Legislative Sprint to August Recess
Lawmakers return to Washington this past week, kicking off a three-week legislative sprint before they return to their states and districts for the August recess. At the top of the agenda: making progress on the annual spending bills that Congress must pass by September 30 to avert a government shutdown.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has set forth quite the agenda for the run-up to the August recess. In a recent Dear Colleague letter, Schumer outlined what he hopes to accomplish when senators return back later today from a two-week recess. It’s a long list – more than 11 policy items to get through before August – and he’ll need to win over at least nine Republicans to get any of the bills across the finish line.
Despite this ambitious goal, we must remember that Congress hardly ever secures an Appropriations omnibus package before heading back home in August. With so much to do and so little time to do it, both chambers will usually stall a shutdown by passing a Continuing Resolution (CR), thereby keeping the government funded past the September 30 deadline. A CR is all the more likely for FY24 bills given recurring internal disagreements between Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and the far-right Freedom Caucus.
Another point of skepticism for completing Schumer’s agenda before August is the White House’s “everything-bagel liberalism.” This term, coined by New York Times columnist Ezra Klein, describes the government’s impulse “to accomplish so much with a single project or policy that it ends up failing to accomplish anything at all.”
With this in mind, here is the status of major federal legislation that will be of focus running up to the August recess.
Appropriations Bills – This past week, House Republicans unveiled bill text for their last two fiscal 2024 measures, while simultaneously marking up the Financial Services bill in full committee. Meanwhile, the Senate’s top Republican appropriator, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, says the Senate chamber is aiming to approve all 12 spending bills in committee before the August recess begins in two weeks. Senate markups on deck for next Thursday include Transportation-HUD, Energy-Water, and State-Foreign Operations. That leaves some of the toughest, like Labor-HHS-Education and Defense, for the end of the month.
Farm Bill – Key House and Senate lawmakers working on the upcoming farm bill reauthorization have a busy summer ahead. Top members of the Agriculture Committees will need to negotiate final top-funding priorities with limited new funding available and amid ongoing fights over food aid and conservation spending. Lawmakers and staff from both chambers will ramp up drafting their farm bills, with the goal to hammer out differences between the Senate and House versions, pass the final bill in Congress, and send it to Biden’s desk before the end of the year.
Lawmakers are under the clock as some farm bill programs expire beginning on Sept. 30. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) noted that the appropriations bills were delaying farm bill progress. Once those twelve bills move, more attention will likely be paid to the farm bill. How Congress ultimately approaches the reauthorization of the 2018 farm bill is yet to be determined, but there remain many doubts that it will happen in 2023, based on how long the process has taken in the past.
National Defense Authorization Act – NDAA debates have commanded House proceedings for much of the week and finally passed the House Chamber by a 219 to 210 vote on Friday, July 14. Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave the House Freedom Caucus and other conservative hardliners what they demanded – dozens of “culture war” amendment votes on the nearly $875 billion NDAA package. These amendments cover everything from the Pentagon’s abortion policy, DEI initiatives, COVID-19 vaccines, critical race theory, and transgender-related medical services. Conservatives threatened to derail the NDAA until they got these votes.
PHMSA Reauthorization – In 2020, the Protecting Our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act was signed into law to reauthorize the Pipeline Safety and Hazardous Materials Administration (PHMSA) through FY 2023. Like many funding bills we are watching, PHMSA must be reauthorized by September. Behind a few committee hearings, there has been little action on this front so far. We remain in contact with Transportation and Infrastructure Committee staff to be updated on any progress.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization – The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is “very close” to marking up its bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration. However, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Chair of the Aviation Subcommittee, is stalling that process to resolve remaining controversies. FAA regulations currently require pilots to fly at least 1,500 training hours to be certified as first officers at commercial airlines, and currently allow 100 hours on a simulator. Duckworth, herself a pilot, has been against any changes to that rule. Other outstanding differences include whether to increase pilots’ retirement age and the number of long-distance flights that can fly to and from Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Pending an agreement, Duckworth said they would likely be able to mark up the bill next week.
Permitting Reform – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told his colleagues in a letter that efforts to “unlock permitting reform” would be a focus ahead of the August recess. Lawmakers recently passed legislation aiming to speed up the permitting process as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling, but Democrats say they still want to see more to build out power lines while Republicans are seeking to limit lawsuits that could block infrastructure projects.
Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), a main negotiator in the debt ceiling talks, said he has already been speaking with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) to “pre-negotiate a solution” on a new permitting deal. It’s also entirely possible permitting reform provisions could be tucked into several pieces of legislation. For example, the FAA reauthorization bill could include permitting changes specific to airports. But some observers are skeptical that permitting legislation will materialize. Despite the rhetoric of bipartisanship, Republicans and Democrats remain far apart on many details.
Artificial Intelligence – Regulating artificial intelligence will be “one of the hardest tasks that Congress has ever faced,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said this week. Here, you can read our team’s deep dive on Schumer’s “SAFE Innovation Framework,” representing the beginning steps for crafting bipartisan legislation to confront AI. There has not yet been any legislation introduced in Congress to deal with regulating AI, though a bicameral group of lawmakers introduced a proposal a few weeks ago that would create a blue-ribbon commission to study AI's impact. Additionally, Schumer is already encouraging his committee chairs to work with top committee Republicans to begin drafting regulatory proposals.