SAVORING SOME SUMMER SAUSAGEMAKING House Republicans are preparing to dive into a summer slog that will test their tiny margin. Reminder: The House is in for five more weeks (more on that below) before they leave town for the August recess. And they’ve got plenty to do before then — if they can keep their majority together. Their biggest test of that is likely to be leadership’s ambitious schedule to pass 12 government funding bills. They got their first — Military Construction-VA — through this week, but they’ve got more challenging bills that unraveled last year due to GOP infighting coming down the pike. “I think we’ll get all our bills out of committee. And then it really is a leadership and a conference-wide decision. … We can only lose two or three” votes, Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said — effectively summing up the GOP’s perennial tension. House Republicans are taking a break on the floor next week from the government funding train, but are expected to bring the Defense, State-Foreign Operations, and Homeland Security bill to the floor on the week of June 24. (The House is out the prior week.) One Republican acknowledged that “at some point our dream will shatter" and predicted that once the challenging floor plans unravel, the House will likely leave early for the August recess. (Are we trying to manifest an early recess? No comment.) Speaking of defense: Next week, Speaker Mike Johnson is poised to move a massive annual defense policy bill, aka the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), across the House floor. The Rules Committee meeting, expected on Tuesday, could be telling. More than 1,300 amendments have been filed — not a typo — and there are plenty of hot-button issues at stake: banning COVID-related mandates, preventing further funding for a humanitarian aid pier in Gaza, preventing funds under the bill from going to Ukraine and a whole host of culture-war issues. Here’s the tension point: The NDAA came out of the House Armed Services Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support. To set up votes on at least some of those amendments, it will need to come to the floor under a rule. And under typical House practice, the minority party likely will oppose that rule — meaning Johnson will need to rely on rock-solid GOP support to make way for final passage. Members of the House’s right flank are watching closely to see what amendments the Rules Committee allows to come up for a vote. If some of the more controversial GOP measures get added, that would also make the bill’s final passage less bipartisan — and set up a more profound clash with the Senate before it can actually become law. Garland contempt: Johnson told reporters he anticipates holding a vote next week on holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress — though as of publication time it’s not yet on the House schedule. If Republicans succeed, it will be their highest-profile political victory to spin out of their months-long investigation into President Joe Biden. (The ultimate goal of impeachment remains way off the table.) But several Republicans are still publicly on the fence — and some told us they are hoping that some sort of deal can be worked out that would provide some kind of an off-ramp. The potential vote comes after Garland reiterated during an hours-long hearing this week that he won’t turn over the audio of Biden’s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur — though DOJ did turn over the transcript. Also: We mentioned this yesterday, so we’ll be brief: A program compensating victims of nuclear radiation exposure is due to expire on June 10, with a Senate bill reauthorizing it currently going nowhere in the House. Both chambers are out of town until June 11. — Jordain Carney GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Thursday, June 6, where we are celebrating Sarah’s return from maternity leave.
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