There are a bunch of issues to keep an eye on this week.
1) There are potentially three privileged resolutions that could come up in the House this week. These include an expulsion motion against Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) offered by Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) and several other New York Republicans; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) resolution to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, mostly over the Michigan Democrat’s comments about Israel; and Rep. Becca Balint’s (D-Vt.) censure motion against MTG.
Speaker Mike Johnson said on a House Republican Conference call Sunday night that he wants to beat Democrats on policy.
2) On the House Republican call, GOP leadership announced that they’ll have multiple votes on Wednesday on appropriations bills — Legislative, Interior-EPA and Transportation-HUD. We’ll note Wednesday is a fly-in day, so that’s unusual.
The chamber will vote on Israel funding, new sanctions on Iranian oil and antisemitism resolutions Thursday and Friday, as we discussed in more detail here.
3) The House Republican Conference has scheduled the election to replace Johnson as vice chair of the conference. The candidate forum will be held Nov. 7, followed by the election the following day. There’s a sizable field of Republicans running here, we’ll have more throughout the week.
4) The Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow morning on the White House’s $105 billion national security supplemental funding request. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are scheduled to testify.
5) Jack Lew’s nomination to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel could be voted up as soon as this week. The Senate will vote on a judicial nominee this evening and will begin processing Lew’s nomination on Tuesday.
6) Senators are aiming to wrap up the first three-bill FY2024 spending package this week, as well. The long-stalled minibus includes three largely non-controversial funding bills — Military Construction/VA, Agriculture and Transportation-HUD — but some GOP senators delayed the process as they sought amendment votes. The Senate still has several more amendment votes to take before moving to final passage.
7) News: Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) is trying to change the motion to vacate. Miller, a first-term lawmaker, has a new resolution that would force 112 members of the majority or minority to sign onto a resolution to try to boot the speaker.
We’ll have to see whether this resolution — which is not privileged — will come up for a vote. But it does show the lingering frustration in the conference over the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
8) McCarthy left newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson a private note in the speaker’s suite before the California Republican turned the space over. Johnson has taken the suite on the second floor of the Capitol over from McCarthy and is in the midst of hiring a staff.
9) We have scooped three of Johnson’s big hires: Hayden Haynes, Johnson’s former personal office chief, as the speaker’s chief of staff; Courtney Butcher, who most recently served as member services director for the House Republican Conference, as member services director; and Chris Bien, who worked on the floor for McCarthy, as floor director. Johnson moved quickly to lock up three of his top four staffers — except for policy director — in part to beat back on the criticism that he did not have an experienced team.
Johnson still has to hire a communications director and policy director. Team Johnson has been flooded with resumes.
— Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan and Andrew Desiderio
