The House is expected to vote later Wednesday to pass a package of six government funding bills as lawmakers race the clock to get the legislation through both chambers before an end of the week shutdown deadline. The move comes as lawmakers face a pair of upcoming shutdown deadlines on March 8th and March 22nd and with President Joe Biden set to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday evening, further compressing the timeframe to enact the package. The Senate must take up the measure after the House acts. With House Republicans controlling only an extremely narrow two seat majority, the bill is expected to be brought up under a procedure known as suspension of the rules, which require a two-thirds majority to pass, meaning that Republicans will need to rely on Democratic votes to pass the package. The hardline House Freedom Caucus has taken an official position against the spending package, saying in a statement that it “punts on nearly every single Republican policy priority” and “surrenders Republicans’ leverage to force radical Democrats to the table to truly secure the southern border.”
For today, the Senate convened at 10:00 A.M. and is expected to continue work on nominations, taking up the nomination of Ronald T. Keohane to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense, the nomination of Moshe Z. Marvit to be a Member of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission and the nomination of Cathy Ann Harris to be Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board.
The House convened at 12:00 P.M. for legislative business and is expected to begin consideration of H.R. 2799 – Expanding Access to Capital Act of 2023 as well as H. Res. __ – Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024.
