Congress’s Jammed Schedule
Usually, in an election year, the House and Senate take it easy. Members are hesitant to move forward legislation that may be perceived as controversial in their districts or states so that they can retain their seats. However, this year is different. Congress has a long list of tasks that they have to check off. But with two recent resignations of Republican members, one expelled from Congress, and the House Majority Leader out receiving cancer treatment, the hope of passing conservative legislation seems nearly impossible.
First on the docket is passing a bill to fund the government. Last November, Congress passed a two-step continuing resolution (CR) that staggered the deadlines for agency funding bills. Appropriations for Agriculture, Military Construction -Veterans Affairs, Transportation-HUD (Housing and Urban Development), and Energy-Water will expire on January 19th of this year. All other funding will expire two weeks later. Many members allowed this CR to move forward because Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had only been in his role a short time and was not part of previous negotiations.
Immediately after becoming Speaker of the House, Speaker Johnson began negotiations for fiscal year 2024, but he and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) only came to an agreement this week. They set the topline number to $1.59 trillion with $886 billion going to defense. Speaker Johnson was able to secure $10 billion in cuts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and $6.1 billion in cuts to Biden’s COVID slush fund. While that’s a sizeable win, the devil is in the details.
Appropriators from both chambers have two weeks to draft an appropriations bill – a process that took six weeks last year. The agreed-upon process bypasses regular order. Appropriators from both chambers will negotiate the details with each other instead of the House and Senate passing separate bills that would later go to conference to work out any differences. Because both bills have to be the same, no robust amendment process will be allowed. House rules require that members have 72 hours to read a bill before voting, so appropriators must work fast, or a shutdown will be imminent. Some have suggested a short-term continuing resolution to allow more time, but Speaker Johnson vowed that November’s CR would be the last.
Simultaneously, Senators are negotiating on immigration reform. Conservative organizations like Eagle Forum have asked lawmakers to address the border crisis by moving the House-passed Secure the Border Act (H.R. 2). Senate Democrats are not interested in advancing H.R. 2 whatsoever but are engaging in talks with Senator James Lankford (R-OK) to draft a likely weaker version. While in December talk was to attach immigration to Ukraine and Israel funding, some members have floated the idea of attaching it to appropriations instead. The text was expected this week, but it has yet to be released. Other GOP negotiators include Sen. Lindsay Graham (SC), Sen. Thom Tillis (NC), Sen. Tom Cotton (AR), and Sen. Katie Britt (AL).
One of the Administration negotiators is Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas who is facing an impeachment inquiry in the House. With a record 8.1 million immigrants crossing the nation’s borders since President Joe Biden took office and 1.8 million known gotaways during that time, it’s clear that Mayorkas is not enforcing the laws of our country. During a recent trip to the Southern border, Mayorkas told border patrol agents that the federal government is releasing more than 85% of illegal immigrants into the United States who come across our border. House Republicans ended a yearlong investigation into these matters with a trip to the border and the first impeachment hearing against Mayorkas. If these actions are successful, he will be the first Cabinet member to be impeached in over 150 years.
With a full schedule ahead, we encourage our lawmakers to consider American families first in their negotiations and not rush the legislative process. Their decisions could affect election outcomes in November.
