September 16, 2019
Congressional members returned to Washington facing a crowded agenda around gun violence, defense spending, and drug prices to name a few, with only a couple of weeks to avert another potential government shutdown. Before the August Recess, the House had already passed 10 of its 12 appropriations bills while the Senate did not advance any appropriations bills at the subcommittee level. The House is expected to vote on a stopgap bill next week.
On September 12, the Senate Appropriations Committee considered their 302(b) spending allocations for each of the subcommittees, as well as the FY2020 appropriations bills for the subcommittees on Defense and Energy and Water Development. However, already due to procedural reasons, the House and Senate will likely look at after the October break to form a conference committee to negotiate a compromise defense bill. Other markups in the Senate process have also been postponed due to poison pill amendments and partisan bickering. The Senate Appropriations Committee will mark up Military Construction-VA, Transportation-HUD, and Financial Services subcommittees fiscal 2020 appropriations bills this week.
Energy
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $48.9 billion FY2020 Energy and Water Development spending bill, $4.23 billion above the FY2019 enacted level and $10.81 billion above the budget request. The Committee recommended $10 million for the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, an increase of $100,000,000 above the budget request. The Energy Information Administration would see an increase of $14 million above the budget request to $132 million. The bill also provides funding of $303.5 million for Weatherization ($10 million more than the House and significantly above the $257 million from FY2019). However, the Senate only provided level funding for the State Energy Program (SEP) of $55 million, while the House provided $70 million.
Gun Violence Legislation
After more recent mass shootings in Ohio and Texas, Democratic lawmakers are reinvigorated to pass gun control legislation. Just this past week, several Northeast Governors have signed on to a letter to the White House urging President Trump to work with Congress to pass sensible gun legislation. A copy of that letter is available here. Also last week, the House Judiciary Committee passed three more pieces of gun legislation (H.R. 1186 – Keep Americans Safe Act; H.R. 1236 – Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2019; and H.R. 2708 – Disarm Hate Act). The bills are expected to be considered on the floor in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, 145 CEO’s of companies have sent a letter urging the Senate to take action, however as of this writing, a Senate vote on any gun violence legislation has not been formally scheduled. The Administration is expected to announce a proposal this week, but it’s unclear what policies President Trump will agree on.