The House is in a committee work week this week and will next reconvene for votes on Monday, June 14th after Memorial Day recess next week, and another committee work week the week of June 7th.
The Senate will reconvene at 3:00 p.m. today and continue work on S.1260, United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 and will also consider the nomination of Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, of Virginia, to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has also filed cloture on the nomination of Kristen Clarke to lead the DOJ’s Civil Rights division as an Assistant Attorney General, which is expected to face a vote this week. Clarke has seen fierce GOP pushback to her nomination, including being painted as an extremist who is anti-police. The Senate previously approved a procedural motion by a 50-48 margin to break a tied committee vote over Clarke’s nomination, which divided 11-11 on party lines.
This is shaping up to be a key week for infrastructure as the White House eyes a self-imposed deadline of Friday to show progress on a bipartisan path forward. Senate Republicans have signaled disappointment in the White House’s updated infrastructure bill that was released on Friday, and negotiations appear to be at a standstill despite the $550 billion cut in funding size. A bipartisan group of senators Saturday introduced a bill to provide new funding for transportation priorities as Congress debates the broader infrastructure package. Senators Tom Carper (D-Delaware.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia), the top two lawmakers on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, along with Senators Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) and Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) announced a surface transportation reauthorization bill that will be marked up by the panel on Wednesday. The Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021 would establish new baseline funding of $303.5 billion for Department of Transportation programs to support highways, roads and bridges. The bill’s introduction and markup come as Democrats, along with the White House, negotiate with Republicans on a broader infrastructure package and thus far, talks have failed to produce a breakthrough. Full Text; Section by Section. Negotiations between Biden and Senate Republicans over an infrastructure bill reached an impasse last week, even as the White House unveiled a slightly smaller, $1.7 trillion counteroffer and despite the lower price tag — the original plan cost about $2.2 trillion — the latest offering left many of the most controversial spending and tax provisions intact, including tax increases on corporations, a position that Republicans strongly oppose.
President Joe Biden will receive a briefing on the Atlantic Hurricane Outlook and preparedness efforts and today announced the administration is doubling emergency spending to help communities prepare for hurricanes and other extreme weather events, while launching a new effort at NASA to better understand and track the impacts of climate change. The $1 billion in spending being announced Monday is a small fraction of what the U.S. spends on weather-related disasters. Last year alone, the nation endured 22 separate weather and climate-related disasters with losses greater than $1 billion each. The disasters, including wildfires, hurricanes and snowstorms, had a cumulative price tag of nearly $100 billion. Biden will make the funding announcement during a visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters Monday afternoon.
