The House went into recess on July 26 and will return after Labor Day. The Senate adjourned on August 1 for a brief recess and will return to action on August 15. The Senate is atypically working through the remainder of August as it consider Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court and look to finish up its initial work on funding bills. When it returns on August 15, the Senate will take up the bill that funds the agencies under Health and Human Services, such as NIH and CDC, and the Defense Department funding bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that bill funds the Department of State and USAID programs like PMI but also certain immigration programs will be grouped together with the other two immigration-related bills, and will be finalized after the midterms.
When the House returns in September, it will have very few working days available to take legislative action on the funding bills and other bills. Funding bills annually run up against a deadline of September 30, which is the conclusion of the current fiscal year. If Congress and the President are not able to pass funding bills by that date, the departments covered by the respective bill must be shut down unless a continuing resolution (CR) is passed, which temporarily funds the department at previous year’s funding levels.
In other congressional news, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced the End Neglected Tropical Diseases Act (S. 3212). The bill aims to facilitate effective research on and treatment of neglected tropical diseases through coordinated domestic and international efforts.