Republicans move to clear final hurdles to funding bill before recess
Appropriators are crafting a three-bill package that covers full-year funding for the departments of Agriculture (USDA), Veterans Affairs (VA), Commerce, Justice (DOJ), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), rural development, military construction and science agencies.
Both chambers have fallen behind on their funding work, and appropriators are eager to put some bipartisan points on the board before the September sprint to avoid a shutdown that will greet them when they return from recess.
Republicans took a major step Tuesday by clearing two key holds on the package, giving them a clear path on their side as they await word from Democrats on what they hope will be a bipartisan effort to get the measure across the finish line in the coming days.
'[We] have essentially resolved the holds that have to do with appropriations,' Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters, lauding the 'great progress' by negotiators.
Chief among the issues they resolved was one raised by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who had placed the hold over language that would have downgraded the military hospital at Fort Leonard Wood in central Missouri to a clinic.
'We've got a deal, I think,' Hawley told reporters Tuesday afternoon, calling the potential downgrade a 'disaster.'
The Missouri senator also argued such a move would be 'stupid' given the amount of taxpayer funding that has already gone toward building up the rural hospital.
'We need to protect it,' Hawley said. 'There will be language in this bill now that will protect it, and there will be language in this bill that will force the Army to come up with a plan to replace all of the housing at Fort Leonard Wood that needs it. It's a good outcome.'
In addition, Collins and her fellow appropriators resolved a separate holdup by nixing language in the annual agricultural funding bill that would close what Republicans have described as a 'hemp loophole' in current law.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) spearheaded the push to excise the provision, which was secured by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a senior appropriator and former GOP leader.
Republicans say the loophole was unintentionally created by the 2018 farm bill, which legalized hemp production, as multiple states have complained the 'vagueness' in the law accidentally helped fuel a market of intoxicating hemp products.
A McConnell spokesperson said the senator 'wants to pass all the appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year – and doesn't want to hold up the process – so he is working with the committee on a path forward.'
Paul raised concerns about the measure's impact on the industry, telling reporters Thursday that the move to strip the proposal was a 'step forward.'
'If there's going to be one it's on the products that humans use, and not the plant, because the plants vary a lot in potency,' he said. 'And you know, right now, a lot of farmers start growing hemp, and if one of the plants is hot, they got to plow under all the plants. It's a terrible way to regulate this thing.'
Republicans are optimistic that they'll be able to push the emerging package out of the Senate before they leave for the coming recess. But Democrats have kept mum as to how they plan to vote on the package if it comes to the floor.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a senior appropriator, didn't say Tuesday how he would vote on the overall plan, while pointing to 'unresolved issues regarding the FBI headquarters.'
'We made proposals, and the ball is in Republicans' court,' Van Hollen said.
Both parties clashed in committee earlier this month over the Trump administration's plans to keep the FBI's crumbling headquarters in the nation's capital.
The disagreement threatened to sink the bill in committee when the panel initially voted to buck Trump's proposal in favor of a decision made under the Biden administration to relocate the headquarters to Maryland. However, the proposal was later scrapped after Republicans signaled they would tank the overall plan in objection to the Democratic-crafted measure.
Other Democrats say they're waiting to see details of potential changes Republicans have made to the forthcoming package before saying how they intend to vote.
Overall, the bills would provide more than $250 billion in discretionary funding for fiscal 2026.
The largest bill, funding the VA and military construction, would allow for more than $133 billion for the agency, including about $114 billion for VA medical care and nearly $20 billion for the Pentagon's military construction program.
The package is expected to provide about $80 billion in the annual bill funding the DOJ, the Commerce Department and science agencies, as well as $27 billion for a full-year funding plan for the USDA, FDA and rural development.
Republicans are itching to hold the vote on the 'minibus' before they depart for the recess and amid a sea of nominations they are attempting to process.
Members discussed the nominations issue at length during lunch Tuesday, with a number of members expressing support for Trump making recess appointments in August.
Republicans have complained about Senate Democrats not allowing any Trump nominees to be confirmed via unanimous consent or voice vote, but recess appointments are currently not feasible, as the House already left for recess and both chambers would have to agree to allow them to proceed. Senate Republicans have also been unenthused with the prospect of recess appointments previously.
