The Senate convened at 10:00 A.M. and resumed consideration of the nomination of Dara Lindenbaum to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission. The Senate is also expected to confirm Stephanie Dawkins Davis to be United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit. The Senate is expected to spend the rest of Tuesday working through a long list of pending nominations on which cloture has been filed.
The House stands adjourned and will be in a committee work week this week, followed by Memorial Day recess starting May 30th. The House will next meet for votes on Tuesday, June 7th at 6:30 P.M.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is expected to bring up legislation for a procedural vote this week as part of Congress’ answer to the May 14th mass shooting at a grocery store in a predominantly Black Buffalo neighborhood, where law enforcement officials believe the suspect was acting with racist intent. When H.R.350 – The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022 came up for a vote in the House last week, just one Republican, retiring Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, voted with 221 Democrats to send the measure to the Senate, while its three House Republican co-sponsors all voted no over concerns about Democrats’ changes to the legislation. Republicans said they’re concerned the new bill would give federal agencies more power that could lead to policing of political speech. They’re also concerned it would mainly impact anti-government groups as opposed to more progressive groups. The legislation as it stands would set up offices specifically focused on domestic terrorism at the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the FBI. The offices would track and analyze domestic terrorist activity with the goal of better preparing the federal government to identify risks in order to take preventative action. The bill creates a requirement for biannual reporting on domestic terrorism threats. It also calls for assessments of the threat posed specifically by White supremacists and neo-Nazis. Ultimately, the legislation is not expected to get enough Republican support to get 60 votes to pass the Senate.
