08/15/2018

Senate Back in D.C. to Take Up Spending Bills

The House will not return to session until Sept. 4

The Senate is back to work today after an abridged recess, with plans to keep the appropriations process on track and consider some more nominations.

The House will not return to session until Sept. 4, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wants to hammer out spending bills for Defense and the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. McConnell is seeking to tamp down any “poison pill” amendments that could derail the vote and has been successful so far. Before a brief hiatus the last two weeks, the Senate approved seven of the 12 annual spending bills to fund the government.

Some controversial policy riders have been included in the House-approved bills, however, so differences will have to be worked out between the two chambers. House and Senate leaders are trying to avoid another government shutdown threat by getting appropriations bills through conference before Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2018.

This article was provided to OSAE by the Power of A and ASAE's Inroads.