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DC Download 11.27.2023

Lawmakers are back on the Hill after avoiding a government shutdown before the Thanksgiving break. This week, House lawmakers are considering bills to bar the government from housing migrants, to freeze foreign money, to rollback a DEI rule for banks, and to possibly expel a Republican House member. Senators, meanwhile, are working to advance nominations.

Table of Contents:

Immigrants have always been a core part of the American story. But certain politicians are attacking people seeking safety at our border to distract us from their failure to unrig our economy. These politicians and the special interests who fund them try to use hate and fear to divide us, but we aren’t fooled. We need to join together across our differences to create fair immigration laws that treat each person with dignity, and provide a clear process for newcomers to participate equally in our society and become citizens.

Fast Facts:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) manages the largest immigration detention system in the world and spends more on immigration enforcement than on all other federal enforcement agencies combined.
The use of detention to enforce civil immigration laws is relatively new — as recently as the 1980s, it was extremely unusual for immigrants to be detained during their immigration proceedings.
Black immigrants face the brunt of the criminalization of immigration. More than 1 in 5 non-citizen immigrants targeted for deportation on criminal grounds is Black, even though Black immigrants only make up 5% of the non-citizen population.

For more messaging tools and resources, visit the Progressive Playbook.

House Floor

The House will vote on nine suspension bills from the Committees on Small Business and Foreign Affairs. Suspension bills require a ⅔ majority to pass. For a list of all suspension bills being considered, click here.

The House will also consider the following bills, subject to a rule:

H.R. 5283 – Protecting our Communities from Failure to Secure the Border Act of 2023 (Sponsored by Rep. Malliotakis / Natural Resources Committee): The bill would prohibit federal funds from being used to provide housing for migrants on any land overseen by federal land management agencies.

H.R. 5961 – No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act (Sponsored by Rep. McCaul / Foreign Affairs Committee): The bill would permanently freeze the $6 billion of Iranian funds released by the Biden Administration earlier this year in exchange for five American prisoners. The funds, which do not include U.S. taxpayer dollars, may only be used for food, medicine, and agricultural products.

S.J. Res. 32 – Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to Small Business Lending Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B) (Sponsored by Sen. Kennedy / Financial Services Committee): The Congressional Review Act resolution would block a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule requiring lenders to collect and report demographic data on small business loan applicants, including information about ethnicity, race, sex, and whether the business is owned by women, people of color, or members of the LGBTQ community.

House Committee Highlights

A full list of this week’s hearings and markups can be found here. Notable hearings and markups include:

Wednesday Hearings

The Semi-Annual Report of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Financial Services)

America Leads the Way: Our History as the Global Leader at Reducing Emissions (Energy & Commerce)

Understanding How AI Is Changing Health Care (Energy & Commerce)

Bad for Business: DOL's Proposed Overtime Rule (Education & the Workforce)

Getting on the Right Track: Navigating the Future of Intercity Passenger Rail in America (Transportation & Infrastructure)

Oversight of Federal Agencies’ Post-Pandemic Telework Policies: Part II (Oversight & Accountability)

Thursday Hearings

Turbulence Ahead: Consequences of Delaying a Long-Term FAA Bill (Transportation & Infrastructure)

Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government (Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government)

Oversight of President Biden's Broadband Takeover (Energy & Commerce)

The U.S. Border Crisis and the American Solution to an International Problem (Foreign Affairs)

Nominations

The Senate this week has teed up votes on the following nominees:

Jeffrey M. Bryan, of Minnesota, to be United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota
Margaret M. Garnett, of New York, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York
Jose Javier Rodriguez, of Florida, to be an Assistant Secretary of Labor

Senate Committee Highlights

A full list of this week’s Senate committee hearings, including confirmation hearings, can be found here. Notable committee hearings include:

Tuesday Hearings

The Gun Violence Epidemic: A Public Health Crisis (Judiciary)

Wednesday Hearings

Examining the Security of Federal Facilities (Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs)

Thursday Hearings

Opportunities and Challenges Associated with Advanced Nuclear Reactor Commercialization (Energy & Natural Resources)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Semi-Annual Report to Congress (Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs)

Government Funding

Before leaving D.C. for the Thanksgiving break, lawmakers passed a “laddered” stopgap funding bill and averted a government shutdown. The two-part temporary spending bill funds part of the government—including federal agencies financed through the Agriculture-FDA, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD spending bills—through January 19, 2024. The remaining agencies are funded through February 2. The bill, however, left out President Biden’s supplemental funding proposals to aid Ukraine, Israel, domestic disaster relief, and more. While Congress avoided a government shutdown, it also set up deadlines for two possible shutdown fights early next year. So far, the House has passed seven of the 12 necessary bills to fund the government, while the Senate has passed three.

Biden Signs Spending Bill, Staving Off a Government Shutdown (The New York Times)
Congress is procrastinating on the real government shutdown fight (Vox)

FISA Reauthorization

On December 31, 2023, a key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expires. The provision, known as FISA Section 702, allows the U.S. government to spy on foreign individuals outside of the country, including collecting phone calls, texts, and emails, without a warrant. In the process of collecting this information, however, the government also picks up Americans’ conversations and stores them in databases that U.S. intelligence agencies, including the FBI, CIA, and NSA, can search without a warrant, in possible violation of the 4th Amendment. According to a transparency report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, warrantless searches of U.S. residents’ communications by the FBI topped 119,383 in 2022. Earlier this month, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH-08) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-18) introduced the bipartisan, bicameral Government Surveillance Reform Act, which would reauthorize FISA Section 702 with reforms to protect Americans’ privacy rights. Specifically, the bill would require intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant in order to search and collect Americans’ communications from intelligence databases. The bill has yet to be considered by either chamber.

Reform Bill Would Protect Americans from Warrantless Surveillance (Brennan Center)
Talks on Surveillance Law Simmer as Its Expiration Date Looms (The New York Times)

SCOTUS Watch: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited

On October 3, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited (CFSA). This case concerns the constitutionality of the CFPB’s funding structure. Congress created the CFPB following the 2008 financial crisis to regulate financial institutions and track consumer complaints. The law creating the CFPB directs the Federal Reserve—not Congress’ annual appropriations process—to fund the agency. The plaintiffs, which represent pay-day lenders, argue this funding structure violates the Constitution’s appropriations clause, which says “[n]o money shall be withdrawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” If the Supreme Court agrees, every CFPB rule and regulation could be called into question, wreaking havoc for consumers and the financial world. Moreover, if this funding structure is declared unconstitutional, then the constitutionality of other federal agencies, like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and more will also be under threat.