2021 Federal Budget: Senate Pauses Markups as House Continues Hearings

As a follow-up on last week’s budget article about how the government is working to fund its programs, including Medicaid, in 2021, we are sharing this reporting by Politico Pro:

“Senate Republicans blamed Democrats on Wednesday for sidelining fiscal 2021 spending markups by refusing to give up issues that could threaten bipartisan support, like additional coronavirus relief and police reform amendments.

Republicans had originally planned to begin markups next week — noticing them as early as this Friday — after the pandemic had already delayed the appropriations process. But a GOP aide confirmed markups are back on hold amid partisan disputes about what should hitch a ride on the annual funding measures.

[…]

Additional pandemic aid — over which bipartisan negotiations have yet to begin — should be dealt with through emergency legislation, the GOP aide said.

[…]

The House, which had originally planned to pass all 12 appropriations bills by the end of June, now plans to begin markups the week of July 6 and hold floor votes as early as the week of July 20.

Even without a global public health crisis, this fall’s elections had threatened to sap political will and necessitate passage of a stopgap spending bill to carry Congress through Election Day on Nov. 3.”

The House mark-up schedule will be:

July 6
4:00 p.m. — State-Foreign Operations
6:00 p.m. — Agriculture-FDA
8:00 p.m. — Military Construction-VA

July 7
9:00 a.m. — Homeland Security
11:00 a.m. — Interior-Environment
1:00 p.m. — Legislative Branch
3:00 p.m. — Energy-Water
5:00 p.m. — Labor-HHS-Education – ANCOR note: this is the package that funds Medicaid.

July 8
9:00 a.m. — Commerce- Justice-Science
11:00 a.m. — Transportation-HUD
1:00 p.m. — Financial Services
3:00 p.m. — Defense