Both the House and Senate are back this week to resume work after the 4 of July work period. The upper and lower chambers have less that two full weeks for business (the House has nine legislative days to the Senate’s seven) before both recess for seven weeks (which will contain two massive nominating conventions and the traditional August Recess) returning after Labor Day.
The House is back today, Tuesday, to consider an anti-terrorism package that includes a measure aimed at barring suspected terrorists from buying guns. Speaker Ryan announced that the House will consider the measure last week, much to the chagrin of his caucus as well as the derision of House Democrats. Regardless, the House Republican’s number one priority — restoring order to appropriations process — has failed miserably.
Only one measure, the FY 2017 Mil-Con bill, has a chance of being passed through both chambers. Yet, due to maneuvers to connect supplemental Zika funding, the normally uncontroversial measure is under extreme pressure and unlikely to pass precisely due to the attachment of the Zika funding which has garnered veto threats. The White House is insisting on $1.9 billion, and threatening to veto any measure which fails to provide that amount — neither the House nor Senate has provided the Administration with its full request . However, none of the other 11 annual spending bills have passed both the House and Senate in various versions so as to get to a conference committee.
Given these challenges, lawmakers are starting to consider the mode and means for a Continuing Resolution (CR) to avoid a government shutdown this Fall. Of course a CR, a fairly common funding measure in September, is not without challenges. There is controversy between lawmakers as to when to end the CR — after the election, until the Spring for the next president, or for the whole FY 2017 year.
The Senate returns Wednesday to consider a host of different issues including legislation to end sanctuary cities and increase minimum sentences for those who reenter the country after being removed. From there the Senate is expected to consider a bill to establish federal standards for genetically modified food labeling. Finally, a cloture vote on the Fy 2017 Defense appropriations bill has been queued up. While this bill has already endured a host of potential problems, its finally passage will be made more complicated by the Pentagon’s announcement Thursday to allow transgendered service members to openly serve.