The House of Representatives is determined to stick to the timetable of House Appropriations Chair Jerry Lewis (R-California) and complete work on all the appropriations bills by the end of the week when the July 4th recess starts. Assuming the House succeeds, it will be the earliest that the task has been completed since 1988. The remaining bills that the House will address on the floor this week are the Foreign Operations (H.R. 3057) bill and the Transportation-Treasury-Housing measure (H.R. 3058).

Just because the House is moving quickly does not mean the Senate is tracking at the same pace. However, Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Chochran (R-Mississippi) has vowed to complete the bills before the August recess. But passage of the bills by both chambers gives no indication of how contentious or drawn out the conference committee process will be to reconcile all the differences.