The House reconvenes at 6:30 p.m. and is set to vote on multiple pieces of legislation, including a resolution to end the 2002 authorization for use of military force in Iraq. The House has a busy June floor schedule ahead, as they plan to vote to overturn a slate of Trump administration regulatory actions and to vote on the House surface transportation package, the INVEST in America Act (H.R. 3684). For today, the House will consider the Rule Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1187 – ESG Disclosure Simplification Act of 2021 and H.R. 256 – To repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.
House Democrats introduced a resolution that would greenlight over $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending for the upcoming fiscal year, clearing the way for that chamber to sign off on President Joe Biden’s topline request as soon as today. If adopted, the “deeming” resolution will allow the Appropriations Committee to begin drafting its dozen fiscal 2022 spending bills ahead of markups later this month and in early July. The measure is an internal enforcement mechanism for the House intended to prevent amendments or entire bills from breaching the overall cap when the chamber’s appropriations bills reach the floor next month. The measure would set a topline spending limit of $1.506 trillion for appropriators to carve up, not counting a handful of “cap adjustments” that would allow more spending on traditional add-ons such as disaster relief, wildfire suppression and program integrity initiatives at agencies to help crack down on waste, fraud and abuse. The base spending limit would amount to a 9 percent boost over the current fiscal year, which the House Budget Committee said would restore “critical public services and benefits after almost a decade of austerity and uncertainty” due to spending caps imposed by the 2011 deficit reduction law.
The Senate reconvenes at 3:00 p.m. and will continue consideration of Ketanji Brown Jackson to be US Circuit Judge for the DC Circuit, post-cloture and will also consider the nomination of Lina M. Khan to be a Federal Trade Commissioner.
President Joe Biden attended the NATO summit in Brussels today and will attend the U.S.-E.U. summit tomorrow before traveling to Geneva for his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. Biden reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to NATO during a sit-down with Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, the president’s first meeting at NATO’s 2021 summit in Brussels. China’s rising military ambitions are presenting NATO with challenges that must be addressed, the 30-nation Western alliance said Monday, the first time it has portrayed the expanding reach and capabilities of the Chinese armed forces in such a potentially confrontational way. The description of China, contained in a communiqué issued at the conclusion of a one-day summit attended by President Biden and others, reflected a new concern over how China intends to wield its military might in coming years. Biden on Monday also met with the prime minister of Estonia and the presidents of Latvia and Lithuania. He’s also scheduled to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has called for easing tensions between his country and the U.S. at the summit.
Adam S. Olsen, Washington, D.C.
