This Week in Congress

With the political conventions in the rearview mirror, Congress returned this week facing the traditional election year quagmire of members wanting to leave Washington as quickly as possible while doing just enough to avoid a government shutdown. Congress has three weeks to pass a continuing resolution (CR) by the October 1st start of the new fiscal year to continue funding the federal government, and threshold issues relating to the duration of the stopgap funding measure and whether it should include controversial policy riders have divided factions of the Republican party. Many in the Republican Party support a two- to three-month CR that would allow for negotiation and passage of a Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 spending package in the Lame Duck session, arguing that approach would clear the decks for the new Congress and the next administration to focus on some major fiscal deadlines that will arise early next year. The hard-right Freedom Caucus backs a longer CR that that extends into March 2025, seeking to avoid a bipartisan Lame Duck omnibus bill that would not incorporate their preferred deep spending cuts.

Senate Democrats are unlikely to seriously entertain the policy riders including noncitizen voting legislation to any stopgap funding measure, and House and Senate Appropriators might rather tackle spending issues in the lame-duck session, while current members are still in office. That would set the stage for an omnibus spending package, which is exactly what House conservatives would like to avoid.

However, spending was not the only thing on this week’s agenda.  The farm bill lapses at the end of September, meaning it will need an extension either as part of the continuing resolution or in some other legislative vehicle, and the fiscal 2025 national defense authorization measure is still awaiting action.

In addition to voting on the CR, the House considered a slate of measures intended to make the U.S. more competitive with China, including to restrict tax credits for new electric vehicles using batteries from China-based companies, making it harder for foreign nationals to buy U.S. farmland, prohibiting the Homeland Security Department from funding any university that receives money from the Chinese government, and establishing a China division within the Department of Justice.

Finally, the Senate held nomination votes and the swearing-in of George Helmy to assume the New Jersey seat vacated by former Sen. Bob Mendendez.