Legislative Activity

House Appropriations Action

Last week the House passed the FY 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations bill (H.R. 2609), the third FY 2014 spending bill to be approved by the chamber. This week, floor consideration of the FY 2014 Defense Appropriations bill (H.R. 2397) will commence under a structured rule that will limit the number of amendments and expedite a final vote on the bill. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) indicated he also would like to bring the Financial Services, Transportation-Housing and Urban Development (H.R. 2610), and Agriculture (H.R. 2410) bills to the House floor in July.

Thus far, the House Appropriations Committee has approved six of its twelve FY 2014 spending bills and will take up an additional three this week that were marked up in subcommittee last week: Commerce-Justice-Science, Financial Services, and Legislative Branch. Only the three most controversial bills – Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS-Education, and State-Foreign Operations – await subcommittee action, although the State-Foreign Operations Subcommittee may take up its bill this week.

Senate Appropriations Action

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its FY 2014 Labor-HHS-Education (S. 1284) and Legislative Branch (S. 1283) Appropriations bills, also bringing its total of approved FY 2014 spending bills to six. The Commerce-Justice-Science and Homeland Security spending bills are both on tap for subcommittee, and possibly full committee, markups this week.

Senate Democrats intended to bring their first FY 2014 appropriations bill to the floor later this month, leading off with the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development bill (S. 1243). However, because Republicans object to the higher spending cap used by the Senate Appropriations Committee, they have threatened to raise points of order against spending bills brought to the Senate floor. Additionally, the Democratic procedural action expected this week with regard to executive branch nominations has Republicans threatening to stall any other Senate business brought to the floor.

This Week’s FY2014 Appropriations Markups:

  • Tuesday, July 16: Commerce-Justice-Science – Senate subcommittee markup
  • Tuesday, July 16: Homeland Security – Senate subcommittee markup
  • Wednesday, July 17:  Commerce-Justice-Science – House full committee markup
  • Wednesday, July 17:  Financial Services – House full committee markup
  • Wednesday, July 17:  Legislative Branch – House full committee markup
  • Wednesday, July 17: Defense – House floor consideration begins