This Week on the Hill: House Set to Debate First FY 2020 ‘Minibus’

House lawmakers will kick off a busy legislative work week later this afternoon as the House begins full consideration of fiscal year (FY) 2020 spending bills. The lower chamber will take up the first “minibus” package (summary; amendments) for FY 2020 on Wednesday, containing five appropriations bills. The five spending bills included in the first minibus include: Labor-Health and Human Services-Education (text; report), Energy and Water Development (text; report), Legislative Branch (text; report), Defense (text; report), State-Foreign Operations (text; report).

For today, the House will consider 11 bills under suspension of the rules. This includes a measure (H.R. 3151) out of the Ways and Means Committee that seeks to modernize and improve the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as well as a Homeland Security bill (H.R. 2539) that would prioritize the assignment of certain officers and intelligence officers in state, local, and regional jurisdictions with a high-risk surface transportation asset.

In the upper chamber, a timeline for FY 2020 appropriations remains unclear as Senators currently lack a bipartisan agreement on funding levels to start markups. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) are set to meet with acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) acting director Russ Vought tomorrow to discuss the FY 2020 appropriations process. In the meantime, the Senate will resume consideration of presidential nominees. A full list of pending nominations up for consideration is available here