Republicans are hoping to put forth a package of noncontroversial nominees to expedite and process before departing.
In the meantime, they believe the current minibus is close to being ready for prime time.
'I think a minibus [will happen],' said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), an appropriator. 'I don't know what their issues are, but … I think we'll have that on the docket in the next day or two.'
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36 minutes ago
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The Hill
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Push to ban lawmaker stock trading gets new life
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Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — who as leader of the House opposed a stock trading ban and after whom Republicans cheekily named a previous effort to ban trading — threw her support behind the bill as well. Pelosi had opened the door to supporting a stock trading ban in 2022, but her outright endorsement was nonetheless notable. But Burchett's bill that Luna hopes to force a vote on, as well as several other stock trade bills — such as the Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust (TRUST) in Congress Act, from Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) — do not include the barring trades by the president. Despite those hangups, proponents of the ban are optimistic they can get it done this time around. 'It's an increasingly public fight that people care about,' Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a large supporter of a prohibition on lawmaker stock trading, told The Hill. 'And Congress is running out of runway with the people.' 'We will force votes,' he added. The difficulty in crafting a stock trading ban is personified in Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.), who has caught heat for continuing to trade stocks despite saying he wants to ban member stock trading. Bresnahan, a businessman whose estimated net worth is in the multi-millions, has continued to report many stock trades despite writing a letter to the editor during his campaign calling to ban stock trading. Bresnahan has introduced a stock trading ban bill and says that he has no involvement with the trades that his financial advisers have made on his behalf. While he has said he wants to keep his current financial advisers and create a blind trust that would put a more stringent firewall between him and those trades, he has found problems in crafting that plan with the House Ethics Committee. Local public news organization WVIA noted that Bresnahan could simply ask his advisers to not make any more trades, but Bresnahan dismissed that idea. 'And then do what with it?' Bresnahan said to WVIA News. 'Just leave it all in the accounts and just leave it there and lose money and go broke?' Despite some critics, supporters of a stock trading ban are plowing full-steam ahead, hoping to make headway on the headwinds created by the House Ethics Committee. 'Members of Congress should be banned from trading individual stocks because their access to privileged, nonpublic information creates unavoidable conflicts of interest that erode public confidence in government,' Luna said in a statement. 'As lawmakers, we receive classified briefings, shape economic policies, and interact with industry leaders, giving us insights that can influence stock prices.' 'Even if no laws are broken, the appearance of profiting from this access fuels distrust among Americans,' she added. 'The American people do not trust the US government, and this is a step forward to building that trust.' The impetus for the current push was a report from the House Ethics Committee that said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) violated the lower chamber's code of conduct when his wife traded stocks for the company Cleveland-Cliffs — which has a facility in Kelly's district — after the congressman learned non-public information about the firm. On April 28, 2020, Kelly learned that the Commerce Department would make an announcement that would benefit Cleveland-Cliffs. The day after, the congressman's wife, Victoria Kelly, bought 5,000 shares of the company for $23,075. The department's news was ultimately made public on May 4. She sold all her shares of the company in January 2021 shortly after Cleveland-Cliffs acquired a steel manufacturing corporation, turning a $64,476.06 profit. 'Representative Kelly's conduct with respect to Cleveland-Cliffs and his wife's stock purchase raised significant concerns for the Committee, even if it did not rise to the level of insider trading or clearly violate conflict of interest rules,' the committee wrote in its report, later adding that Kelly 'has not demonstrated sufficient appreciation for the harm to the institution caused by the appearance of impropriety.' It is, to be sure, already illegal for members of Congress to make transactions based on information they receive through their job, and the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which was enacted in 2012, requires that lawmakers report their stock trades within 30 days. But some ethics advocates believe the law should be stronger. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), while he said he is supportive of the efforts to ban stock trades, has noted the difficult position the restrictions could put on members and their families, given the salary for members of Congress has been frozen since 2009. That amounts to around a 30 percent pay cut when adjusting for inflation. Most members make a salary of $174,000. 'If you stay on this trajectory, you're going to have less qualified people who are willing to make the extreme sacrifice to run for Congress,' Johnson said in May. 'I mean, just people just make a reasonable decision as a family on whether or not they can come to Washington and have a residence here, residence at home, and do all the things that are required.'
