The House met at 10 a.m. with first votes expected between 2 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. The House will complete consideration of H.R. 1187 – ESG Disclosure Simplification Act of 2021.
The Senate convened at 10:30 a.m. and will resume consideration of the nomination of Radhika Fox to be an Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the nomination of Lydia Kay Griggsby to be United States District Judge for the District of Maryland.
In hearings of note, at 10 a.m. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield began testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, at 10 a.m. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona began separately testifying before Senate Appropriations subcommittees and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will testify before the Finance Committee. Yellen Testimony.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said he will convene a meeting with all 11 Democratic members of the Senate Budget Committee today to begin the process for passing a budget resolution, paving the way for Democrats to pass a major infrastructure bill on a party-line vote. Schumer said he hopes to pass the budget resolution for fiscal 2022 in July and a budget resolution would set the stage for passing elements of Biden’s $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan and $1.8 trillion American Families Plan with simple majority votes. That would set the stage for passing a massive infrastructure investment bill with only Democratic votes after the August recess. Schumer also plans to bring a scaled-down infrastructure package to the Senate floor in July under regular order. Some progressives, including Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders, ( I-Vermont), and Senator Ed Markey, (D-Massachusetts), also drew hard lines this week, saying they wouldn’t vote for a bill that excludes priorities like mitigating climate change. The reconciliation process would likely play out as follows: First, Congress must pass a budget resolution that instructs specific committees to produce legislation that either increases or reduces the deficit. Second, committees then markup their reconciliation text in business meetings and report it to the Budget Committee. Third, the Budget Committee compiles the committee approved bills and reports the combined legislation to the chamber floor. Fourth, the House and Senate debate and pass their respective reconciliation bills. Fifth, the chambers convene a conference committee to reach agreement on legislative text. Sixth, the House and Senate must pass identical versions of the resulting conference report. And lastly, the measure is sent to the President for signature.
The summit between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin has concluded. Addressing reporters at the Geneva villa where the meeting took place, the Russian president said: “Both sides expressed their intention to understand each other and seek common ground. The talks were quite constructive.” The Russian leader said the nations had agreed that the ambassadors to their respective countries should return to their posts in the near future. Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was recalled earlier this year after the U.S. expelled a group of other diplomats. The U.S. envoy to Russia, John Sullivan, then left Moscow as tensions simmered. Both were in Geneva for Wednesday’s summit between the two presidents.
Putin said both countries would also begin “consultations” on cyber-related issues. Although Putin conceded that the United States was the victim of the greatest number of cyberattacks, he said that Russia was also a victim as well.
Adam S. Olsen, Washington, D.C.
