Camp Lejeune Justice Act
Per Mike Partain
Update
on the CLJA: At the eleventh hour, the House of Representatives stopped
the expected vote on the PACT Act yesterday by issuing a “blue slip.” A
blue slip is a procedural challenge to a bill when the bill
“originates” in the wrong Chamber. Any bill with a provision relating to
revenue must originate in the House. In this case, when the Senate
passed its version of the PACT Act, it added a revenue provision that
had not been included in the House version.
The House noticed the
revenue provision at the last minute and pulled the bill from the floor
schedule—so there was no vote, and none is anticipated on the bill, as
it stands, any time soon. Instead, the Senate must take up the bill
again to strip the revenue provision and get it back to the House
without the problematic provision. The easiest way to do this would be
for Senator Schumer to request and obtain unanimous consent from the
Senate.
While possible, such consent is extremely unlikely given that it
takes only one Senator to object to break unanimity. That means that
the Senate will almost certainly need to go through a full round of
votes to take the revenue provision out, and then send the bill back to
the House for a vote. Alternatively, the House could pass a new bill
with the revenue provision in it, and send that bill back to the Senate.
But under those circumstances, too, the Senate will need to go through a
full round of votes to pass the bill.
Because there are only two days
left before the Senate goes home for two weeks (until July 11), there
will likely be no action until mid-July at the earliest. Action in the
Senate is also dependent on Leadership’s willingness to devote another
week—or more—of floor time to the bill, which is still uncertain.
Standard caveat with all things Congress: Everything is fluid and things
can change on a dime.
I will update again when new information comes out.
