Over the Horizon


(Last Updated: Friday, April 23, 2021 at 9:00 am EDT)
ThisWeekInImmigration.Com's "Over the Horizon" page contains a listing of immigration- or refugee-related hearings, markups, and floor actions that either have been officially scheduled or that are anticipated to occur in the coming weeks and months.
  • U.S. House of Representatives
  • U.S. Senate
  • Bicameral
  • Off of the Hill
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Hearings and Briefings
No Items Noticed or Anticipated
Markups and Business Meetings
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Floor Activity
No Items Noticed or Anticipated
Passed by the Senate and Awaiting Action in the House
Immigration- and Refugee-Related Bills and Resolutions
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Senate Floor Action
House Committee Action
Hearings and Briefings
No Items Noticed or Anticipated
Markups and Business Meetings
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Floor Activity
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Passed by the House and Awaiting Action in the Senate
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House Floor Action
Senate Action
Meetings, Hearings, and Briefings
Monday, February 11, 2019
  • Conference Committee Deliberations on Fiscal Year 2019 Border Security Funding:  The conference committee established to develop a border security package for inclusion in the Fiscal Year 2019 Homeland Security Appropriations Act could meet as soon as Monday, February 11, 2019, to conclude its consideration of the differing versions of H.J. Res. 31, a Fiscal Year 2019 continuing appropriations resolution for the Department of Homeland Security.
When it formally meets again, it will do so in Room HC-5 of the U.S. Capitol Building.  

As a technical matter, the conference committee was established to resolve the differences between the House Amendments and Senate Amendments to H.J. Res. 31.  In reality, for all practical purposes, the conferees have been tasked with negotiating the final versions of seven pairs of appropriation bills that were approved last year by the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations but that were not enacted into law.  Should they do so, that could pave the way for concluding action on all of the Fiscal Year 2019 appropriations bills.

Three of seven pairs of bills that conferees are negotiating contain significant appropriations for the federal government's  immigration-, refugee-, and human trafficking -related functions:
  1. With respect to Department of Homeland Security's functions, the conferees are negotiating a final version of S 3109 (S. Rept. 115-283),and H.R. 6776 (H. Rept. 115-948), the Senate and House Appropriations Committees' respective versions of the FY '19 Homeland Security Appropriations Act.  Also injected into that discussion are funding and policy proposals made by President Trump that are embodied in a failed McConnell-Shelby Amendment to H.R. 268, an FY '19 Emergency Disaster Assistance Supplemental Appropriations bill.
  2. With respect to the Department of State's refugee admissions and overseas refugee assistance functions, the conferees are negotiating a final version of S 3108 (S. Rept. 115-282),and H.R. 385 (H. Rept. 115-829), the Senate and House Appropriations Committees' respective versions of the FY '19 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act.
  3. With respect to the Department of Justice's immigration functions, the conferees are negotiating final versions of H.R. 952 (H. Rept. 115-704) and S. 3072 (S. Rept. 115-275), the House and Senate Appropriations Committees' respective versions of the FY '19 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
House Conferees.   Appointed as House conferees on H.J. Res. 31 are Representatives Nita Lowey (D-NY), Lucile Roybal-Allard (D-CA), David Price (D-NC), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Kay Granger (R-TX), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Thomas Graves (R-GA), and Steven Palazzo (R-MS).
 
Senate Conferees   Appointed as Senate conferees on H.J. Res. 31 are Senators Richard Shelby (R-AL); Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV); John Hoeven (R-ND); Roy Blunt (R-MO); Patrick Leahy (D-VT); Richard Durbin (D-IL); and Jon Tester (D-MT).

Looming Deadline.  Conferees are working against a formal deadline of February 15, 2019, to reach an agreement and have that agreement enacted into law.  This is because funding expires on that date for the various departments, agencies, and functions of the federal government that have not yet received a full-year Fiscal Year 2019 appropriation. 

Outlook.  At the time of this writing, the outlook for conferees reaching a settlement that the President can support appears dim.
Monday, March 11, 2019
  • Submission of the FY '20 Budget:  The President is scheduled to submit his Fiscal Year 20 Budget to Congress to Congress in two stages this year.  The first stage will come during the week of Monday, March 11, 2019, when he will submit the main budget volume containing his Budget Message, top priorities and summary tables. 
Monday, March 18, 2019
  • Submission of the FY '20 Budget:  The President is scheduled to submit his Fiscal Year 20 Budget to Congress to Congress in two stages this year.  The second stage will come during the week of March 18, 2019, when he submits detailed budget materials, including the Budget Appendix, which contains detailed line-item information for each agency; the "Major Savings and Reforms" volume, which details proposed cuts to mandatory and discretionary programs; and the Analytical Perspectives document, which contains information on a variety of topics ranging from the long-term budget outlook to funding priorities that cut across several agencies like research and development.
Meetings, Hearings, Discussions, and Briefings
  • No Scheduled Immigration-, Human Trafficking, or Refugee-Related Activity