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In a rare appointment for a freshman Member of Congress, Congressman Denny Heck has been selected by his colleagues to serve on the House Financial Services Committee. The Committee is one of only four “exclusive” committees in the House—the other three being Appropriations, Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce. The House Financial Services Committee has jurisdiction over federal housing policy, Wall Street reform and consumer protection, and commercial insurance and banking issues. The Committee was Congressman Heck’s top request for committee assignment.

Due to the expansive list of policy concerns that fall within the Committee’s jurisdiction, Members who serve on one of the four exclusive committees are not permitted to serve on other House committees. As such, the Congressman will give up his seat on the House Budget Committee, which is a non-exclusive committee, to accept this high-profile appointment. Only six other members of the 49 member freshman Democratic class were named to an exclusive committee.

Full Press Release

The Senate is in recess through this week.

The House returns from recess on Wednesday. The House Rules Committee is expected to clear the way for floor consideration of three appropriations bills to be taken up over the next couple of weeks: MilCon/VA, Energy and Water, and Homeland Security. These may very well be the last bills they push through before the August recess.

On Thursday, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee is holding a hearing on Promoting Manufacturing Innovation to discuss the Proposed National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.

Also on Thursday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing to discuss President Obama’s energy strategies.

Late yesterday, Congressional leaders agreed to a deal that will avert a government shutdown as the end of the federal fiscal year looms.  The Senate approved a week-long continuing resolution (CR) that will run through October 4^th, which is expected to be approved by the House – through a pro forma session – sometime on Thursday.  A longer term CR will still be necessary and will be the main topic of debate when both chambers reconvene next week after this week’s recess period.  The deal will do little, however, to end partisan fighting over FY12 spending.

The Senate bill is a considered a “clean” CR that will fund the federal government through October 4^th at the $1.043 trillion limit set by the debt limit law (PL 112-25) enacted in August.  The bill would eliminate the $1 billion in fiscal 2011 disaster aid for the FEMA and Army Corps of Engineers included in the House version, as well as offsets for an energy loan program.  The House plans to approve the measure by voice vote in a pro forma session on Thursday, paving the way for the President to sign the measure and avoid a federal shutdown when the new fiscal year begins October 1^st.

The overall deal was agreed to after the Senate passed a revised version of Majority Leader Reid’s six-week stopgap measure that would provide government funding through November 18^th and eliminate disaster aid for FY11 and the energy offsets.  While both chambers favor the longer-term stopgap, it will not be cleared until next week after the House returns from recess and has had a chance to debate it.   Appropriators are expected to use the next six weeks to draft a year-end omnibus spending bill, but with partisan divisions forcing lawmakers to spend nearly two weeks on the short-term deal, it seems far from certain that an agreement can be reached by November 18^th on a broader spending bill.

The good news for now is that we are avoiding a government shutdown but the path forward on FY12 appropriations is far from certain.

Sources:  Congressional  Quarterly, Roll Call