House plans packed week of stopgap funding, reconciliation 3.0, stock trading ban

House Republican leaders are eyeing votes on a number of big measures, including a GOP-only budget reconciliation bill and a stock trading ban next week, the last week in session before the chamber is scheduled to depart for August recess.

On the working agenda right now, according to GOP leadership sources, is a House vote approving the budget blueprint for the reconciliation 3.0 package, a second try at approving the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a stopgap funding measure to fund the government past Sept. 30 and a bill to restrict stock trading by members.

Instructions for the reconciliation 3.0 effort advanced in the House Budget Committee on Thursday, outlining $73 billion for defense and intelligence funding; $12 billion for agriculture aid; and $10 billion for a program to encourage states to adopt voter ID and proof-of-citizenship voter registration requirements in the vein of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act — none of which is offset in spending. The special budget reconciliation process bypasses the Senate's 60-vote rule, meaning Republicans can advance it without needing help from Democrats.

But while the bill advanced in committee without much pushback, many House GOP lawmakers have expressed disappointment at it not including offsets for the spending, and the scope of the bill being much smaller than a sweeping Pentagon boost and "anti-fraud" measures. Plus, it faces ample skepticism from Republicans in the Senate.

Fiscal hawk Rep. Warren Davison (R-Ohio) posted on social media this week that the framework would be "DOA" — dead on arrival — in the House. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) can afford to lose no more than three Republicans on a party-line vote, assuming all members are present and voting.

Meanwhile, leaders are eyeing bringing up a continuing resolution (CR) stopgap funding measure to fund the government past the Sept. 30 end-of-fiscal-year deadline, wary of the prospects of a shutdown ahead of the critical midterm elections in November.

"I don't know how they're going to get that done," Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) said of a CR. "I don't know how the Democrats are going to vote for that."

On top of that, Republican leaders would like to take another try at passing the chamber's version of the NDAA this week. Leaders had attempted to bring up the NDAA last month, but rebels exerting pressure on the SAVE America Act and demands for an immigration bill derailed the floor schedule and prevented it from coming up.

A rule teeing up the annual defense authorization bill would be expected to include language to essentially merge the NDAA with the SAVE America Act as it is sent to the Senate. Pro-SAVE Act rebels such as GOP Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.) and Tim Burchett (Tenn.) had argued that the mechanism did not go far enough when it was used last time but have since warmed to the tactic and supported its use on another appropriations bill this week.