The House is in recess this week until Tuesday, May 10th, but the Senate will reconvene today at 3:00 P.M. Following leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of the nomination of Joshua Frost to be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets.
The Senate is expected to spend this week working on Ukraine aid, additional COVID relief funding, the conference for the Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) with the House’s America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act of 2022, as well as several nominations.
Senate Democrats are nearing a decision point on how to handle the administration’s request for tens of billions in new Ukraine assistance and the urgency is expected to build after Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-California) surprise visit to Ukraine over the weekend. The Biden administration formally unveiled the $33 billion ask last week, kicking the issue to Congress, where Democrats will need to decide whether to attach it to stalled Covid aid. But linking Ukraine assistance and coronavirus aid could slow down its path through the Senate. Republicans previously blocked a deal on $10 billion in coronavirus relief, which was negotiated between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and a group of GOP senators, after Democrats refused to give them an amendment vote related to Title 42. Republicans do not seem willing to back off their demand for a Title 42 vote as part of the coronavirus legislation and are warning that if Democrats tie Ukraine assistance and COVID-19 aid together, that they will block it.
The Senate will also work through more than two dozen nonbinding votes to instruct negotiators who will work out a final deal on an anti-China competitiveness bill, after formally voting last week to go to conference. As part of the long-sought agreement to formally begin negotiations with the House, the Senate locked in votes on approximately 28 motions to instruct negotiators, which are nonbinding but could provide political fodder.
Finally, Leader Schumer has teed up votes on two nominees: Elizabeth de Leon Bhargava to be an assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Joshua Frost to be an assistant secretary of the Treasury. The Senate will take an initial procedural vote on Frost’s nomination on Monday night as mentioned above. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) announced on Sunday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, depriving Democrats of a vote. But both nominees could still be confirmed if they pick up GOP support.
Adam S. Olsen, Washington, D.C.
