The Senate convened at 10:00 A.M. and is expected to take up the Motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.4132, the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), which would guarantee providers’ ability to perform an abortion and individuals’ right to access one. The legislation, introduced by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) would supersede state laws on the issue and it would effectively neutralize laws in 19 states that have sought to severely curb access to abortion or ban it altogether. Specifically, the act would bar six-week and 20-week bans on abortions. It would also prohibit policies, like ultrasound requirements and waiting periods, that attempt to make it more burdensome to obtain an abortion. The legislation’s text makes it clear that it’s a direct response to what the bill’s sponsors say are more than 500 state and local laws limiting abortion access implemented in some way since 2011. It’s widely expected to fail, given the filibuster and internal divides among Democrats about abortion rights. While Senator Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania), a longtime holdout on abortion rights legislation, has announced that he’ll back the bill, Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) predictably said this morning he will oppose it.
For today, the Senate also plans to consider the nominations of Charlotte Sweeney to be US District Judge for the District of Colorado, Alvaro M. Bedoya to be a Federal Trade Commissioner, and Julia Ruth Gordon to be an Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
The House convened at 12:00 P.M. and is working on H.R. 2499 – Federal Firefighters Fairness Act of 2022. The House is also expected to continue working its way through 24 bills under suspension of the Rules.
The House passed a nearly $40 billion military and humanitarian aid package for Ukraine late Tuesday. The vote passed 368-57, hours after Congressional leaders struck a deal on the aid which is billions more than the $33 billion the White House initially requested. All 57 votes opposed to the package were cast by Republicans, which is an unsurprising list. The measure will next need to be passed by the Senate before it can go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said earlier in the day on Tuesday that after the House approved the package, the Senate “will move swiftly” to get the measure passed and sent to Biden’s desk. The bill includes an increase in presidential drawdown authority funding from the $5 billion the Biden administration originally requested to $11 billion. Presidential drawdown authority funding allows the administration to send military equipment and weapons from US stocks. This has been one of the main ways the administration has provided Ukrainians with military equipment quickly over the past 75 days of the conflict in Ukraine. A full breakdown of the $40 billion package is outlined in a fact sheet from House Democrats, detailing the funding that will be used to assist the Ukrainian military and national security forces and that will go toward weapons, equipment, training, logistics and intelligence support as well as other needs.
Adam S. Olsen, Washington, D.C.
