The Senate will convene at 3:00 P.M. and plans to spend the week working on the continuing resolution (CR) as well as the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol Treaty which cloture was filed on last week, kicking off the process to bring the treaty up for a vote in the upper chamber. The Kigali Amendment calls on nations to phase down the production and use of hydrofluorocarbons by 85 percent over 15 years. That could prevent a half-degree Celsius of warming by the end of the century. The CR will allow the government to remain funded at last year’s spending levels and give both chambers more time to strike a spending deal. The continuing resolution would likely remain in effect past the midterms and into mid-December. Senators are held up in negotiations over a measure on energy permitting reform, which is expected to expedite the development of fossil fuel and other energy products by implementing maximum timelines for environmental reviews, among other provisions. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) promised Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) that the legislation would be tacked on to the continuing resolution in order to secure his vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, which Congress passed, and President Joe Biden signed into law last month. Last week, Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) joined Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) in objecting to the push for permitting reform, writing in a statement that Congress “should not attach the permitting overhaul package to the must-pass government funding legislation.” There is also significant opposition in the House, where more than 80 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to House Democratic leadership requesting that permitting reform be kept out of the continuing resolution. At least 60 votes are needed to pass a continuing resolution in the Senate. Text for the permitting reform measure has not yet been released, though a broad outline of the CR was released by the White House. If permitting reform remains in the bill and Markey and Sanders vote “no,” at least 12 Republicans will have to support the stopgap legislation, assuming all other Democrats are on board. While some Republicans have pushed for similar reforms in the past, it is possible that some in the party will be unwilling to support the stopgap as a rebuke to Manchin backing the Inflation Reduction Act.
In the House this week, Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-California) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), both members of the House January 6th Select Committee, will introduce legislation to reform the Electoral Count Act, an 1887 law that outlines how electoral votes are cast and counted following presidential elections. Lofgren and Cheney announced in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday that they will propose their reforms to the Electoral Count Act this week, capping off months of speculation regarding the January 6th panel’s plan to revise the 135-year-old law. The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet on the bill on Tuesday, and it could hit the floor after that. The law outlines the procedure for casting and counting Electoral College votes as part of the presidential election process. Former President Donald J. Trump and those close to him attempted to use the arcane statute to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
Hearings for the week include a markup for a Social Security Benefits bill and hearings on Russia sanctions, U.S. nuclear policy, Clean Water Act, Farm Bill, arctic science, undercounted jail deaths, banking oversight, and infrastructure implementation.
For today, the Senate will convene at 3:00 P.M. and will resume consideration of the nomination of Florence Y. Pan to be United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The House will convene at 12:00 P.M. with first votes at 6:30 P.M. and is expected to consider 26 bills under suspension of the Rules.
