Thursday: Appropriations, sequester replacement in the House

But members will start the day with another bill, H.R. 5652, the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act. This bill would eliminate the discretionary cuts to 2013 spending that are required under the Budget Control Act, known as the “sequester,” and replace them with cuts to mandatory programs.

{mosads}Republicans are pushing this bill to avoid required cuts to defense spending, and Democrats have argued all week that they oppose efforts to exempt the Defense Department from deficit reduction.

The House will start by debating the rule for the sequester replacement bill. After approving the rule, members will debate the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act for two hours before holding a final vote sometime before 3 p.m.

The Senate meets at 9:30 a.m., and may or may not hold another vote on S. 2343, the Stop Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act. Republicans prevented this bill from moving ahead on Tuesday, and Democrats have since hinted that they might allow a vote on a Republican alternative in order to win their support to proceed to the bill.

But as of Wednesday, no procedural deal had been announced.

The Senate is also likely to take up H.R. 2072, the Securing American Jobs Through Exports Act. The House on Wednesday passed this bill to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, in a strong bipartisan vote. It should easily clear the Senate.