Washington Update
Inside (the Beltway) Scoop
By: Ellen KuoWednesday, July 9, 2025
After a short July 4 recess and the passage into law of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, H.R. 1, on July 3, House appropriators were expected to return to markup other federal science agency spending bills on July 7. However, when the House gaveled into session on the morning of July 7, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the chamber would be in recess from July 7 to 13 for a "district work period," and the next votes are expected on the evening of Monday, July 14. The schedule change postponed the planned July 7 subcommittee mark-ups for the fiscal year (FY) Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies bill and the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) bill with no future date announced. The subcommittees have also not released any documents showing the proposed funding levels for the Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Science Foundation.
Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro put out a statement objecting to the “absurd and opaque process” that appropriators are dealing with as they markup spending bills with no idea of how much we are going to appropriate this year. She noted that under her leadership of the committee, not once did the full committee mark up a bill without the full slate of subcommittee allocations on hand.
The Senate Appropriations Committee announced plans to begin markups of the FY 2026 spending bills the week of July 7 with full committee markup of CJS and the Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration spending bills on July 10 at 9:30 am.