House Republicans are slated to dive into the details of their sprawling bill full of President Trump’s domestic policy priorities this week, as leaders eye an ambitious timeline for moving the package through the lower chamber.
At least five House committees are scheduled to convene to craft portions of the bill — a gathering known as a markup — as the conference kicks off the early stage of the consideration process. The panels will then hold a vote on whether to advance their parts of the Trump agenda bill.
The meetings come as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is looking to clear the bill by the end of May, setting the stage for a high-stakes four-week sprint on Capitol Hill.
Also this week, a House subcommittee is slated to hold a hearing on drone sightings after reports of vehicles flying in New Jersey skies captivated the country last year. On the House floor, lawmakers will consider a number of resolutions aimed at rolling back Biden-era rules pertaining to cars and the environment.
On the other side of the Capitol, senators will vote on more Trump nominees this week, including former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who was selected to be the next U.S. ambassador to China.
House panels to parse through Trump agenda bill
At least five House committees are scheduled to meet this week to parse through their portions of the Trump agenda bill, as the chamber looks to get the ball rolling on consideration of the GOP’s mammoth bill.
While the panels meeting this week have purview over less-controversial parts of the Trump agenda bill, the markups are the first time the public is learning about the specifics in the legislation — a significant step in the process.
The House Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT, the House Armed Services Committee will also convene on Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT and the House Education and Workforce Committee is slated to gather on Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. EDT. The House Financial Services Committee and the Oversight Committee will meet on Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT.
Several committees released the text for their portions of the bill ahead of their markups.
“The House Oversight Committee is taking a critical step to advance President Trump’s America First agenda and ensure taxpayer dollars are used effectively, efficiently, and responsibly,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement last week. “The Committee will consider legislation that delivers a substantial win for fiscal responsibility, achieving a reduction in the federal deficit of over $50 billion dollars.”
“Congressional Republicans, alongside President Trump, are taking bold action to safeguard taxpayer dollars and secure America’s financial future—delivering on our promise to hard working American taxpayers,” he added.
The markups this week are a notable step forward in the process for achieving Trump’s legislative agenda, but the bigger tests will emerge for Republicans in the coming weeks when the party has to consider more controversial parts of the package — namely, the portions under the jurisdiction of the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees.
The Ways and Means Committee has authority over taxes, which are a central part of the Trump agenda bill. Republicans are pushing to make Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent and plan to use the budgetary gimmick known as current policy baseline to achieve that goal. The strategy assumes that the extension of the tax cuts does not add to the deficit, an attempt by the party to keep the package deficit neutral.
The Energy and Commerce Committee, meanwhile, will have to grapple with spending cuts when it comes time for its markup. The budget resolution, which lays out instructions for each committee, ordered House panels to find at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, while Senate panels are mandated to make at least $4 billion in slashes — a significant difference that leaders in both parties will have to adjudicate.
Additionally, as part of the $1.5 trillion for House committees, the Energy and Commerce panel is responsible for at least $880 billion — a number that some lawmakers and scorers believe will be unachievable without cuts to Medicaid, something several Republicans are adamantly opposed to.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is eyeing a markup the week of May 7, according to a committee aide.
House panel to look into drone sightings
A House panel is scheduled to look into drone sightings this week, after reports of drones flying through the skies drew headlines last year.
The House Oversight Subcommittee on Military and Foreign Affairs is slated to hold a hearing, titled “Securing the Skies: Addressing Unauthorized Drone Activity Over U.S. Military Installations,” on Tuesday at 2 p.m. EDT.
Rear Admiral Paul Spedero Jr., the Joint Chiefs of Staff vice director for operations; Mark Roosevelt Ditlevson, the acting assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs at the Pentagon; and Timothy L. Arel, the chief operating officer of the air traffic organization at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), are all slated to testify.
Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.), the chairman of the panel, said the hearing “will highlight the growing threat of unauthorized drone activity and examine why strong leadership and swift action are needed to strengthen U.S. military readiness and defend the American people.”
“U.S. agencies’ confusion over who is responsible for countering increased drone activity severely hinders our military’s ability to respond to threats in real time,” he added in a statement.
The hearing comes after drone sightings were reported in New Jersey late last year, raising questions about who was behind the flights. In January, days into the Trump administration, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the drones were “in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons.”
“This was not the enemy,” she added.
House to target Biden-era rules
The House this week will push to overturn a number of Biden-era rules, as the GOP-led chamber looks to roll back the previous administration’s policies.
The chamber is scheduled to consider five disapproval resolutions — which must be approved by the House and Senate and signed by the president to go into effect — including three that target California’s regulations pertaining to cars.
“In December 2024, the Biden-Harris Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted a waiver of preemption for California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rule that places extreme standards on emissions for vehicles in an attempt to make all new vehicles zero emission by 2035 and force Americans to switch to EVs,” the office of Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) wrote in a floor lookout on Sunday. “This rule will ban the sale of gas-powered and traditional hybrid vehicles gradually – forcing automakers to sell electric vehicles in place of traditional models and taking consumer choice out of Americans’ hands.”
Aside from the California-related rules, the House is targeting a Biden-era rule pertaining to ATVs in the Glen Canyon Recreation Area, and the past administration’s designation of longfin smelt as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Scalise’s office argued that the smelt listing “imposes burdensome red tape that hinders effective water management and reduces water availability for the American families and farmers who need it most.”
Senate to take up more ambassador nominations
The Senate is scheduled to vote on another slate of Trump nominees this week, as the chamber looks to install the rest of the administration’s top officials.
On Monday at 5:30 p.m. EDT, the Senate will hold a procedural vote on former Sen. David Perdue’s (R-Ga.) nomination to be U.S. ambassador to China.
Also this week, the chamber is expected to hold a vote on Thomas Barrack’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Turkey. Barrack, who chaired Trump’s first inaugural committee, in 2022 was acquitted of charges alleging that he acted as an unregistered lobbyist for the United Arab Emirates through his access to Trump.
The chamber will also likely vote on Warren Stephens’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Tilman Fertitta’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Italy and U.S. ambassador to San Marino.
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