Both the House and Senate are in session this week before a planned two-week recess March 30-April 10. The Senate was in session this weekend to hold votes related to the SAVE Act voter ID bill, a Democratic motion related to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) funding, and the nomination of Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to be Department of Homeland Security Secretary. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has suggested the recess could be canceled if the still-lapsed DHS funding is not restored. "It's going to be very, very hard to explain if we leave town this next week without having funded" the DHS, Thune said in a Sunday Politico story that noted long airport lines are also putting pressure on members.

Senator Mullin's nomination cleared a Sunday procedural vote 54-37 with Democrats John Fetterman (D-PA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) voting in favor, and no Republicans opposed. (Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Rand Paul, R-KY, who Mullin has at times had conflict with, did not vote.) "I consider Markwayne Mullin a friend. We have a very honest and constructive working relationship. We have authored legislation together … " Heinrich said. Fetterman had said that his vote in favor of the nomination at the committee level was "rooted in a strong, committed, constructive working relationship with Senator Mullin for our nation's security."

The House reconvenes on Tuesday (March 24) with suspension votes on several bills under the jurisdiction of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, including the Made in America Jobs Act (H.R. 7342) to provide for certain grant eligibility relating to projects that facilitate the relocation, to the United States, of a source of employment located outside the US. There are Homeland Security Committee bills on the schedule for later in the week.

After working through the weekend, the Senate is back in session today (Monday, March 23) with two roll call votes expected at 7:45 p.m., on confirmation of Senator Mullin to be Secretary of Homeland Security and a procedural vote on the nomination of Colin McDonald to be an Assistant Attorney General.

Reconciliation — Last week's $200 billion war supplemental request by the Administration intensified discussions over prospects for a second budget reconciliation bill to follow the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (OBBBA), with speculation that Republicans in Congress will need to use the process to pass such a bill by a simple majority in the 53-47 Senate given expected opposition from Democrats. (Passing it in the 218-214 House will also be a challenge.) Some members are expected to call for the package to be paid for.

Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether the administration would ever propose raising taxes to fund war spending, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, "It's a ridiculous question." He also expressed confidence that oil prices would eventually come down.

On ABC's "This Week," Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), who is not running for re-election, suggested the possibility the war funding supplemental bill may move outside of reconciliation but in any event will need to be accompanied by a better articulation of the Administration's goals. "I generally support what the president's doing in Iran, but if we're going to get anything close to the $200 billion supplemental request, we got to get 60 votes, and we're going to have to figure out how to accomplish that," he said. Tillis acknowledged that not being on the ballot in November allows him to be more liberated in his comments, saying, "I no longer have to view things through a political lens."

Democrats do not appear poised to support the war supplemental bill, and they continue to frame the conflict as another contributing factor to affordability concerns — in addition to tariffs and the lapse in enhanced ACA credits — which they are highlighting ahead of the midterm elections.

There has been discussion about, in addition to a war supplemental and tax and health priorities, using budget reconciliation to pass other proposals like the SAVE Act voter ID bill and codifying President Trump's tariffs. In a Sunday Punchbowl News report, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chair Adrian Smith (R-NE) said, "I think codifying a bunch of tariffs probably doesn't have the votes. I think anything to do with reconciliation will need to be probably more unifying topics … I'm not sure there would be the votes there to pull all that off, at least in the reconciliation format."

Energy tax — On March 20, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced the Strategic Petroleum Accumulation and Reserve Tax Alignment Act (S. 4158) to take revenue from clean electricity tax credits and put it towards replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).