House lawmakers next week will focus on finalizing a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending deal that must pass by March 23, while the Senate will take up a bill to roll back Obama-era banking reforms.
But neither are expected to take up a gun control measure, despite urging from the public and President Trump, thanks to partisan disagreements over the scope of the legislation. The gridlock could be indefinite, although House Republicans plan to bring a bill to the floor in the coming weeks aimed at bolstering school security.
Without any clear path on guns, the Senate will vote on a bill that would undo many of the reforms made in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that passed after the banking crisis a decade ago.
The Senate’s bill, which has the backing of a dozen Democrats, would reduce the law’s regulatory burdens on banks, particularly on smaller banks, proponents said. It would lift Dodd-Frank restrictions governing certain regional banks, lifting the threshold for the strictest level of oversight from $50 billion to $250 billion in assets, among other changes.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is one of the Democrats who backs the bill even though he supports Dodd-Frank: “Just like every piece of legislation, historically, after a few years you do a fix-it bill. We are now eight years after Dodd-Frank and there is broad-based consensus, particularly from the community banks and credit unions, there needs to be some dialing back.”
House and Senate lawmakers must also begin completing legislation that will fund the government until the end of the fiscal year, which is Sept. 30. The two parties agreed to a top-line number that lifts domestic and military spending caps, which should ease passage of the legislation without missing the March 23 deadline, when a temporary spending bill expires.
Lawmakers in both parties had at one point considered adding a provision to the bill to extend a program allowing so-called Dreamers to remain in the United States in exchange for border security funding.
But a Supreme Court decision that will effectively delay the administration from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, means Dreamers are not vulnerable to deportation anytime soon, so lawmakers are less likely to insist on addressing the matter in the omnibus.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., still favors adding a DACA extension and border security money to the omnibus.
“There’s a bill to be had,” Graham said, referring to a bill that helps Dreamers and bolsters border security. But he added, the Supreme Court decision “give us a little bit of time to cool off a little bit.”
While lawmakers work on spending legislation behind the scenes, the House will consider a bill on the floor that would halt a new EPA emissions standard governing the brick, clay, and tile industries, and instead require judicial review of any new regulation. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Tenn., sponsored identical legislation in the Senate.
“To comply with existing Environmental Protection Agency requirements, these small businesses will be forced to borrow millions of dollars to pay for the required control equipment at a time when many of them are already struggling to find the capital for plant modernization projects,” said Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, who sponsored the legislation. “It will be extremely difficult for these companies to secure the needed investments to pay for new control equipment that would provide absolutely no return on investment.”
The House will also vote on a bill that would eliminate EPA emissions caps that make it difficult for certain power plants to use coal refuse, which can be converted into cheap domestic energy.
The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Pa., called the bill “a common-sense solution that keeps these plants open, saves jobs, preserves important domestic electricity-generating capacity, and cleans the environment.”
Many Democrats oppose the bill, arguing it will allow coal plants to emit more sulphur dioxide and hydrogen chloride, which are dangerous pollutants, into the atmosphere.
“This bill is a sweetheart deal for a small group of power plants that will result in more air pollution,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., said.
Throughout the week, the Senate will also vote on three judicial nominees: Karen Scholer to be a United States district judge for the Northern District of Texas, Tilman Eugene Self III, to be a United States district judge for the Middle District of Georgia, and Terry Doughty to be a United States district judge for the Western District of Louisiana.
