U.S. House Republicans face jam-packed week ahead

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) – U.S. House Republicans face a daunting legislative to-do list for the week ahead.

The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for more than 70 days, but House Republicans are still refusing to vote on Senate-passed legislation to reopen it until they see more progress on immigration enforcement funding.

The Senate has already passed a budget resolution laying out the guidelines for a filibuster-proof budget reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol for the next three years.

Once the House approves the budget resolution, lawmakers can begin drafting the actual reconciliation bill. Yet that approval is far from certain, as some Republicans wish to tack on other legislative priorities to the bill.

U.S. Reps. Jason Smith, R-Mo., Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and others have argued this might be Republicans’ last chance to muscle through partisan policies before the congressional balance of power potentially changes in November.

In an effort to prevent any more delays on ending the DHS shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other Republican leadership are open to pursuing a third reconciliation bill to accommodate those requests.

“We’re going to do it as quickly as possible,” Johnson said.

But budget resolution is not the only bill Johnson must convince Republican holdouts to support next week — he must also win them over on reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The provision allows the federal government to collect the electronic data of foreign actors of concern into a database and access that database without a warrant. However, Americans’ metadata is often swept up in the mix as well, raising concerns about citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights.

Johnson’s most recent efforts to reauthorize the provision dramatically failed in the House, with over a dozen members of his party voting alongside Democrats to tank a proposed 18-month extension as well as a proposed five-year extension.

Despite the blow, the speaker has teed up a three-year extension – without the warrant requirements holdouts have demanded – for floor consideration as soon as Monday. If an extension of some kind does not pass, FISA Section 702 expires April 30.

While all of that is underway, the House will also begin consideration of the five-year Farm Bill, an overdue and critical piece of legislation that supports programs and grants for farmers, rural communities, and American agriculture in general.

In addition, the House Appropriations Committee will continue progress on the 12 annual government funding bills for fiscal year 2027, which begins Oct.1.