The House Rules Committee will take its turn with the American Rescue Act on Feb. 26 at 9:30 a.m., bringing the COVID-19 relief bill one step closer to a full House vote.
The Rules Committee review – part of the reconciliation process – comes with an amendment process, allowing the committee to bring the bill into accordance with any reconciliation instructions it does not currently follow.
The current form of the bill includes titles from nine of the 12 committees named in the reconciliation instructions. The first amendment the committee will consider includes titles from the Foreign Affairs; Natural Resources; and Science, Space, and Technology Committees: the three committees named in reconciliation instructions that had not submitted titles by the Feb. 16 deadline.
That is just one of 52 different amendments the committee will consider at its hearing. The full list of amendments to be considered has been made available, though the actual texts of those amendments have not been released.
The Rules Committee review follows the markup process by the House Budget Committee and is the last major hurdle to clear before the bill can be brought before the House of Representatives. However, the entirety of the process likely precludes the bill from a House vote this week, which House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., stated was a likely outcome at the beginning of the week.
