What to Expect from the 2nd Session of the 118th Congress
(or what Congress will be up to from January to December 2024)
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA for 2024 was signed into law on December 22, 2023 (Public Law 118-31) and will be in effect until October 1, 2024. Starting in February 2024, the Armed Services Committees will be holding hearings and deliberations on the 2025 NDAA that should become effective on October 1, 2024, assuming both the Senate and House do their job and get it to the president prior to that date (don’t hold your breath this year). The NDAA is focused mostly on policy and although it authorizes the expenditure of money, it does not actually fund the Defense Department. It gives authority to do certain things, like end strength levels, programs to be executed or removed, and policy issues like the Uniform Code of Military Justice changes.
Defense Appropriations. The Senate and House Defense Appropriations Subcommittees draft and pass their versions of how to actually fund the government (expenditure of money). For Fiscal Year 2024 (now), the Defense Department is operating on a continuing resolution (CR) until February 2nd. Sometime prior to midnight on February 2nd, Congress will need to agree to do one of four things to keep the Defense Department funded: (1) pass another short-term CR; (2) pass a year-long CR and start work on Fiscal 2025 appropriations; (3) pass a standalone Defense Department appropriations act; or (4) pass an omnibus or minibus (grouping of funding bills which includes the Defense Department). Congress has a very short amount of legislative days left in January to take action.
Federal government budget for Fiscal Year 2025. By law, the president has until the first Monday in February (February 5th) to send Congress the Fiscal Year 2025 budget for all departments and agencies of the federal government. Some years, the president has complied with the law and the budget dropped on the first Monday in February. But in other years, the budget drop was delayed by weeks or months, shortening the timeline for Congress to deliberate and produce the funding bills needed to keep the government lights on.
Posture hearings. Starting after the budget is presented to Congress, hopefully on Monday February 5th, Congressional committees will begin holding posture hearings, calling on agency leaders like the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to appear in person before the committees and defend what they put in the Fiscal 2025 budget submission. Usually, the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs will go before the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, the House Armed Services Committee, and the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Service Secretaries and Chiefs of Staff then appear before the same committees. The senior enlisted of the services appear before the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs committees to talk about quality-of-life issues. The committees also take testimony from military and veteran service organizations, as well as DOD and service comptrollers and other subject matter experts to get various viewpoints on what is being proposed in the budget. Once the hearings are over, the House and the Senate complete action on their respective bills. When their bills have been voted on and approved, a conference committee is convened with players from the House and Senate committees to iron out differences between the bills so that one consolidated bill emerges. That compromise bill is then presented to the House and Senate for a vote with no changes or amendments, and once it passes both chambers it goes to the president for signature into law. All this is supposed to happen before October 1st, 2024.
Recess. Congress takes recess from their legislative workload several times a year. Most commonly, they take recess around federal holidays, Easter, and they take their standard month-long recess that will probably start around August 5th and go until after Labor Day. They also take recess for Jewish holidays in September and will recess the first week in October until after the elections in November. After the elections, they may return to Washington for a lame-duck session in late November and early December. Typically, they are in DC from Monday night or Tuesday morning until late Thursday night, and then return to their districts for the weekend. As you can see, there are not that many legislative days to accomplish what they need to do. It can be a very opportune time for association members to engage their lawmakers face-to-face during those times they are in the district back home to express priorities of the association and relate real stories of what the effect of their lawmaking has on their lives in the National Guard.
Elections. 2024 will bring national elections in November. All members of the House of Representatives will be up for reelection as they are every two years. One third of the Senate will be up for reelection, as well as filling vacancies of retiring or vacating Senators. And in 2024, presidential elections will be held. The more campaigning that members of Congress do, the less attention they will have for legislating. Generally, in election years such as 2024, and if history repeats itself, you can just about count on the Defense Department being funded after October 1st on a continuing resolution, and the NDAA being delayed possibly until the lame duck session. After the elections are over, there will be some shuffling of committee leadership and membership that will change the dynamics of legislating and funding the government. It happens every cycle and greatly depends on which party is in the majority and the background, experience, and abilities of the newly elected members.
— EANGUS National Office