Approps—Let's go
The fiscal 2023 appropriations process picks up speed this week as the House subcommittees hold bill markups, ahead of what will be a sprint to finish next year’s spending bills before the August recess. The plan is to get the 12 annual spending bills through the committee this month in preparation for floor votes in July. However, with midterms in November, Congress isn’t expected to pass full-year appropriations bills, or an omnibus bill, until after November.
This Wednesday’s markups include Defense; Legislative Branch; Military Construction-VA; and Agriculture. On Thursday, June 16, 2022, the Homeland Security subcommittee meets, and Financial Services meets to approve their portions for full committee consideration. The full House Appropriations Committee will also vote to adopt its subcommittee funding allocations at its first markup on Wednesday, June 22, 2022. Negotiators will have to come to an agreement on how much of fiscal 2023 spending will go to defense versus nondefense spending.
Democrats prioritize domestic spending increases — pitching that Washington pour new money into education, health care and the environment — while Republicans are expected to double down on the argument they made last year: President Joe Biden’s military spending request is too low. That argument could have extra force this year with high inflation leading top military brass to acknowledge that the White House didn’t factor the soaring rate into its request for the Pentagon. Meanwhile, authorizing committees in both chambers are holding markups to report their military funding proposals. Further debate is likely on issues like gun control, which Democrats could attempt to attach to the appropriations package using policy riders, and abortion, ahead of an anticipated Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade.
NDAA Marches on
The Senate Armed Services subcommittees will mark up their annual defense policy bill this week following House subcommittee action on their measure last week. The Strategic Forces panel meets today Monday, June 13, 2022. The full panel gathers Wednesday and Thursday of this week. President Joe Biden asked Congress for $773 billion for the Pentagon — that’s a 4 percent increase over the $742.7 billion appropriated to the Defense Department for fiscal 2022. But his administration plans to seek supplemental defense funds if inflation cuts too much into Pentagon buying power in fiscal 2023. The House Armed Services subcommittees approved their parts of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act last week — with a full committee markup planned for Wednesday, June 22.
January 6 Hearings
The House panel investigating the attack on the Capitol is back in session today. The special committee investigating the January 6 insurrection holds its second public hearing this in a series expected to continue this month.
Today's session, as described last week by Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY), is to show that "Donald Trump and his advisers knew that he had in fact lost the election," but that Trump nonetheless "engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to convince huge portions of the U.S. population that fraud had stolen the election from him."
In the meantime, last week's opening hearing continues to raise questions. Among them: Who else will the committee allege sought a pardon from Trump after the riots? There are two more hearings later this week. One will cover, according to Cheney, Trump "corruptly" planning to replace the attorney general. The other will "focus on President Trump's efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral votes" on Jan. 6, Cheney said.
Gun Vote Ahead
A bipartisan group of Senators announce a framework to address recent gun violence. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) said Sunday that a newly announced agreement to update gun laws would be put on the floor "as soon as possible" once legislative text is finalized. The agreement, announced by 10 Republicans and 10 Democratic caucus members, certainly won't go as far as many Democrats would prefer. But unless one of them defects, it would likely get the 60 Senate votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
The agreement, which is not yet in legislative language, is the product of discussions led by Sens. Christopher S. Murphy (D-CT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) after a spate of recent mass shootings, including at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The plan increases needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can’t purchase weapons, 20 senators said in a statement.
The agreement won backing from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and President Joe Biden, though both said more is needed. Advocates such as March for Our Lives co-founder David Hogg supported the agreement. But, Hogg said, the bill “should be the beginning and not the end of Congress’ work.” The American Firearms Association condemned the agreement. “The solution to gun violence is not gun control," the group said in a statement. "It’s protecting our right to defend ourselves when the police are unable or refuse to do so, as we saw in Uvalde.”