Next week the House and Senate are scheduled to be out of session, so this week is when all the magic happens. Specifically, the spending resolution for the federal government will expire on Friday, March 14th, so no funds can be legally spent to carry on the work of government without a new law.

One major point of contention is which branch decides spending priorities for the government. Democrats are insisting that Congress retain its control over where to direct funds through its enactment of laws. Republicans, however, wish to enact legislation to delegate that power to President Trump to decide by executive order and to legalize his actions to disestablish federal agencies, end programs, withhold grants, end contracts, and fire thousands of federal employees.

To that end, Congressional Republicans have introduced a 99-page full year continuing resolution (CR). It is intended to keep the government funded through the end of the fiscal year, and contains a number of provisions, called anomalies, that deviate from current spending plans. It also does not include the usual language to constrain actions by the White House.

  • Republicans passed this legislation in the House by a vote of 217-213 yesterday. The House then left town to “jam” Senate Democrats. The appropriations bill can only become law if 60 senators support it, which means all Republicans plus seven Democrats. (At least one Republican defection is likely.)

The Republicans’ political goal is to create a situation where Democrats either acquiesce to the White House’s takeover of spending decision-making, ratify Trump’s actions, and agree to his spending plans or the Democrats are blamed for allowing the government to shut down.

Eleven other bills are set for floor consideration this week. Two will be considered pursuant to a rule and need only a simple majority in the House. They include a bill that would undo an IRS regulation that requires brokers to disclose their profits for certain kinds of transactions and a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of fraud related to temporary unemployment programs created during the pandemic.

The House has twenty-five hearings this week, plus an additional two joint hearings with the Senate. There’s a fair number of proceedings focused on bill markups, but nothing unusual. You’ll note that no House hearings are scheduled for Thursday or Friday. As described above, they plan on leaving town to put political pressure on the Senate to pass their bill.

The Senate will reconvene Tuesday, March 11 to resume its consideration of Steven Brabury to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation. On Monday, March 10, the Senate confirmed Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be Secretary of Labor. It’s difficult to know what’s on the Senate’s schedule, but I’d expect a vote by the end of the week on the appropriations bill, assuming one passes the House. (The Constitution requires spending bills to originate in the House.)

There are twenty-three committee proceedings scheduled in the Senate. There’s a higher than usual number of business meetings to consider various nominations as well as markup of legislation.

Notable committee proceedings include consideration of nominees to be the solicitor general, two assistant attorneys general, director of the National Institutes of Health, commissioner of food and drugs, CDC director, deputy EPA administrator, and so on. It looks like Mehmet Oz is in line to be administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.