The Senate will reconvene today at 3:00 P.M. from Memorial Day recess, with the House reconvening at 2:00 P.M. tomorrow.
With a very busy week expected on both sides of the Capitol, the Senate will begin work today by considering the nomination of Alex Wagner to be an Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs. He previously served in a number of positions within the Department of Defense, including chief of staff to the secretary of the Army under the Obama administration. President Joe Biden tapped Wagner to be an assistant secretary of the Air Force on July 29th, he is currently serving as the vice president for strategic initiatives at the Aerospace Industries Association. Following Wagner’s nomination vote, the Senate is poised to take up legislation to address toxic burn pits. The bill, the Honoring our PACT Act, passed the House in a largely party-line vote of 256-174 with just thirty-four Republicans joining Democrats in supporting the measure. The legislation would expand Veterans Affairs (VA) health care eligibility for veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits by creating a presumption of service connection for roughly two dozen cancers and respiratory illnesses, including chronic bronchitis and asthma.
This week, House Democrats are also looking to move a pair of gun control measures following the mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas with the House Rules Committee scheduled to take up two pieces of gun legislation on Tuesday. The first, Protecting Our Kids Act, is a package of eight bills that if passed would raise the age for purchasing semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 years old, ban civilian use of high-capacity magazines and bump stocks, and require that ghost gun purchases are made in accordance with background check requirements. The package also calls for prohibiting straw purchase of firearms — when someone who is unable to clear a background check buys a gun through a proxy — and bolstering safe storage of firearms, among other measures. The House Judiciary Committee advanced the package in a 25-19 party-line vote on Wednesday following an hours-long markup. The package is set to pass the Democratic-led House but will likely face strong headwinds in the upper chamber, where at least 10 Republicans are needed to overcome a legislative filibuster. The other piece of legislation, the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, seeks to nationalize red flag laws, which would allow courts to order the removal of firearms from individuals deemed a threat to themselves or others. Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., currently have red flag laws in place. It is unclear how much Republican support the red flag law legislation will garner in the Senate where Senators are currently engaged in negotiations on much more limited legislation to curb gun violence.
Senators are in the middle of gun control negotiations, which have been ongoing for almost a week, to discern what measures have a chance of passing Congress and reaching President Biden. A bipartisan working group, comprised of Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), among others, continues conversations, with the goal of reaching a deal on a basic framework by this week. The bipartisan negotiations are focusing on mental health funding, school safety measures and “modest but impactful” gun control proposals. Banning assault weapons and comprehensive background checks are not on the table.
The January 6th Select Committee is set to take its investigation public on Thursday in a prime-time hearing that is promising to present the American people with findings from its nearly yearlong probe. Thursday’s 8 P.M. hearing, the first of eight, marks the culmination of the committee’s probe, which conducted more than 1,000 interviews and obtained upwards of 125,000 records. Committee members are eager to reach a broad segment of Americans and show how democracy in 2020 and 2021 was under attack. “The committee will present previously unseen material documenting January 6th, receive witness testimony, preview additional hearings, and provide the American people a summary of its findings about the coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and prevent the transfer of power,” the panel said.
Adam S. Olsen, Washington, D.C.
