While the Senate won’t be in session until tomorrow, the House reconvened at 2:00 P.M. Casting a specter over the House is the threat from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) to force a vote on the motion to vacate the chair to remove Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana). Greene is scheduled to meet on Monday afternoon with Johnson after Greene announced last week that she would move to force a vote on Johnson’s ouster this week, after dangling her motion to vacate resolution over his head for more than a month. Her effort, however, is all but sure to fail. A growing number of conservative Republicans have said they do not support the motion to vacate, despite their frustrations with the Speaker’s recent legislative moves, and top House Democrats said they will vote to table the removal resolution if Greene calls it to the floor for a vote, two dynamics that are eroding support for Greene’s gambit quickly.
Also this week, Congressional leaders are racing to pass a reauthorization for the Federal Aviation Administration, and decisions about possible amendments — including a major nuclear energy package — are going down to the wire. Senators on Tuesday will pick up last week’s negotiations on amendment proposals, hoping to reach an agreement to vote on the full measure and give the House time to hold its own vote before the FAA’s May 10th authorization deadline. The ‘‘Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act of 2024,” is a compromise between two separate but similar nuclear energy bills from the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Environment and Public Works committees and is under consideration to be added to the package as is Senator Ron Wyden’s (D-Oregon) proposed amendment to add the House-passed tax package, the “Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act,” H.R. 7024, to the bill. Leadership is trying to minimize the number of amendments hoping to quickly pass the package before Friday.
For today, the House convened at 2:00 P.M. for legislative business with votes on 11 bills under suspension of the rules scheduled at 6:30 P.M., including H.R. 6972 – Securing the Chain of Command Continuity Act.
