Senate Returns to a Crowded Agenda; House to Follow Next Week
September 7, 2023
After a long August break, the Senate gaveled into session earlier this week, while the House of Representatives is scheduled to reconvene on September 12th. With a number of deadlines quickly approaching, lawmakers will need to sprint over the coming weeks to avoid lapses in government spending and policy.
For starters, Congress has until the end of September to pass all 12 fiscal year 2024 spending bills or risk a federal government shutdown. To date, the House has only passed one bill, but the Appropriations Committee has advanced ten. The votes have been highly partisan, with Democrats refusing to endorse House Republican leadership’s efforts to significantly reduce funding for domestic discretionary programs.
Across Capitol Hill, the Senate has yet to pass any of its bills, but appropriators have approved all 12 in committee, and they’ve done so with strong bipartisan support. Next week, the full chamber will consider a three-bill package covering Agriculture-Rural Development, Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs. However, given the lack of progress to this point, and with only a few weeks remaining before the funding deadline, House and Senate leaders have openly discussed the need for a short-term Continuing Resolution.
For his part, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) would prefer a four to six week extension of government funding, though Democratic leaders and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have spoken about the need to extend funding through the end of the year.
In a related development, the Biden administration has requested that Congress approve more than $40 billion in supplemental spending to replenish FEMA’s disaster relief account, as well as funding to cover enhanced border security efforts, and to continue supporting the ongoing war in Ukraine. While Minority Leader McConnell has expressed support for the package, House Republicans who oppose additional foreign assistance will want to strip the Ukraine funding from the package.
In addition to the federal budget and the administration’s supplemental spending request, lawmakers will also need to determine a path forward on legislation that would renew the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Farm Bill programs. The authorization for both will expire on September 30. It’s unlikely that Congress will be able to advance either bill in the coming weeks, so an extension of both is a priority for leaders in both parties.
HHS Recommends Rescheduling Cannabis
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officially recommended to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that cannabis be moved from Schedule I – a drug with high abuse potential and no medical value – to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). A Schedule III designation is applied to drugs with moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence and has been shown to have some medical value.
The DEA has the final authority to schedule or reschedule a drug under the CSA, but the HHS recommendation will carry some weight with the agency. DEA will now initiate its own review, though it’s unclear how long that process could take. If the drug is ultimately reclassified, cannabis would still remain federally prohibited, but the new designation would remove significant barriers to research and allow state-licensed businesses to make federal tax deductions.
On the congressional front, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recently identified cannabis banking legislation as a priority for the fall legislative session. Moreover, Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has spoken with party leaders about advancing the SAFE Banking Act (S. 1323) through his panel within the next six weeks. If enacted, S. 1323 would improve access to financial services for state-legal cannabis businesses, as well as the ancillary businesses that provide them with goods and services. Specifically, the SAFE Banking Act would exempt depository institutions and their employees from federal prosecution or investigation solely for providing banking services to a state-legal cannabis-related business. This so-called “safe harbor” is intended to provide certainty for financial institutions to offer their products and services without fear of retribution from the federal government.