiko to be a Member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority for a term of five years expiring July 29, 2027; Kashi Way and Adam Landy to be Judges of the U.S. Tax Court for 15-year terms; and Margaret Taylor to be Legal Adviser of the Department of State.

The House will consider 19 bills under suspension of the rules, including the Water Resources Development Act of 2024 (H.R. 8812), which authorizes numerous water-related infrastructure projects and directs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on numerous policies; the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2023 (S. 1258), which requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to submit to Congress an annual report on projects that are over budget by at least $1 billion and behind schedule by at least five years; and the HUD Transparency Act of 2024 (H.R. 7280), which requires the Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to testify before Congress annually.

For the remainder of the week, the House and Senate will hold several committee hearings, most notably a House Transportation Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee hearing on ”Examining the State of Rail Safety in the Aftermath of the Derailment in East Palestine, Ohio”; and a House Financial Services Committee hearing on “Housing Solutions: Cutting Through Government Red Tape.”

Bills and Regulations of Interest to You

Week in Review

Biden drops out and endorses Kamala Harris, upending 2024 presidential race against Trump

Some Republicans call on Biden to resign the presidency, too, after he ended his campaign

Bipartisan commission to study Trump assassination attempt teed up for House vote

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee dies after battle with cancer

Schumer calls for Democrat Menendez's resignation after guilty verdict