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This week the House had a packed legislative agenda that included consideration of multiple appropriations measures, policy reforms across veterans and financial services, and a broad slate of small business legislation. The House voted on the National Security-State appropriations bill (H.R. 8595) and the Energy-Water appropriations bill (H.R. 9022), along with a Veterans Administration reform measure (H.R. 9237). The House considered H.R. 1181, a proposal aimed at prohibiting credit card companies and payment processors from assigning a specific merchant category code for gun retailers.

In addition, the House voted on 11 bills heavily weighted toward small business policy, including nine measures advanced out of the Small Business Committee. Those bills include efforts to increase transparency in Small Business Administration (SBA) pandemic-era and disaster lending programs (H.R. 826; H.R. 4238), strengthen oversight of SBA employee conflicts of interest (H.R. 7401), and enhance cybersecurity assistance for small businesses (H.R. 8880). Additional measures address the SBA’s use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (H.R. 8881), improve processes for handling small business antitrust complaints (H.R. 8882), and expand participation in federal contracting assistance programs (H.R. 8879).

Other SBA-related measures would codify the agency’s Office of Native American Affairs (H.R. 7396) and authorize SBA lending for cloud computing services and business software (H.R. 915).

The House also voted on legislation allowing open-end investment companies, such as mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, to delay redemptions when there is suspicion of financial exploitation (H.R. 2478), as well as a Senate-passed bill (S. 629) that would increase the share of federal disaster relief funds available upfront to farmers and timber producers.

Finally, the House voted on newly updated version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act following expected Senate action. 

The Senate voted on its revised version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (H.R. 6644) and confirmed Trump administration nominees. Senate leadership also faces a narrowing window to advance a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) extension before lawmakers depart Friday for a two-week recess. With limited time before the break, leadership is expected to prioritize high-priority confirmations and must-pass items, leaving little room for additional legislative negotiations in the final days of the work period.