Lawmakers had hoped the measure might be brought up for a chamber vote before the break. But on Thursday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said that chamber leaders will move to put the must-pass budget policy bill on the floor this week, pushing work on the legislation to September.
He said he hopes the measure will be “the first agenda item when we come back” from break.
Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have passed their respective drafts of the defense authorization bill with wide bipartisan margins. But reaching a final compromise draft is still expected to take months of work.
But lawmakers remain optimistic the work will be done at some point this fall, and lawmakers can maintain their streak of more than six decades of annual adoption of the budget policy legislation.
Tuesday, July 29
Senate Foreign Relations — 10:30 a.m. — 419 Dirksen
Nominations
The committee will consider several pending nominations.
Wednesday, July 30
Senate Homeland Security — 10 a.m. — 342 Dirksen
Pending Legislation
The committee will consider several pending bills.
Senate Foreign Relations — 10 a.m. — Capitol S-116
Pending Legislation
The committee will consider several pending bills.
Senate Foreign Relations — 2:30 p.m. — 419 Dirksen
U.S.-Africa Partnerships
State Department officials will testify on critical mineral mining in Africa and opportunities for U.S. partnerships with countries there.
Thursday, July 31
Senate Armed Services — 9:15 a.m. — G-50 Dirksen
Nominations
The committee will consider several pending nominations, including Michael Powers to be comptroller for the Defense Department.
Senate Appropriations — 9:30 a.m. — 106 Dirksen
Defense Appropriations
The full committee will mark up its draft of the FY26 defense appropriations bill and education appropriations measure.
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
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