House to take up appropriations, intelligence authorization next week

The House will consider the intelligence authorization and the third 2015 appropriations bill next week.

Members will debate legislation to fund the Justice Department, Commerce Department and science programs when the House returns Wednesday evening.

{mosads}The $52 billion measure will likely spark fights over guns and the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. It will be considered under an open rule, meaning members can offer an unlimited number of amendments. 

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) hedged when House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) asked if all 12 annual appropriations bills would hit the floor before the August recess.

“The Appropriations Committee certainly has expressed its desire,” Cantor said. “We will move towards that goal with an expeditious nature as much as we can.”

Congress has not cleared each individual appropriations bill, as is theoretically done under “regular order,” in more than a decade. It instead has typically bundled all or some of them into one big appropriations bill.

Appropriations measures funding controversial government agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the Internal Revenue Service will be tougher to pass.

The House passed the 2015 military construction-Veterans Affairs and legislative branch appropriations bills during the last work period.

After completing work on the Commerce-Justice-science appropriations bill, Cantor said the House would debate the intelligence authorization. The House passed the 2015 defense authorization on Thursday by a 325-98 vote.

“Providing the tools and the oversight of the intelligence community is a vital role of Congress as we have shown earlier today,” Cantor said.