Congress Is Back – Again – But Can It Clear the Legislative Logjam?

President Donald Trump famously said he wanted a reconciliation bill to fund ICE and CBP on his desk by June 1. Well, the day has arrived – but no such bill has. Will today bring his plan to fruition? As the Magic 8 Ball told us, “Outlook not so good.” In fact, Congress hasn’t quite made it back from its Memorial Day recess, either. The Senate returns at 3 p.m. Eastern today, and the House meets at noon tomorrow. This wasn’t the first time they decided to take a break without actually resolving the issues – and now, surprise, surprise – that very same legislative logjam awaits their return. So what are the chances this time will go any differently?

Laundry List of Languishing Legislation

When the two chambers of Congress called it quits for an extended holiday, the reconciliation bill wasn’t the only bit of old business left unresolved – just the biggest. There’s also the issue of reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to expire mid-June. As well, the upper chamber has yet to address the House-passed farm bill and housing bill. Republicans also want yet another party-line package to pass by reconciliation that funds the conflict in Iran, defense spending, fraud prevention, etc.

The reconciliation bill seemed close before the recess, with the House passing the resolution to create the package to fund ICE and CBP – but then came along President Donald Trump’s IRS settlement and the $1.77 billion “anti-weaponization fund.” And this offended congressional Republicans so much that they left it lying on the table and skipped off to their recess. 

Conflict in Congress

When asked by the press about the inaction, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) shifted the blame to the Senate. “I want the American people to understand that what really holds up this town more and more: lazy senators,” Donalds said.

The House had already passed an extension of Section 702, which included a ban on the development of a Central Bank Digital Currency, but the Senate refused to take it up. Instead, Congress had to pass two short-term measures to extend the authorization through June 12. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) warned that any Section 702 bill including a CBDC ban would be dead on arrival.

“Here we go again, and we’ll see,” said Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) of the House Freedom Caucus. “Hopefully they’ve learned from the last … people’s minds are made up on this, so we need to just, they – we were almost there. We were almost to a point where we had an agreement. So maybe, we’ll – hopefully we can move that ground a little bit.”

“We have to get FISA done. We got to fund the Border Patrol and ICE,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE). Yet the House isn’t exactly chomping at the bit to get stuff done, either, it seems. The House reportedly doesn’t plan to hold any votes until Wednesday. Both chambers of the 119th Congress have spent more than twice as many days in recess as actually in session, and there’s no indication that’s going to change any time soon.