The House advanced a slate of bills Tuesday afternoon, bringing a floor blockade to an end after a tentative agreement was reached between Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) and hardline conservatives who had brought the chamber floor to a halt in retaliation over how GOP leadership handled the debt ceiling deal. The stalemate is at an end for now, but tensions continue to erupt in the House Republican conference, including from moderates frustrated and angry at conservatives for halting floor action. The floor blockade also showed how a relatively small faction of conservatives can derail or hold hostage McCarthy’s agenda – and the hardliners have made clear they reserve the right to use every tool available to them to potentially make life harder for GOP leadership in the future. With the stalemate over at least for now, the House finally held votes Tuesday evening, including passing a measure to block a pistol brace regulation and failing to override a presidential veto on a measure to overturn a DC policing bill aimed at accountability and reform.
For today, the Senate convened at 10:00 A.M. and is expected to consider the nomination of P. Casey Pitts to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, Dale E. Ho to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York and Nusrat Jahan Choudhury to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York.
The House convened at 12:00 P.M. for legislative business and is expected to complete work on H.R. 1640 – Save Our Gas Stoves Act which intends to prohibit the Secretary of Energy from enforcing energy conservation standards related to gas stoves. Lawmakers passed the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, H.R. 1615 yesterday, which would bar the Consumer Product Safety Commission from banning gas stoves by a 248-180 vote. Twenty-nine Democrats ultimately voted alongside Republicans to support the measure. The bill and today’s related measure which is also expected to pass are unlikely to get votes in the Democratic-controlled Senate. But Republicans have touted their legislation as pushback against overreach by the Biden administration, even though there are absolutely no federal proposals to outright prohibit the sale of gas stoves under consideration.
The House is also expected to complete consideration of H.R. 277 – REINS Act of 2023 as well as H. Res. 489 – Censuring and condemning Adam Schiff, Representative of California’s 30th Congressional District. Republicans introduced the resolution to condemn Schiff and fine him $16 million over the former Intelligence Committee chair’s allegations of ties between Trump and Russia.
