Continuing the budget reconciliation process, the House Budget Committee began marking up the House version of President Biden’s American Rescue Act on Feb. 22, as the House looks to bring the bill to a vote later this week.
The Budget Committee markup is not expected to substantively change the House bill, which currently stands at 591 pages of legislative language drafted by nine House committees. Reconciliation instructions gave 12 committees directions for drafting legislative language: the House committees on Foreign Affairs, Natural Resources, and Science, Space, and Technology did not get their prints in before the Feb. 16 deadline.
The three missing committees were responsible for appropriating a total of $11.75 billion total, according to Budget Committee General Counsel Raquel Spencer. There will be an opportunity later in the process to amend the bill to include legislative language that fell under their purview.
Between including the final three committees’ language and cutting spending from the current version of the bill – which would go over the allowed $1.9 trillion spending as written according to the Congressional Budget Office – there are still changes to be made before getting to the House floor.
The Budget Committee has already voted and decided to report the print to the House with a favorable recommendation. The committee will vote on measures related to the legislation but does not have the authority to amend the legislation in committee.
Once the Budget Committee finishes the markup process, the House Rules Committee is expected to mark up the bill later this week. The legislation is expected to come to a full House vote by the end of the week, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer expects the House to pass its version of the Act later this week.
