Skip to content
News and updates

Category: 117th Congress

House Reconciliation Package Now Headed to Budget Committee

Posted on

With the Reform and Oversight Committee wrapping up its markup late Friday, the nine committees scheduled to act on pieces of the larger budget reconciliation measure concluded their work, sending the individual components to the Budget Committee for the next step in the process, which is to craft a much more comprehensive $1.9-trillion package.

The following committees marked up measures under jurisdiction:  Agriculture, Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, Oversight and Reform, Small Business, Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans’ Affairs, and Ways and Means.  Among the committees which received reconciliation instructions but did not hold a markup was the House Science Committee.

House Committees March Through Reconciliation Process

Posted on

The vast majority of House committees with reconciliation instructions continue to march towards completing that process.

The following committees have completed their bills, as of Friday morning: Education and Labor, Ways and Means, Financial Services, Transportation and Infrastructure, Small Business, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs.

The Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to reconvene today to complete consideration of its bill while the Oversight Committee is also scheduled to meet today.

The Science, Foreign Affairs, and Natural Resources Committees are not scheduled to hold markups for their instructions.

Our colleagues at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities have produced an initial analysis of the provisions of interest to the public research university community, which is available here.

Nearly $40 Billion for Higher Education Approved by House Committee

Posted on

The House Education and Labor Committee approved this morning its portion of the larger COVID relief package by a vote of 27 to 21, making it the first committee of many to move on the budget reconciliation process.  Among other provisions, the bill (a section-by-section summary is available here) includes $39.6 billion for higher education.  A number of other House committees are scheduled to markup their bills today:  Ways and Means, Transportation and Infrastructure, Financial Services, and Agriculture (the text of the bill it is marking up is available here).

Split Screen: COVID Package in House, Trump Trial in Senate

Posted on

As noted yesterday, House committees that received instructions to craft specific parts of the larger COVID relief package will begin to act today, with the Education and Labor Committee marking up its bill at 3 PM today (the session will be webcast here).  The Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I), Financial Services, and Agriculture Committees are scheduled to follow suit by marking up their bills on Wednesday.  Copies of the T & I and Financial Services bills were released late yesterday.

The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to take up its piece of the COVID package next week during a markup that is expected to take multiple days.  The entirety of the Ways and Means package and summaries of each section are available here.  Provisions of interest in the bill include, for example:

  • $1,400 credit for both children and non-child dependents;
  • Tax credits for state and local governments to provide paid family and medical leave created by Families First Corona Response Act, which would become effective March 31, 2021; and,
  • Extension of the employee retention tax credit.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol complex, the full Senate today is scheduled to start the trial to convict former president Donald Trump.  Once the trial officially starts, both sides can use up to 16 hours to make their case.