Both the House and Senate are back in session today and House Republicans are slated to dive into the details of their sprawling bill full of President Donald J. Trump’s domestic policy priorities this week, as leaders eye an ambitious timeline for moving the package through the lower chamber before Memorial Day. At least five House committees are scheduled to convene to craft portions of the bill, known as a markup, as the conference kicks off the early stage of the consideration process. The panels will then hold a vote on whether to advance their parts of the Trump agenda bill. The meetings come as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is looking to clear the bill by the end of May, setting the stage for a high-stakes four-week sprint on Capitol Hill. Although all hearings have not been formally noticed yet, the plan is for the House Homeland Security Committee to meet Tuesday at 10 A.M; the House Armed Services Committee will convene at the same time; and the House Education and the Workforce Committee is slated to gather Tuesday at 10:15 A.M, while the House Financial Services Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will meet Wednesday at 10 A.M. The markups this week are a notable step forward in the process for achieving President Trump’s legislative agenda, but the bigger tests will emerge for Republicans in the coming weeks when the party has to consider more controversial parts of the package — namely, the portions under the jurisdiction of the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees. The Ways and Means Committee has authority over taxes, which are a central part of the Trump agenda bill and Republicans are pushing to make President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent and plan to use the budgetary gimmick known as current policy baseline to achieve that goal. The strategy assumes that the extension of the tax cuts does not add to the deficit, an attempt by the party to keep the package deficit neutral. The Energy and Commerce Committee, meanwhile, will have to grapple with spending cuts when it comes time for its markup. The budget resolution, which lays out instructions for each committee, ordered House panels to find at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, while Senate panels are mandated to make at least $4 billion in slashes — a significant difference that leaders in both parties will have to adjudicate. A major point of contention is cuts to Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for people with disabilities and low-income adults. The House instructed the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the program, to find $880 billion in savings over the next 10 years. Democratic lawmakers and advocates have pointed to a recent analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to conclude that Republicans would likely have to cut Medicaid substantially to achieve their desired savings.
For today, when the Senate reconvenes at 3:00 P.M. it is expected to take up a Motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar #80 David Perdue to be Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. The Senate is expected to spend most of the week clearing nominations. Of note, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-New York) Dear Colleague Letter on the May work period.
The House will reconvene at 2:00 P.M. for legislative business and is expected to take up H.R. 452 – Miracle on Ice Congressional Gold Medal Act as well as sixteen bills under suspension of the Rules from the Energy and Commerce Committee.
