President Joe Biden is set to deliver his second State of the Union address this week to a divided Congress, as the new House Republican majority seeks to push back on his agenda and investigate his family and administration. The speech, before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber, is scheduled for Tuesday at 9 P.M. eastern time. It will offer a preview of how President Biden will seek to push forward his legislative priorities given the new power dynamics, and whether he will try to find common cause with Republicans in some areas. President Biden is likely to renew his call for a clean debt ceiling increase during his speech on Tuesday, using his time on the dais to directly address House Republicans who are pushing for spending cuts tied to their support for raising the borrowing limit.
Around the State of the Union, the Republican majority will press ahead this week on some of its hot-button issues, with two separate House committees slated to hold hearings, one on the southern border and one on Twitter’s decision to limit the spread of a New York Post story in 2020 pertaining to President Biden’s son Hunter Biden. The House Oversight and Accountability Committee is slated to hold a hearing on Tuesday titled “On The Front Lines of the Border Crisis: A Hearing with Chief Patrol Agents.” Gloria Chavez, the chief patrol agent for the Rio Grande Valley Sector, and John Modlin, the chief patrol agent in the Tucson Sector, are slated to appear as witnesses. On Wednesday, the Oversight Committee will come together for a hearing on Twitter’s decision to limit the spread of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. Republicans have accused the social media platform of censoring the story for political purposes. The hearing is titled “Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias, Part 1: Twitter’s Role in Suppressing the Biden Laptop Story.” Three former Twitter employees are slated to testify: Vijaya Gadde, who served as chief legal officer, James Baker, who was the company’s deputy general counsel, and Yoel Roth, the ex-global head of trust and safety. Finally on Thursday, the newly created Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government will hold its first hearing. The House passed a resolution in a party-line vote last month to create the panel, which is chaired by Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who also leads the Judiciary Committee. The select subcommittee is expected to probe investigations underway at the Justice Department and FBI that focus on former President Donald Trump. It was created in response to calls from some Republicans for a “Church-style” investigation into the FBI, based on the 1970s probe into civil liberties violations by the intelligence community that was led by former Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho).
While the Senate is not in session today, the House will meet at noon for morning hour and 2:00 P.M. for legislative business with votes at 6:30 P.M. The House is expected to consider the following bills Under Suspension of the Rules: H.R. 302 – Energy Cybersecurity University Leadership Act of 2023, H.R. 548 – Eastern Band of Cherokee Historic Lands Reacquisition Act and H.R. 423 – Pala Band of Mission Indians Land Transfer Act of 2023.
The Senate will next meet on Tuesday at 3 P.M. to resume consideration of the nomination of DeAndrea Benjamin to be a United States circuit judge for the 4th Circuit.
