House GOP leader outlines July agenda

The House appears unlikely to finish work on the annual appropriations process before departing for the August summer recess.

Republicans eager to demonstrate their ability to govern hoped to hit that goal this year, even though Congress hasn’t cleared all 12 spending bills on time since the 1990s.

Yet a memo from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) outlining the July agenda indicates that the House will only finish eight of the annual spending bills by the August recess.

{mosads}That’s well ahead of the Senate, where Democrats last month blocked the annual spending bill for the Pentagon as part of a strategy to force budget negotiations to ease budgetary ceilings known as sequestration. Senate Democrats have pledged to block all spending bills until Congress finds a way to lift the spending caps.

The House began consideration of the Interior Department appropriations bill last week, but more amendments remain. Passage is expected next week.

McCarthy listed only one other appropriations bill that is expected for consideration in July: the Financial Services and General Government measure. The wide-ranging bill includes funding for the Internal Revenue Service, federal judiciary and White House operations.

Both the Interior and Financial Services bills will likely attract multitudes of amendments. House GOP leaders have instituted a process for considering appropriations bills that allows lawmakers to offer an unlimited number of amendments, resulting in many late nights.

The House has passed six other fiscal 2016 appropriations bills so far at a fast clip: Military Construction-Veterans’ Affairs, Energy-Water, Legislative Branch, Commerce-Justice-Science, Transportation-Housing and Urban Development and Defense. 

McCarthy noted that additional items could be added to the schedule in July. But the other remaining appropriations bills are among the toughest to pass: Homeland Security, Agriculture, State-Foreign Operations and Labor-Health and Human Services. Homeland Security in particular would likely spark a fight over immigration.

Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees appear on track to mark up all 12 appropriations bills, which hasn’t been accomplished in six years.

Congress may end up having to pass a short-term measure when they return from summer recess in September.

McCarthy also listed the revived No Child Left Behind education policy overhaul as another bill expected on the floor in July.

Other items include a California drought relief measure and patent reform, as well as completion of the national defense authorization act and a trade enforcement bill.

The biggest deadline of the month will be on July 30, when the Highway Trust Fund will run dry. Lawmakers expect to pass yet another short-term extension before the deadline.

While McCarthy made no mention of the Export-Import Bank in his memo, supporters of the bank will likely try to attach a renewal measure to the highway bill. The bank’s charter expired Tuesday night after Congress did not pass legislation to extend it.