PSW Weekly Round-Up - 7/17

Legislative Update

House. On Wednesday, the House and Senate will hold a joint meeting at 11 a.m. to hear from Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Later on Wednesday, the House will begin consideration of the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill. More than 300 amendments have been filed, and the House Rules Committee is meeting this evening to decide which amendments will be voted on by the full House. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.), a member of the Rules Committee, has indicated he will try to block consideration of the FAA measure if it doesn’t expand the number of slots allocated for long-haul flights at Reagan National Airport.

Senate. The Senate will continue to vote on nominations and will spend this week and next considering the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Senate version, which will need bipartisan support to pass, will differ significantly from the bill that the House approved July 14 on a largely party-line vote of 219-210 after agreeing to amendments limiting abortion access and transgender care.

FY 2024 Appropriations. The defense spending bill, meanwhile, was one of the first to be approved by the House Appropriations Committee (on June 15) and will be one of the last to be considered on the Senate side (with an expected markup on July 27). The full House committee has marked up eight of the 12 FY 2024 spending bills and is scheduled to vote on two more this week. The House Rules Committee has set Wednesday as the deadline for members to submit proposed amendments for two spending bills -- Agriculture/FDA and Military Construction/Veterans Affairs. While this sets up the possibility of floor votes on those two measures before the August recess, the schedule remains fluid.

In other news on the appropriations front, a group of 21 House Republicans wrote Speaker Kevin McCarthy on July 10 that not only would they oppose any appropriations bills that are in line with the spending caps in the debt limit deal, but the bills must be at FY 2022 levels “without relying on rescissions to spend above that level.” The Senate Appropriations Committee is continuing to bypass subcommittee markups and plans to complete action on all 12 bills before leaving July 28 for the recess.

Another ESG Hearing. Members of the House Financial Services panel are continuing their examination of investing practices that take into account environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. After four hearings last week in the full committee and three subcommittees, a fourth subcommittee will enter the action this week. On Tuesday, the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy will ask the question, “Climate-Risk: Are Financial Regulators Politically Independent?” The panel will hear from regulators at the Federal Reserve, FDIC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the National Credit Union Administration.

Committee Action of Note

Monday, July 17

• House Rules Committee Meeting to formulate a rule on H.R. 3935 – Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act and H.R. 3941 – Schools Not Shelters Act

Tuesday, July 18

• House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation Hearing: “Man and Machine: Artificial Intelligence on the Battlefield”
• House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets Hearing: “Oversight of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance”
• House Judiciary Subcommittee on Responsiveness and Accountability to Oversight Hearing: “Compliance with Committee Oversight”
• House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security Hearing: “American Nuclear Energy Expansion: Updating Policies for Efficient, Predictable Licensing Deployment”
• House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Hearing: “Cancelling Consumer Choice: Examining the Biden Administration’s Regulatory Assault on Americans’ Home Appliances”
• House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy Hearing: “Climate-Risk: Are Financial Regulators Politically Independent?”
• House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Hearing: “Is There a Right to Repair?”
• House Appropriations Markup: FY 2024 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) and Related Agencies Bill
• House Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions Hearing: “Potential Consequences of FinCEN’s Beneficial Ownership Rulemaking”
• House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services Hearing: “Why Expanding Medicaid to DACA Recipients Will Exacerbate the Border Crisis”
• House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Joint Meeting: Examining Emerging Threats to Electric Energy Infrastructure”
• House Homeland Security Subcommittees on Border Security, and Enforcement and Oversight and Accountability Joint Hearing: “Opening the Flood Gates: Biden’s Broken Border Barrier”
• House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Oversight Hearing: “ESA at 50: The Destructive Cost of the ESA”

Wednesday, July 19

• Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Hearing: “A Review of the FY 2024 Budget for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission”
• Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy Hearing: “Rural Water: Modernizing Our Community Water Systems”
• House Small Business Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations Hearing: “Burdensome Red Tape: Overregulations in Health Care and the Impact of Small Businesses”
• House Appropriations Markup: “FY 24 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Bill”
• House Oversight and Accountability Hearing: “Hearing with IRS Whistleblowers about the Biden Criminal Investigation”
• House Homeland Security Committee Hearing: “Biden and Mayorkas’ Open Border: Advancing Cartel Crime in America”
• House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax Hearing: “Biden’s Global Tax Surrender Harms American Workers and Our Economy”

Thursday, July 20

• Senate Judiciary Committee Markup to consider S.359, to provide for a code of conduct for U.S. Supreme Court Justices, and other measures
• Senate Environment and Public Works Full Committee Hearing: “The Water Resources Development Act of 2024: Non-Federal Stakeholder Views”
• Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care Hearing: “The Cost of Inaction and the Urgent Need to Reform the U.S. Transplant System”
• Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Hearing: “Perspectives on Deposit Insurance Reform after Recent Bank Failures”
• Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Hearing: “American’s Supply Chain Security: Understanding and Mitigating Threats”
• Senate Appropriations Full Committee Markup:
  • Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act
  • State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act
  • Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act
• Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Markup: “Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Response Act”
• House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party Hearing: “The Biden Administration’s PRC Strategy”

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