Both the House and Senate are back in session today, after the Senate voted 75-22 on Friday to pass the funding bill to keep a slew of agencies afloat through September. The 1,050-page measure is a collection of six appropriations bills negotiated by House and Senate leadership and top appropriators in both parties and chambers. It will extend funding through the rest of the fiscal year, ending September 30th, for about half of the government, including the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Justice, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Veterans Affairs. The remaining six appropriations bills, which include contentious issues like how to fund the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, face a deadline in just two weeks, on March 22nd. Negotiators haven’t reached a deal on how to resolve that yet, much less written legislation to do so.
For today, the Senate is expected to continue its work on nominations including Jasmine Hyejung Yoon to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Virginia, Sunil R. Harjani to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, Melissa R. DuBose to be United States District Judge for the District of Rhode Island and Sean Patrick Maloney to be Representative of the United States of America to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, with the rank of Ambassador.
The House is expected to take up H.R. 6276 – Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies Act of 2023 and H. Res. 1065 – Denouncing the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
