Both the House and Senate are expected to be in session through Friday this week before adjourning for the two week Independence Day recess. Both chambers Armed Services Committees will launch their full-committee markups of the annual National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday, the House in a public meeting and the Senate in closed session. The Senate also plans to first consider Senator Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) bill that would rescind the Defense Department’s policies that allow servicemembers to travel to seek abortion care. The move is a compromise with Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) who is blocking over 250 military senior officer promotions over the abortion policy. Also of note, the Senate Appropriations Committee meets Thursday and the outcome will set the table for a the House-Senate spending fight that will only heat up in the coming weeks and months. The panel is meeting to lock in the topline spending levels for each of the 12 spending bills. They’re expected to match the levels settled in the bipartisan debt limit deal and will also mark up the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Agriculture spending bills.
On the House side, the chamber is expected to take up a measure this week to try to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a GOP bill that would block the White House’s student debt relief plan. The student loan bill was the fifth veto of Biden’s presidency and the Senate is unlikely to sustain an override. In the Senate, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Jon Tester (Montana) and Independent Senator Krysten Sinema (Arizona) joined with Republicans to pass the legislation, but that wouldn’t be enough to override the veto. After more than three years, the federal government’s pandemic-related suspension of student loan payments and interest is officially coming to an end this fall. Interest is set to resume in September, with payments starting in October for borrowers.
To start the week, the Senate reconvened at 3:00 P.M. and will hold a confirmation vote on the nomination of Julie Rikelman to be United States Circuit Judge for the First Circuit.
The House will meet at 6:30 P.M. and consider the following legislation under suspension of the Rules: S. 30 – Fiscal Year 2023 Veterans Affairs Major Medical Facility Authorization Act, H.R. 3672 – To designate the clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Indian River, Michigan, as the “Pfc. Justin T. Paton Department of Veterans Affairs Clinic and H.R. 1606 – Veteran Entrepreneurship Training Act of 2023.
