Congress
Capitol Agenda: Welcome back to the House
The House is coming back into session to end the shutdown after more than 50 days in recess. Here’s what to expect in the next 24 to 36 hours.
Chiefs of staff for House members have received notice to make arrangements for their bosses to return to Washington. The chamber has a lengthy to-do list that’s piled up since lawmakers have been back in their districts, but the first task is taking up Senate-passed legislation to reopen the government.
Today is a federal holiday in observance of Veterans Day, but House GOP leadership is prepared to convene a Rules meeting sometime in the afternoon to tee up the government funding package for floor consideration Wednesday. Votes could occur as soon as Wednesday at 4 p.m. according to a whip notice that went out Monday night.
Republicans appear ready to support the bill, which would fund a handful of agencies for the full fiscal year and the rest of the federal government through the end of January. Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday he thinks he has the votes. The House Freedom Caucus “is cool” with it too, according to one of the caucus members, who said the group sees it as a win because it doesn’t include an extension of the expiring Obamacare subsidies.
President Donald Trump has also called it a “very good” deal — an endorsement that’s likely to help some wavering fiscal conservatives get on board.
Johnson’s biggest dilemma at the moment involves travel logistics for his members, many of whom will be contending with canceled or delayed fights as a result of major shutdown-related air travel disruptions. Johnson has encouraged lawmakers to make arrangements to come back to town as soon as possible.
It’s less clear how many Democrats will break ranks in support of the bipartisan deal brokered in the Senate. Most members of the minority party are irate to be caving without a deal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. House Democratic leaders plan to vote against the bill and are whipping against it.
In a new statement shared first with Inside Congress, leadership of the moderate New Democrat Coalition — which makes up the largest ideological caucus of Democrats in the House — is also opposing the package too.
“While New Dems always seek common ground, our Coalition remains united in opposition to legislation that sacrifices the wellbeing of the constituents we’re sworn to serve,” New Democrat Coalition Chair Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) said in the statement.
Some Democrats could break ranks. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat to support the GOP-led continuing resolution back in September; keep an eye on other centrists, like Reps. Marie Perez Gluesenkamp (D-Wash.) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas). But none of them have revealed how they could vote this week.
What else we’re watching:
— GOP ACA group: As Congress works toward a bipartisan solution to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies and prevent insurance premiums from skyrocketing, Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Rick Scott of Florida and Roger Marshall of Kansas will represent Republicans at the negotiating table, Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced Monday night. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will run point for Democrats in the health care talks.
— Thune’s Leg Branch provision: Senate Republicans secured a provision in the bipartisan, shutdown-ending government funding package that could award senators hundreds of thousands of dollars for having their phone records collected without their knowledge as part of a Biden-era investigation. It turns out that legislative language came directly from Thune.
Calen Razor, Nicholas Wu, Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.
Congress
House Republicans eye next week for housing bill vote
House leadership is eyeing the week of Feb. 9 for a vote on a bipartisan housing package, according to four people with direct knowledge of the planning.
Senior lawmakers have also been mulling whether to consider the widely supported bill under suspension of House rules, which would expedite passage of the legislation, said three of the people who were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
However, plans for the bill are not locked in and could be subject to change as the House deals with a partial government shutdown.
The Housing in the 21st Century Act, which overwhelmingly advanced through the House Financial Services Committee in December, is part of a push by Congress to pass legislation that could address a growing housing affordability crisis. The bill includes 25 provisions that aim to increase the housing supply, modernize local development and rural housing programs, expand manufactured and affordable housing, protect borrowers and those utilizing federal housing programs, and enhance oversight of housing providers.
House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) said Friday that he’s pushing for the Housing for the 21st Century Act to receive a floor vote expeditiously.
”I hope that that bill can come to the House floor in just a few days. I really am pushing for that, I think it’s the right decision,” Hill said on Bloomberg Radio.
The Senate’s housing bill, the ROAD to Housing Act, passed the upper chamber as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act but may be put to a separate floor vote. If the House is able to pass its own version by a wide margin before the Senate, it could have additional leverage for negotiations with the upper chamber for a final bill. Hill and other House Republicans have said the Senate bill, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate Banking Committee, has a number of provisions that would not be acceptable among House GOP members.
Congress
Bill and Hillary Clinton now agree to testify before Congress
Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of the panel’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an Oversight aide said Monday evening.
It’s a remarkable reversal for the former president and secretary of state, who were adamant they would defy committee-issued subpoenas and risk imprisonment by the Trump Justice Department as the House prepared to vote Wednesday to hold them both in contempt of Congress.
After both skipped their scheduled depositions earlier this year, the Oversight Committee voted on a bipartisan basis in January to approve contempt measures for each of them.
Although both have said they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, they have maintained that the subpoenas were not tied to a legitimate legislative purpose, rendering them invalid. They also complained the GOP-led exercise was designed to embarrass and put them in jail.
It is not immediately clear when they will appear and if the House will continue to pursue the contempt votes.
Congress
Top House Democrats split on funding vote
Senior House Democrats are going in different directions on a massive funding bill headed to the House floor as soon as Tuesday, underscoring the sharp divisions inside the Democratic ranks on the $1.2 trillion spending package.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Monday she would vote for the funding package when it goes to the floor Tuesday — breaking with a large swath of colleagues who oppose the measure over its extension of Homeland Security funding, including immigration enforcement operations.
“I will support this package,” DeLauro said during Monday meeting of the Rules Committee. She noted it secures funding for the five-full year, bipartisan bills and extends funding at current levels for DHS for 10 days.
DeLauro said without the DHS stopgap Democrats “won’t be able to bring the kinds of pressure” necessary to make changes to the full-year DHS bill they’re negotiating with the White House.
But Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Rules Democrat, said he was dead-set against the bill due to the DHS funding.
“I will not vote for business as usual while masked agents break into people’s homes without a judicial warrant, in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” he said.
Neither leader, however, is expected to vote for a key procedural measure setting up a final debate and approval for the massive bill, which passed the Senate on Friday. That measure, known as a rule, is also expected to tee up contempt-of-Congress votes on Bill and Hillary Clinton over their decision not to fully cooperate in a Oversight Committee probe into Jeffrey Epstein. GOP leaders are scrambling to build support for that measure as some in their ranks agitate for amendments, including the attachment of a partisan elections bill.
“Republicans have a responsibility to move the rule, which, by the way, includes a wide variety of other issues that we strongly disagree with,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday.
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
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