Breaking News: The House passed the minibus and MTG filed a motion to vacate the chair. But the bigger news is that Rep. Kay Granger announced she is stepping down as HAC Chair.
In a letter to Speaker Johnson, Granger announced her decision, but will remain in place until the House Republican Steering Committee selects her replacement. Steering will likely meet right after the two-week recess.
'24 No More: Six months into FY24, the appropriations bills are (almost) in the books. On Thursday, Appropriations leaders released the text of the remaining six bills, including Homeland Security, which was in flux as recently as last weekend. While the road to FY24 has been far from easy, we're glad our optimism was proven correct in the end.
While some on the far left and far right have raised issues with the latest package, we don't anticipate a derailment at this point. Barring any major surprises, all six bills are expected to pass both chambers and be signed into law before the Saturday funding deadline.
With all of the previous delays, there are just six months left in FY24 and committee staff are already elbow deep in FY25 posture hearings. Simultaneously, subcommittee deadlines for member requests are expected in the very near future, so many members have already posted their programmatic and earmark request deadlines. Time is of the essence if you're eyeing a request in FY25!
Foreign Aid Takes the Stage: Discharge petitions are still active for two bipartisan foreign aid bills, one from the Senate and another from the House. The most recent count puts the number of signatures at 15 and 185 respectively. With FY24 appropriations essentially out the door, leadership will have more time to consider their next moves on foreign aid.
Speaker Johnson and other key Republicans have floated the idea of passing Ukraine aid as a no-interest, waivable loan. While key figures such as Senate Minority Leader McConnell and President Biden have thrown cold water on this idea, some Democrats such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, have signaled a willingness to consider the idea, arguing that the U.S. needs to provide resources to Ukraine regardless of the mechanism.
We don't anticipate this getting resolved anytime soon, but as members head home for the next couple of weeks and recover from the FY24 scramble, members may return to town in the mood to cut another deal.
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