CQ NEWS
July 6, 2012 – 10:45 p.m.
House Agenda Set Up for Political Contrasts
By Richard E. Cohen, CQ Staff
The House is offering a July agenda that Republican leaders hope will demonstrate that legislative work has not yet ground to a pre-election halt, although the first significant item on the schedule is a “message” bill with no chance of enactment.
The work period begins in earnest July 11 with another vote on repealing the 2010 health care law, a proposition doomed in the Senate.
Next up is a bill (
Appropriations legislation is on tap next week, when debate is expected on some of the six fiscal 2013 spending bills the House has yet to consider. The GOP’s priority is the Defense appropriations bill (
The House also will take up a bill from Judiciary Chairman
With the exception of the health care law repeal, most of the initial bills awaiting House action are unlikely to become front-burner campaign issues. In some cases, Republican leaders are intent on tamping down efforts to transform them into partisan conflicts.
The leadership made it clear months ago that it hoped to wrap up most necessary legislation by the end of June and use the remaining time in session before the elections to focus on bills that draw contrasts with the Democratic Senate and the Obama administration.
Republican legislative strategists have discussed dedicating to a broad policy theme each of the coming four weeks leading to the August recess. In a May 25 memorandum laying out the House’s “summer legislative agenda,” Majority Leader
House action on some measures — such as Republican legislation to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts (PL 107-16, PL 108-27) — could help shape how lawmakers handle fiscal issues in a post-election session or at the start of the 113th Congress in January.
Congress’ completion last month of a surface transportation reauthorization (
With few, if any, of the 12 annual spending bills likely to be enacted before the end of the fiscal year, Republicans will need to decide whether they are satisfied with a continuing resolution that would keep the government running at the $1.047 trillion level set in the Budget Control Act (PL 112-25) or whether they want to press a more politically risky — and likely unsuccessful — bid to cut spending levels.
Minority Whip
Another fiscal measure that has attracted some Democratic support is a bill (
House Agenda Set Up for Political Contrasts
The House Agriculture Committee plans to take up its draft farm bill July 11, but it remains unclear whether House leaders are prepared to bring the measure to the floor before the November elections.