Congress has packed its bags for the August recess. Let’s take a look at what they checked off the legislative to-do list before leaving town, and what work awaits on appropriations and the NDAA upon their return. Here’s your Federal CapWatch for Monday, July 31.
Dwindling Days: Congress leaves town for the summer with just a few weeks to fund the government upon their return before the end of the fiscal year.
NDAA Passed: The Senate passed its version of the annual defense policy bill, setting Congress up for tricky closed-door conversations to compromise on a final bill.
Thanks, No Need: FEMA told lawmakers as they left town that the agency has no immediate need for additional disaster relief funding, a reversal of its prior prediction.
On the Radar: Biden has ordered a revamp of the way sexual assault and other crimes are handled in the military.
With lawmakers leaving for their monthlong recess, legislative days are dwindling to fund the government before the end of the fiscal year — making the need for a stopgap spending measure look like a sure bet. The Senate will be back on Sept. 5, with four weeks to make progress on fiscal 2024 appropriations. The House isn’t scheduled to return until Sept. 12, giving its members only three weeks of session before Sept. 30. Finding a compromise between the House and Senate bills will be a heavy lift because of wide disparities in funding levels, as the Freedom Caucus pushes to pare back overall spending to the fiscal 2022 level.
The House passed its Military Construction-VA bill (HR 4366) on Thursday, but the party-line vote forebodes trouble ahead. The usually noncontroversial measure yielded conflict in the chamber last week as Republicans tacked on culture-war provisions, including abortion access and gender-affirming care. House GOP leaders also dropped plans to vote on their $25.3 billion Agriculture spending bill (HR 4368) this week after hard-right members demanded more spending cuts, another sign of the tumultuous work period that awaits lawmakers on their return. Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-LA stated that negotiations would continue during the August recess “to make sure we get back to funding the priorities of the nation.”
The scene could not have been more different over in the Senate, where appropriators were steadily working in a bipartisan fashion to complete committee work before the summer getaway.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the last four of its bills, wrapping up the Defense, Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS-Education and Homeland Security measures. Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., called them “serious, bipartisan bills that can actually be signed into law.”
The wrap-up of work on the National Defense Authorization Act sets Congress up to enter into a conference when lawmakers return in the fall. The talks are sure to be contentious. The GOP-led House narrowly passed its version of the NDAA (HR 2670) on July 14, mostly along party lines, with conservative provisions that the Democrat-controlled Senate will push to strip. Those include proposals to limit access to gender-affirming care for transgender troops and to end various diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at the Defense Department. The Senate, meanwhile, adopted bipartisan amendments this week from more than a thousand filed amendments. Thursday’s changes to the bill included funding for a firefighter cancer initiative and for 9/11 responders, a section on combating global corruption, and a new program aimed at increasing the quantity of U.S.-produced low-enriched uranium. The Senate ultimately did not take up an amendment offered by Senator Joni Ernst, R-IA, to roll back the Defense Department abortion policy. But House Republicans attached an identical provision to their NDAA — locking in its consideration in conference. The House NDAA would authorize $874.2 billion in national defense spending, while the Senate bill landed on $886.3 billion.
As lawmakers left town, the Federal Emergency Management Agency shared that they have no immediate need for additional disaster relief funding. That position is a reversal of FEMA’s position on July 13, when Administrator Deanne Criswell told a House panel that she expected the agency’s Disaster Relief Fund to run dry by late August. But in a statement Thursday, the agency said current funding levels “are more than adequate to execute immediate response and recovery efforts to any incidents which may occur. At this time, we have no expectations of impacts to any programs.”
Congress was preparing to leave town Thursday for the August recess without passing an emergency supplemental spending bill that could have included disaster relief. The lack of action has heightened concern from Florida lawmakers, who worry about federal aid running dry in the middle of hurricane season. Congress is working on Homeland Security spending bills (HR 4367) in both chambers that would provide the disaster fund with a fresh $20.3 billion. That funding is also expected to hitch a ride on any stopgap funding measure lawmakers might pass in September.
The Biden administration will unveil an executive order revamping the way sexual assault and other crimes are handled in the military. The executive order implements legislative changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice wrapped into the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (PL 117-81). Under the changes, prosecution of sexual and related crimes will be handled by special victim units in the services, outside the military chain of command.
