Session Schedule – The House and Senate are both in session for three weeks and scheduled to adjourn the weekend of July 28th. There have been no serious threats made against the five-week August recess (fingers crossed).

Floor Focus

• Week One – The House takes up the annual defense authorization bill. Well over 1,000 amendments have been filed. There will not be that many votes, of course. The bill usually passes with bipartisan support, but the large number of difficult issues – Ukraine, funding levels, etc. – could mean the bill passes with a more partisan tint. The Senate will continue to process nominations.
• Week Two – The Senate is supposed to spend this week and the next on the DoD bill. Like the House, deriving a process for floor votes will be challenging, but the hard backstop of the August recess should help drive the bill to passage before senators leave. The House is supposed to work on the FAA authorization bill and since it passed out of committee unanimously it could move across the floor relatively quickly. If so, the House could start on relatively non-controversial spending bills, probably DoD or MilCon.
• Week Three – Senate concludes work on defense bill. House continues working on spending bills and perhaps the Ways and Means-passed tax bill. Tax bill more likely slips to September because of hard issues like the child credit and SALT.

Other Notes

• The Senate majority will also want to dual track the floor process and work on nominations. Fed and FCC along with judges are the priority. FTC noms were sent to the Hill but will not be ready for the floor before September.
• Other issues percolating but not ready for floor consideration: China 2.0 and A.I. (Senate), Farm Bill (House and Senate), rail regulation (still reportedly two votes short of cloture), bank executive clawback (Senate) and FAA (Senate). PBM regulation is less formed and still being chewed on by relative committees.

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