The Senate will reconvene at 3:00 P.M. and will take up the Motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 7691, a bill to provide aid to Ukraine with a vote expected at 5:30 P.M. Last week, Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) blocked a vote on the bipartisan deal after he refused to get on board with a deal Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) proposed that would have teed up a Thursday vote on the funding. Paul wanted to add language to the bill that would have increased the role of an Afghanistan inspector general to also oversee the Ukraine funds and rejected a proposal from Schumer and McConnell to vote on it as a separate amendment. By delaying the passage of the Ukraine bill, Paul also put the chamber at risk of missing a deadline the Biden Administration set for the funding last week. In a letter to House and Senate leadership, top administration officials asked Congress to pass the supplemental by May 19th if the U.S. plans to “continue our security assistance at the current pace.”
The House will reconvene at 2:00 P.M. and will consider seventeen bills under suspension of the Rules from the Homeland Security and Veterans’ Affairs Committees.
The House will take up legislation this week to address the nationwide baby formula shortage, as Republicans hammer the Biden administration over the issue. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) announced in a Dear Colleague on Friday that the House will take up a bill to grant emergency authority to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, referred to as the WIC program. The program provides states with federal grants to go toward supplemental food and nutrition education for low-income women. Speaker Pelosi said giving the program emergency authority will help tackle the supply chain problems and recalls impacting the baby formula industry and allow the federal government to relax some non-safety regulations. In addition to a bill granting the WIC program emergency authority, the House is also slated to work on an Emergency Supplemental Appropriation that, according to Speaker Pelosi, will “immediately address the infant formula shortage.” Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) is planning to bring the supplemental spending bill to the floor.
On Tuesday, both chambers are scheduled to welcome Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the Capitol, where he will attend a joint meeting. The Prime Minister will meet with President Joe Biden today.
