What’s Happening on Capitol Hill Tuesday?

May 9, 2023

WASHINGTON — Few days come bigger, few are more anticipated inside the Capital Beltway, than this one.

Shortly before 4 p.m. this afternoon, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., will make his way up the macadam drive outside the West Wing, and be escorted to the Oval Office, where President Joe Biden will be waiting to talk about the debt ceiling.

Joining them, in secondary roles, will be Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, of New York.

Standing outside for the duration — however long the meeting lasts — will be a gaggle of reporters at the “sticks,” microphones that stand ready outside the West Wing to capture visitors’ pronouncements, typically after they’ve seen the president.

Steps away, in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, reporters who usually disperse after White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre wraps up, will linger longer than usual, hoping to be the first to report a breakthrough or stalemate in the talks from “pebble beach,” the “island” from which the television correspondents ply their craft or their crowded desks inside the press room itself.

In the House

The House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on technology will hold an oversight hearing on electronic health record modernization.

Those offering their testimony at the Cannon House Office Building are Oracle Vice President James Ellzy and Executive Vice President Mike Sicilia; Thomas Emmendorfer, Department of Veterans Affairs executive director of Pharmacy Benefits Management Services; Neil Evans, acting program executive director of VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office; Mark Upton, deputy to the deputy under secretary for Health; Pharmacy Council Chairman Robert Silverman; and Carol Harris, Government Accountability Office director of Information Technology and Cybersecurity.

In the Senate

The Senate Armed Services subcommittee will hold a hearing on Department of Defense missile defense activities as the panel reviews the proposed DoD budget for 2024.

Those offering their testimony include, John Plumb, assistant secretary of Defense for Space Policy; U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command Commander Gen. Glen VanHerck; Missile Defense Agency Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill; and U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command Commanding General Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler.

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