The House convenes at 2 p.m. with votes at 6:30 p.m. and will consider 14 bills under suspension of the Rules including H.R. 3119 – Energy Emergency Leadership Act.
The Senate convenes at 3 p.m. and will vote on confirmation of the nomination of Tiffany P. Cunningham to be United States Circuit Judge for the Federal Circuit.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, (D-New York), plans to move ahead this week with the process of passing a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill in the Senate, despite the fact that senators negotiating the bill have yet to reach consensus on what will be in it. Also this week, Schumer wants Senate Democrats to agree to move forward with a $3.5 trillion budget resolution that they plan to pass without any Republican votes. Schumer is under intense pressure to advance both of President Joe Biden’s domestic spending packages before senators leave Washington for a scheduled August recess very early next month. The process is expected to play out as follows: Schumer will file a motion Monday to proceed with a shell bill that would be used as the “vehicle” for the infrastructure bill once it is written. The shell bill contains highway funding authorization that has been passed by the House already. Doing so would set up another procedural cloture vote on Wednesday. If 60 senators vote to invoke cloture, that triggers up to 30 hours of debate in the Senate, followed by a vote on the motion to proceed with the shell legislation. During the subsequent amendment process, Schumer would file an amendment swapping out the shell legislation with the actual text of the final bipartisan infrastructure bill.
In addition to the planned vote this week, the other major test that lies ahead for the infrastructure package is the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) so-called “score” of the bill, an assessment of how much the package would add to the federal deficit, based on how much the proposed funding would actually pay for. Republicans have so far refused to raise any corporate or individual taxes to offset the new funding, which will be added to an existing transportation bill for a total of $1.2 trillion. The White House, in turn, has refused to impose user fees on the improved highways and rails. Without these reliable sources of funding available to them, the group of senators, which now numbers 22, 11 from each party, is working to cobble together offsets from across the federal government. The list of funding sources includes repurposed pandemic relief funds, revenue from new public-private partnerships, proceeds from 5G spectrum auctions and savings from crackdowns on unemployment insurance fraud. The Republicans’ lead negotiator, Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said Sunday that lawmakers had dropped a proposal to boost IRS enforcement as a way to pay for the package. Increasing IRS enforcement of tax collections to pay for the $579 billion bill had emerged as a point of contention among Senate negotiators, with many conservative anti-spending groups and lawmakers expressing concerns.
Schumer has also set an ambitious Wednesday deadline for his caucus to reach an internal agreement to move forward on their massive budget resolution, complete with instructions on reconciliation.
One day before marking six months in office, President Biden delivered remarks about the economy Monday at the White House as the push for a bipartisan infrastructure package and other components for the president’s economic agenda heat up on Capitol Hill. The president pushed lawmakers to move forward with the spending proposals, arguing the plans will tackle some of the most persistent economic challenges the country faces as the country continues to recover from the pandemic. The remarks highlighted the remarkable progress made under his Administration—from 60,000 to 600,000 new jobs per month thanks to the American Rescue Plan and the importance of passing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework and his Build Back Better agenda to sustain that growth in the years to come.
Later this afternoon, The President and The First Lady welcome Their Majesties King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein Bin Abdullah II, to the White House and the leaders will also participate in a bilateral meeting. Abdullah had a difficult relationship with Former President Donald J. Trump, who he saw as undercutting a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians with his 2017 declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. He also chaffed at the Trump administration’s pursuit of what officials called the Abraham Accords — deals with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Morocco that normalized relations with Israel but left out the Palestinians. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the meeting “will be an opportunity to discuss the many challenges facing the Middle East and showcase Jordan’s leadership role in promoting peace and stability in the region.”
Adam S. Olsen, Washington, D.C.
